Shinobi of the High Seas
by Kenchi618
Summary: Naruto's age has passed him by as his time is over. Now he attempts to seek out a place for himself in the new world, and it's bigger than he ever figured it to be!  Will be epic in length, NaruHarem
1. Dawn of a New Age

***Alright. Here's the drill current and soon to be (hopefully) fans of Kenchi618. I'll be trying to write this story as another leisurely project along with my other stories, but unless I can actually find a website where I can actually do some damn research on One Piece's manga this probably won't go any further than maybe Enies Lobby where I initially lost track, as we speak I am tracking down a replacement site for the one I lost when I was forced to stop reading One Piece. I'll probably have something else in ten minutes at the longest. Anyway, I'm going to give it a shot, tell me what you think. Let's give it a go.**

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Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Right now I don't even own myself. My ass belongs to Radford University until 2013… and then for several years after. College loans be a mutha-mutha.

**Shinobi of the High Seas**

**Chapter 1: Dawn of a New Age**

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"*sigh* Boooreddddddddaaaaa!"

Uzumaki Naruto sat by himself on the coast of the Elemental Nations just staring out over the ocean. It had been around one hundred years since the close of the Fourth Great Shinobi War and Uzumaki Naruto was… "Booored! Damn it, nothing has happened around here in like fifty years."

Appearing 18 years old, Naruto was dressed in his red sage jacket. Instead of his orange jumpsuit beneath he had changed his clothing so as to allow himself to vanish into the background more easily. He now wore a dark red short sleeved shirt tight on his body with white pants with white shinobi sandals. Unable to totally part with the color that had defined him for years, Naruto had an orange sash around his waist. Naruto no longer wore the headband signifying his allegiance to Konohagakure, his home village, for his own reasons. Instead of having the leaf symbol on his forehead protector he had one custom made to show the kanji of Mt Myoboku, the home of the toads and where he became a sage.

Due to the combination of the naturally enhanced life-force of the Uzumaki clan and the fact that Naruto had been sealed with perhaps the strongest entity in the known ninja world, the Kyuubi no Yoko, his already potent life-force extended his own lifespan due to the boost from the fox. Now after countless years of being the protector of the Elemental Nations he found himself utterly dissatisfied with his current trend of action, or namely the lack thereof.

He didn't even have anyone to spend time with. All of his friends and allies from his heyday were dead and gone. There were no challenges anymore, Madara was gone, Akatsuki had crumbled, the Moon's Eye Plan had been utterly stopped. Even the system of shinobi that had ruled the lands for years before Naruto's birth was beginning to fall out of practice. There was just nothing to do anymore. He never became Hokage, he simply settled in as a traveling protector of the lands. It wouldn't have worked out anyway, I mean he was basically damn immortal with his lifespan, and as an immortal being Hokage that situation would have been troublesome, so he vanished from the limelight. Having someone of such notoriety and strength aligned to one village for however long Naruto's life would last for would have made things tense, especially seeing as how his name was legend among every hidden village.

"Who knew being damn near immortal was so boring? I guess I can see why Madara-teme took to trying to manipulate his way into ruling the world, there isn't anything else to do and that's an option that's always on the table." Naruto yawned as the waves crashed into the shoreline.

He didn't have any responsibilities, no challenges, nothing really. He could go where he wanted, do what he liked, and the thing about it was that if anyone in the Elemental Nations did know about him there wasn't anyone powerful enough to do anything to him. At this point it was like he was just existing without any real purpose.

Naruto looked over to the side and saw a harbor full of ships, "I've never even been off of this continent. I have no clue what else there is on this planet. Who knows? I'll probably find something else to do for the next one hundred years."

Nodding to himself, Naruto stood up and began making his way towards the nearest coastal town.

XxX

Naruto found a merchant's ship that looked undermanned. Walking up to what looked to be the quartermaster by the way he was giving out commands and requests, Naruto tapped the man on the shoulder, "Yes lad, what can I do for you?"

Naruto held back a smirk at the 'lad' remark, 'Lad? Yeah right, I'm older than you.' Naruto grinned, "Well you guys looked kind of swamped and I'm bored."

The quartermaster gave Naruto a grateful smile, "Thanks lad, but we haven't much to pay you with if you could help us."

Naruto looked around, "Well, if I could get passage on your ship that would be great. I'd help any way I could the entire voyage."

A strange look came on the man's face, "Do you happen to know where we're heading lad?"

Naruto's shook his head, grin still in place, "Nope."

The quartermaster sweatdropped, "We plan on leaving the Elemental Nations altogether. You'll be in unfamiliar lands boy."

Naruto's grin grew ever bigger, "Even better. I'm definitely going now. It's getting very boring around here for a guy like me. Who knows? Maybe I'll find something to do out there." He closed his eyes and smiled faintly, 'Yeah… this place hasn't needed me in a while. I think it's time for me to disappear.' He opened his eyes and smiled, "So where are you going anyway since you aren't kicking me off?"

The man smirked at Naruto, "And who said you're getting on lad? Life on a ship is hard work, if you're going to be on this ship you're going to have to work for your keep." He poked Naruto in the chest, "What can you contribute to our crew?"

Naruto returned his smirked and moved past him, "Well we'll see. You can either accept the extra help from someone that would work for simple passage on an understaffed ship, or you can _not_, and maybe end up making things harder on yourself."

A loud laugh came from the side where Naruto saw a man coming towards him and the quartermaster. The man was middle aged with flecks of grey coming into his brown beard. From the way the quartermaster acted upon seeing him, Naruto assumed that this man was the captain.

Walking up to Naruto he thumped him hard on the shoulder, "Well now, you're a strapping young lad!" Naruto cursed in his head at yet again being called 'lad' when he was sure as hell older than everyone else on the ship and then some, "Is this boy trying to gain passage on our ship?"

The quartermaster straightened up, "Yes sir. It seems he was pretty much the only person that we wound up commissioning to return with us to the East Blue."

The captain gave a sigh, "This final discovered continent sure has some introverted people inhabiting it. You must be pretty hard up for some action around here kid."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well you could say that. So what do you say? Am I in? Can I go with you guys or what?"

The captain stroked his beard for a moment before slapping Naruto hard on the back, "I like your pluck kid! You're in, but you're going to have to pull your weight around here. Now that that's settled, Quartermaster Gibbs, let's be off!"

The quartermaster, now identified as Gibbs, sweatdropped, "Captain, we're understaffed. Many of the men we came here with have disembarked in order to try and live here. No one is attempting to come aboard with us except for this boy and that means we can't take to the seas."

Naruto blinked, "So you're saying that the only thing keeping you all here is the fact that you just don't have enough guys to run the whole ship?"

Gibbs and the captain blinked, "Aye."

Naruto grinned and made a cross sign with his index and middle fingers on both hands, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." In a puff of smoke there were now thirty Narutos where there once was one, "Will this be good enough for you to ship out of here with?" Naruto said with a satisfied look on his face.

"Akuma no Mi (Devil Fruit)!" Was the collective cry that came up from every man on the ship who had witnessed the feat of self-replication.

Naruto looked around in a confused fashion, "Akuma no what?"

The captain pointed at all of the Naruto copies, "Such a power! The only thing like it is the power of an Akuma no Mi! Which one did you take boy?"

Naruto didn't know what the hell he was talking about, but decided to just go with the flow, "Um… I don't know? I've had this power since I was twelve really." He wasn't really lying.

Gibbs ran his hand through his hair, "Oh well, that isn't important right now. What is important is that we have enough staff to head out of here."

The captain stopped focusing on Naruto's Kage Bunshin and turned his attention to the rest of the crew, "Alright gentlemen, prepare for departure!" He turned to Naruto, "What is your name my boy?"

Naruto grinned and pointed his thumb at himself, "Me? I'm Uzumaki Naruto, at your service!"

XxX

(Two Months Later)

After about a week of seasickness, which was especially miserable on the first day when Naruto's clones all got seasick and puked randomly all over the place before dispelling, Naruto started getting his bearings around the ship. After watching the others in order to learn what needed to be done he began to take some of the jobs for himself. Once again utilizing Kage Bunshin, he managed to get experience in many workstations on the ship. His favorite however, was manning the crow's nest, as it was just a fantastic excuse for a lazy bastard to sleep. Shikamaru would have loved it.

However one day when he found himself actually paying attention to his job of keeping lookout he saw something, "Hey captain! What's with that ship out there with the crap on its sails?" Naruto pointed out at a ship that was coming up on them rather quickly.

The captain looked through a scope and began to sweat, "Pirates!" The ship broke into an uproar as men scrambled about.

Naruto quirked his eyebrow, he wasn't a stranger to pirates. When he was a ninja pirates roamed the coasts of the Elemental Nations all the time, but they were so weak it was pathetic for the most part. Naruto climbed down from the crow's nest and got the attention of the ship captain who was barking out frantic orders, "Yo captain. Let me go over and handle them, I'm starting to get bored anyway."

The captain looked at Naruto with a 'wtf' face before his features lit up, "Of course! You're a user of the fruit, you're basically a one-man army! Yes, go and take care of them and you'll have my eternal gratitude!"

Naruto shrugged as he headed towards the edge of the boat to jump over the railing, "I'm on it."

"Wait! Those that eat the Akuma no Mi can't swim! You'll drown Uzumaki!"

Naruto turned to the rest of the crew and smirked, "It's not that easy to get rid of me you know." Naruto jumped over the edge amid the gasps of the others as the crowded around to potentially jump in and save him. They got quite a shock however when they saw Naruto standing on the surface of the water, running at a speed none of them could match towards the pirate ship. Turning and waving over his shoulder, he grinned, "I'll be back in a flash okay?"

XxX

"That idiot Krieg… Taking us all into the Grand Line like that." A bald man with dark eyes stated as he looked out at the merchant ship they were quickly gaining on, "Well now that he and all of those other idiots are toast we can do what we want now."

A pirate ran up to him, "Captain, we'll be on them within five minutes at this rate."

He smirked and rubbed his hands together, "Good. Tell the men to get ready to board. We'll be getting quite a haul tonight."

"Yeah you guys need it too, your rations are total shit. Where's the ramen?"

The captain turned to come face to face with a blonde teen sitting on the banister eating a can of their food. He cringed and threw it overboard, "Yuck, this is terrible. How could you feed this to people? I would eat my own leg before I eat that crap again."

The captain got a tick mark on his head, "Who the fuck are you?"

The blonde grinned widely and stood up before settling into a ridiculous pose, "I am the man that makes the men of the nations of the elements quiver in fear and their women in lust. I am the immortal shinobi, the eternal toad sennin, and your personal hero, Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto finished, hopping on one leg and gesturing grandly like his old master. For some reason there were kabuki instruments going in the background, apparently Naruto had created some Kage Bunshin before getting on to play them.

Naruto stood up straight and sighed in contentment, "I see why that old pervert did that now. That was awesome… Hey, you guys aren't planning on attacking that ship over there are you? Because then we'd have a little problem if you were."

By now Naruto's presence had been registered by the remaining pirates on the boat who had begun to crowd around him with their weapons drawn. The captain scoffed and gestured to his men, "Who do you think you are punk? We're from Don Krieg's pirate armada! We'll tear you apart." Cheers went up from the pirates as Naruto stood with a dull look on his face.

Naruto cupped his hands to his eyes and looked around, "Now I'm not the smartest guy in the world and I'm pretty new at all of this nautical stuff, but isn't armada a term that basically means a fuckload of ships? And here I only see one, yeah this is a real armada alright." Naruto then got a tick mark on his head, "And what do you mean who do I think I am? I just fucking told you shithead! Do you have the short-term memory of a goldfish now too?"

The captain growled, "Damn it we're wasting time with this guy. Kill him already so we can go get our loot!"

The pirates rushed Naruto with sabers and bare hands getting a sigh from Naruto. Twenty men ended up getting knocked senseless where they stood, or being thrown overboard in no time flat at the hands of some random blonde kid that came out of nowhere.

Naruto sighed as only the captain was left, "That's it? That's the best you idiots have got? I shouldn't even have woken up for that, that was pathetic. If this is the best the world has to offer then I'm not impressed."

The captain brandished his sword and rushed Naruto, screaming at the top of his lungs. Naruto lifted his leg out to the side and kicked his in the chest. The pirate was as if he ran directly into a metal pole rooted into a brick wall and dropped to the ground accordingly. Naruto grumbled to himself as he made a mass of Kage Bunshin and ordered them to go get rope, "I should have stayed home for this…"

XxX

The captain of the merchant ship had a gob-smacked look on his face when Naruto came running back onto his ship ten minutes after he left saying he would handle the pirates, "Boy have you ever thought of joining the Marines?"

Naruto took on a thoughtful look, "From the sound of that it seems like some kind of government military right?" Upon seeing the captain nod he frowned, "No thanks, been there done that. I don't fight for anyone other than myself and the people I care for. I'm not becoming someone else's tool." He thumbed over his shoulder at the pirate ship, "What should I do with them? I didn't kill them, and they don't have a thing worth taking."

The quartermaster came up, "Well you don't look like you have any money at all. If I were you I would see if I could take them to Orange Town and see if I could get a Marine patrol to take them, maybe you could get a reward."

Naruto scratched his head, "Why not? Alright, then that's what I'll do." Naruto had them mark it on a map they provided him from the captain's quarters, "Thanks for having me you guys, it was very cool of you to take me on your ship."

The captain grinned and patted him hard on the back again, "It was no problem Uzumaki! You saved us from a fight with pirates after all. I hope we'll see you again soon out there somewhere!"

Naruto regained his footing and nodded, "Yeah you guys too. Stay safe out there and you'll be hearing something about me soon enough, I'm certain of it." With that Naruto jumped from the merchant ship to return to the commandeered pirate ship to begin his own journey on the ocean.

XxX

(One Week Later)

Naruto pulled into port in Orange Town with the pirates he had captured still tied up on the ship. After docking with the help of Kage Bunshin he decided to look for someone that could help him with his pirate issue. Walking into the town he felt something off, "It's like no one is even here. A ghost town? But the merchants were so sure that this place could help, why is this place deserted?"

He hadn't seen a soul. No people out and about, no one working their shops or anything. The only living creature that Naruto saw in the entire village was a dog standing in front of a pet shop. Naruto spent at least fifteen minutes staring the dog down as it simply sat there unmoving

As he pondered this a crack of gunfire rang out in the slight distance, he then caught sight and sound of someone falling from the sky after being dropped by a huge bird. As he watched the person drop, Naruto turned away and headed back to his ship, "Oh well, not my problem."

A few minutes later Naruto found himself back at the ship he had docked as he noticed another, larger more ornate ship looking somewhat like a carousel was near his ship. Shaking his head at the weirdness of the people that inhabited the rest of the world, he checked on his prisoners smirking as the restrained men attempted to curse him out.

Getting off of his boat he heard someone call out to him, "Hey!" Naruto turned towards the voice to find a well figured young man around his 'age' with short light green hair and three gold earrings in his left earlobe. He wore a plain white shirt with three buttons at the collar with black trousers, black shoes, a black bandanna around his arm, and a green wide sash around his waist. Naruto then took notice of the three swords he had on his right hip. Strange, but potentially dangerous.

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the man, "Yes? Can I help you?" Hopefully whatever this guy wanted would actually help him find somebody in this town.

The newcomer gave Naruto a lazy look, seemingly sizing up Naruto the way Naruto had just done to him, "Have you seen a guy with a red vest, blue shorts, and a straw hat on his head? He probably would have had a stupid look on his face. I think he might be in the grasp of a bird or something."

Naruto scratched his head, "I don't know about the description, but I did see a guy get dropped by a bird in the middle of town not too long ago, maybe an hour I'd guess." He pointed towards the middle of the town, "That should be your best bet."

The man sighed and started moving towards the indicated direction, "Alright, thanks I guess." Naruto waved the swordsman off and returned to business as usual. Sitting on the dock, looking at a map of the nearest places to go in order to maybe turn the fools he had captured in and restock seeing as how the burg he was currently in didn't have anyone besides some guy with green hair in it.

After a while Naruto began to wonder if leaving the Elemental Nations was such a good idea, 'Man, this whole travelling the world thing is going to be harder than I thought.' Sighing to himself he made to return to his ship when the noise of cannon fire rang out. Looking around to see what was up, Naruto ended up witnessing his ship explode into little splinters. Naruto stood with a look of disbelief on his face as he watched the wreckage in port.

His stunned staring was broken by three pirates that had walked up on Naruto from behind, "It looks like the captain fired off one of his special cannonballs. This poor shlub's ship is done for."

Naruto began leaking off massive amounts of killing intent, "The captain? Whose captain? Who's the dead asshole that did that to my ship?"

The pirates backed off at the anger coming from the strange teen, "Captain Buggy. He runs this town didn't you know?"

Naruto shook his head angrily with his back still turned. The pirates started getting a little bolder now, "You should be ecstatic actually, the captain doesn't use his special Buggy Balls for no reason. You must have made him angry." They all began to walk towards the seemingly nonresponsive boy.

Naruto finally spoke, "I never met the guy, but he's going to wish he didn't just turn my ship into floating lumber by the time I'm done. And I'll start with you three!" Naruto then proceeded to beat the living daylights out of the three pirates until his temper was adequately sated.

Naruto spared the unconscious pirates a last glance before he headed into town again, this time finding an intriguing sight for him. Naruto saw a strange man with white hair shaped like teddy bear ears and a wooly looking half-top shirt riding a gigantic lion five times the size of the man riding it. He then saw a pair of arms stretch out, twisting in a spiral, grabbing the lion and lifting it before slamming it on its head, "Gomu Gomu no Tsuchi (Gum-Gum Hammer)!"

Naruto's eyes lit up at the sight of that, "Oh Kami! Finally, someone around here that can fight!" The attacker had kneeled down on one knee by the lion. He had short black hair, a scar under his left eye, a red vest, sandals, and blue shorts. Naruto noticed the straw hat by his side and realized this was the person that the green-haired guy had been looking for, 'What was that guy worried about? This kid is awesome!'

The teddy-bear haired man burst into frantic tears, "Richie!" He pointed at the kneeling boy, "What are you?"

He stood up and dusted himself off, "A long time ago I ate the Gomu Gomu no Mi (Gum-Gum Fruit)."

The strange white haired man looked slightly fearful, "Gomu Gomu no Mi… Could it be that you have gained this ability from eating an Akuma no Mi just like Captain Buggy?" He started sweating, "Okay I'll give you everything that you want! A-And I'll apologize! Sorry!"

The rubbery boy had a dark shade over his eyes, "I don't need an apology because it won't bring back Shushu's treasure. And you…" He then stared up at the lion tamer with angry eyes, "I came to get payback from you!" He stretched his arm out and grabbed him by the collar before reeling him in, ignoring his cries for mercy, "Have a taste of your own medicine!" He then cracked the man in the face ridiculously hard, sending him to the ground in an unconscious heap.

Naruto's eyes were now sparkling at the sight of the strange boy effortlessly destroying the two enemies, "That was awesome! I haven't seen anyone stretch like that since I was a kid, and the guy that could was an ass-clown, this kid is the real deal!" Naruto ran up to the boy who had picked something up from the lion, "Yo! That was great! By far the most entertaining thing I've seen all day!"

The boy blinked before giving Naruto a stupid grin that looked somewhat familiar to him, "Thanks! Um, who are you again?"

Naruto chuckled, "Me? You can go ahead and call me Uzumaki Naruto. Now who are you?"

The boy thumbed himself in the chest, "I'm Monkey D. Luffy! And I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"

Naruto sweatdropped, 'Now what about how this guy just stated that is giving me déjà vu?' Naruto shook it off as another question arose, "Wait? Pirates have a king? Nevermind that. Anyway, that fight was awesome! I was flipping out when you slammed that lion on the ground like a dead fish! Very impressive!"

Luffy wiped his nose bashfully, "Oh that was nothing." He gripped his own bicep with a grin still situated on his face before he noticed what he had in his hand, "I'll be right back." Luffy then started to walk off. Naruto, curious about the young fighter, followed him until they came to a ruined building with a small white dog sitting out front that reminded Naruto somewhat of his old friend Kiba's dog, Akamaru.

Naruto quickly shook that from his thoughts, 'No… Don't think about that. They all had happy, peaceful lives after you left Konoha. You kept them all safe, they died happy, that was all you could do for them.'

Naruto was snapped from his thoughts by a girl Luffy's age with orange hair that went down to her neck. She had on a white and blue striped shirt, an orange short skirt, and orange high-heeled sandals. Naruto smirked as he noticed that this girl looked good, and how the hell did this girl know the rubber kid until she spoke, "Oho, Mr. Pirate, so you're still alive? I thought you would have been finished off by that lion."

An old man next to her in *ahem* 'battle gear' spoke up, "Hey… What are you saying?"

She ignored him and tried to lash out at Luffy before being held back by the old man, "Before you get your pirate pals over here to raid the village why don't you just go to hell?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow out of curiosity at her outburst while Luffy's face didn't even register that he had even heard anything until he walked up to her while she was still being held back, "You think you can hurt me?" He then childishly stuck his tongue out at her and walked past her.

This pissed the girl off to no end as she struggled to free herself and assault Luffy, "Okay, you wanna fight me you stupid pirate!" She turned to Naruto who was snickering with an amused grin on his face, "And what the hell are you gawking at? Take your rubber pirate buddy and get out of this place!"

Naruto frowned, "That's not very nice at all. I don't know anything about that guy at all other than the fact that he likes straw hats and he can bodyslam a lion four times his size. And I'm not a pirate, I'm just some guy that showed up in town at the wrong time." He then took on a thoughtful look, "Actually I think it was the right time, because I was getting bored as all hell just sailing. Maybe this was a blessing of some sort." Naruto then stopped paying attention to her as he found himself lost in his own thoughts.

She didn't like that at all, "Stop ignoring me you blonde idiot!" The sound of something being set down got everyone's attention as they all looked at Luffy.

Luffy sat down next to the dog after placing a box of food in front of it with a big grin, "That's the only one I could bring back. The rest was eaten up if you can believe me!"

The girl calmed down to the point where the old man let her go as they all watched Luffy interact with the dog. Naruto smiled to himself, "That's one selfless guy." He started, getting the girl's attention, "I saw him fight that lion. I just figured it pissed him off or something, I never bothered to ask why because it just looked so cool. But fighting for this little dog, and now he's comforting him after he lost his building… I really like this kid now." He noticed the girl looking at him, probably mirroring some of her own thoughts, and gave her a cheesy grin, "I am Uzumaki Naruto. Nice to meet you."

She looked a little taken back at his chipper attitude, "Um, I'm Nami…"

Naruto nodded as they watched the dog bark and walk away. Luffy stood up and waved, "Yeah! You be strong too!" That brought some good natured laughs from everyone around.

After the dog got out of sight Nami sighed and walked up to Luffy with a smile, "Sorry for screaming at you."

Luffy looked at her and grinned, "It's okay, you lost someone important to you because of pirates. You've been through a lot haven't you? You don't need to say anything."

The old man near them finally exploded, "I can't stand it anymore! It's just so miserable! Shushu and you youngsters are fighting like this, but why is it that I, being the village chief, can only watch our village be trampled?"

Naruto sweatdropped and pointed lamely, "Maybe because you're just an old man with a flimsy spear and shitty armor. Kami old man, that crap doesn't look like it can stop wooden stake, let alone a sword or a bullet."

Nami saw how riled up the old man was getting, "Wait, chief, calm down!"

The old chief looked too inspired to stop, "To a real man there are just some fights that cannot be avoided! Isn't that right kid?"

Luffy grinned, "That's right mister!"

Nami yelled at Luffy, "Don't encourage him!"

The chief then launched into a spiel on how his last village was destroyed and how 40 years ago he and the villagers built the village that they were currently standing in. Upon finishing, proclaiming that he was going to stand up and fight a cannon ball destroyed the chief's house and sent them all to the ground.

Naruto hopped up to his feet and pointed at the wreckage, "That's the same damn thing that just happened to my ship! Who the fuck shot that shit off?"

Luffy jumped up next to Naruto, "AHHH! Zoro was sleeping in there!"

The chief looked at his former house in anger, "Is he dead? The kid with the waistband?"

Luffy yelled into the smoke and rubble, "Hey Zoro, are you still alive?"

"Ugh… That was some bad way to wake me up." A green haired man sat up holding his head. Naruto identified him as the same guy who had been at the harbor with him earlier.

The chief was growling now, "It feels as if my chest is being scraped out! I'll not let these pirates trample all over us again! I am the chief and I won't let the village be treated this way!" He finished, holding his spear in the air. As he tried to storm off, Nami held him in place telling him it was reckless, "I know it's reckless!" That forced her to let go of him and he took the opportunity to jet off to confront the pirates, "Just you wait Buggy the Clown!"

Zoro laughed from where he was on the ground, "For some reason this is starting to feel more fun."

Luffy laughed to himself, "You know? I agree."

Nami just looked between them and yelled at them, "How can you still laugh?"

Luffy simply gave her his ever-present grin, "Don't worry, I like that old man. I'm not going to let him die."

Nami still didn't understand, "How can you still laugh in this situation? Where the hell is your confidence coming from?"

Luffy didn't really answer, "Our destination is the Grand Line. Now we're going to steal that map again!" He extended a hand to Nami, "Will you join us? You need the map too don't you? And the treasure…"

"I'm not going to become a pirate." Nami simply stated while slapping Luffy's hand away, "Rather than partners let's just say we're cooperating. Helping each other to achieve our goals."

Luffy laughed and nodded before turning to Naruto, "And what about you new guy? Are you in too?"

Naruto's lips quirked as he placed his hands behind his head and grinned, "Well since I owe that Buggy the Clown or whatever his name is for trashing my ride and sinking my bounties to the bottom of the sea I'm in."

Zoro pulled the bandana off of his arm and wrapped it on his head, gaining Nami's attention, "You're going too? What about your injury?"

Zoro grinned as he tightened it on his head, "More important than the injury done to my body is the injury done to my name that I suffered because all I did in my last fight was get hurt. So should we go?"

The three men along with a somewhat reluctant Nami began walking in the direction the chief went off in to confront the pirate Buggy.

XxX

Upon arriving they found the chief being held off of the ground by his throat with a disembodied hand. Naruto once again raised an eyebrow at the weirdness, but hell if he hadn't seen weirder before.

Luffy sprang into action and freed the chief by prying the hand off of his neck, getting the attention of Buggy, "Straw-hat… So you come without a single trace of fear by your own will. You morons… you're all so dead!" He then noticed Naruto, "Who the hell are you?"

Naruto looked at Buggy. He had a red and white striped short-sleeved shirt, white gloves, a sash around his waist, and a pair of loose aqua colored pants that reached his calves and showed his striped socks and pointy shoes. He had a fur lined captain's coat and an orange captain hat on his head. On his face there was clown makeup and a big red clown nose.

Naruto glared at the clown, "Your stupid cannonball destroyed my ship you bastard! You'd better have insurance… Ass-whooping insurance! Because you're about to pay a deductable!"

Buggy seethed at the group of kids that were facing him down, "You're all dead!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Far stronger people than you have tried before."

Nami backed off, "Listen, I don't care if you guys fight or not. I'm just here for the map and the treasure."

Zoro sighed, "Yeah I know."

The chief stood up from the ground, "What did all of you come back for? You four just stay out of this. This is my fight! I'm the one who must protect this village! Don't interfere!" Luffy then proceeded to smash him in the back of the head with the palm of his hand, rendering him unconscious.

Naruto sighed in relief, "Thanks for that rubber boy. I'm all for fighting your own battles and all, but that was getting overbearing… he was starting to remind me of somebody, and not a good somebody."

Nami wasn't as understanding, "You… You idiot! What the hell did you do that to the chief for?"

Luffy grinned, "Because he would just get in the way." Naruto returned his grin with one of his own. He knew there was a reason he liked this kid.

Zoro agreed with his captain, "That was smart thinking. If you had left him alone without a doubt he would have recklessly charged. It's safer for him to be unconscious."

Nami yelled at the rubber boy, "Stop doing unnecessary things!"

Luffy simply pivoted on his foot to face Buggy, "Hey you! You huge, red, ugly, BIG NOSE!" The entire pirate crew of Buggy went eerily silent until their captain screamed.

"FIRE THE BUGGY SPECIAL CANNONBALL! FIRE!"

Naruto lowered himself to prepare to rush their position, "Oh like hell I'm letting you shoot another of those damned things off!"

The others were preparing to move out of the way except Luffy. Nami and Zoro tried to pull him from his spot, "Oi! Are you trying to get yourself killed you idiot? Move Luffy!"

Luffy had a confident grin on his face, "Do you think that because of a cannonball I'll move a single inch?" Luffy waited the cannonball out before inhaling a ton of air sharply, "Gomu Gomu no Fuusen (Gum-Gum Balloon)!" Luffy's body swelled up to a massive size as the ball bounced against his stomach. Much to the shock and horror of Buggy's crew he fired it back off of the rebound and annihilated the building they had set the cannon on.

Naruto grinned widely as Zoro complained that Luffy should have just said he was going to do that, "I don't think I'm ever going to get sick of seeing him do stuff like that. Seriously, this stuff is classic."

Nami yelled in disbelief, "What the hell are you?" She marched up to Luffy, "Explain yourself, I don't understand this at all! From the moment you fought that lion and came back alive, this isn't humanly possible! How the hell did you just swell up like a balloon?"

"You sure do like to say hell a lot Nami-chan." Nami turned her glare on Naruto who looked away innocently while Zoro chuckled.

Luffy crossed his arms, "Gomu Gomu-."

Nami cut him off, "I'm not asking for the name of the move you monster!"

The smoke cleared to reveal Buggy standing with two of his crewmen as human shields to protect him from the blast, "You're chatting around making a lot of noise, like you're not scared. I'm so mad words fail me."

A man that had hidden himself behind the lion of the liontamer pirate dropped the giant cat and dusted his hands off. He was a skinny looking man with a dark green hairstyle that covered half of his face. The lower half of his face was mostly covered by a white and blue checker pattern scarf. He had a purple sleeveless coat that went down to his knees and white pants held up by a light blue sash.

Much to the liontamer's panic he tossed the still alive lion aside until he saw Luffy in front of him, "Captain Buggy! Be careful, he's the one I tried to tell you about. He's a rubberman!"

Nami looked at Luffy, "Rubberman?"

Luffy stretched his own cheeks widely, "Yep, want to see?"

Buggy looked at the man, "Mohji… Why didn't you tell me that sooner!" He picked him up and threw him at Luffy, Naruto, Nami, and Zoro.

Mohji screamed as he flew threw the air, "Get out of the way!"

Naruto scoffed and stepped directly in his path of flight, "You get out of the way!" Naruto threw a roundhouse kick that caught him right in the face and tossed him aside, "Now can we please get on with the fight already? I haven't beat anybody up in a good long time. I call the entire crew." He looked at the men standing up from the wrecked building, "Well… whoever's left of the crew."

Cabaji, the man identified earlier and Buggy's second mate, hopped on a unicycle and charged Luffy after drawing a sword, "I'll avenge the pain that you've caused my crew!"

However Zoro stepped in the way and blocked with one of his own swords, "If it's swords, I'm all for it."

Luffy looked at the bleeding bandages on Zoro's body, "Look Zoro, I think it's better if I take it. Or maybe we can use the new guy over there." He pointed over to where Naruto had gleefully taken to thrashing the remainder of Buggy's crew with his bare hands.

Naruto ducked a slash of a man's sword before grabbing his throat and slamming him into the ground. He turned and gave a thumbs up to the others, "Nah, Zoro called him, he's got this guy." Naruto then returned to his originally scheduled pummeling.

He grabbed two men and smashed them together, "This is so easy! I don't even need to use any jutsu on these guys! This is the crew of a feared pirate? I hope Buggy fights a hell of a lot better than the rest of these clods or this is going to be cake!" Nami watched him take apart an entire group of grown men smiling like it was his birthday with a sweatdrop on her head.

Cabaji took advantage of the disagreement and shot his flame breath at Zoro. Zoro dropped to his knees as his face was singed from the fire and Cabaji took advantage of the situation once more in order to deliver a kick with the point of his shoe to Zoro's wound in his side.

Zoro cursed and writhed on the ground in pain as Cabaji mocked him, "What's this? I didn't even kick you that hard. Did I?"

Nami grit her teeth, "You dirty bastard! Aiming to the wounded area…"

"If you're not cheating you're not trying!" Naruto sounded off in the distance as he continued to crack skulls.

Cabaji stabbed his sword into the ground and released a blast of smoke. Zoro held his swords up, "It's just a cloud of dust, a stupid trick." On cue Cabaji emerged from the smoke and slashed at Zoro who blocked with two of his swords.

Cabaji smirked and drew his foot back for another kick at Zoro's wounded area before punting him in the side. Zoro rolled over and cried out in pain, "What's this? A grown man rolling around and crying is absolutely pathetic to watch. You were a troublesome bunch at the start, but making an enemy of Buggy and his pirate fleet was a grave mistake. Die Roronoa Zoro!"

Nami looked at Luffy who was simply watching the fight, "Fighting with that injury was too much from the start! Why are you watching all silent and stone-faced? That guy's going to die!"

Zoro simply swatted him away when he got too close "What an annoying guy. Do you really find tearing at my wound that much fun?" Zoro then proceeded to cut himself along his wound much to the horror of everyone around. He placed a sword in his mouth, "My goal is to become the world's greatest swordsman. Is my condition enough for you now? Let me show you the difference in skill between us."

Now holding a sword in both hands and one in his mouth he smirked as he explained himself, "To anyone that calls himself a swordsman, I won't allow myself to lose to them even once!"

Naruto dusted off his hands as he dispatched the last of Buggy's men to the land of unconsciousness. He turned and saw Zoro preparing to combat Cabaji and saw Luffy and Nami just watching along with Buggy. Naruto sighed as he made his way over to them, "Zoro hurry up and kick his ass so we can beat Buggy. I need to figure out how I'm getting off of this island if you've all forgotten."

Caraji sneered, "You asshole. Do you really think it will be that easy?"

Nami looked over to where Naruto had just walked away from and whispered to Luffy, "Hey. Behind the destroyed pub there's a warehouse. Their treasure is over there and the map is probably still with Buggy. Since Naruto knocked all of them out I think I'll go over, and after I acquire the treasure I'll make my escape since whether you win the fight or not it has nothing to do with me." She started walking away, "If you actually manage to get the map and fulfill your part we can cooperate again."

Naruto raised his hand and followed behind her as she walked over to the warehouse, "I'm going too."

Nami turned as Naruto had followed her away from Luffy with a dull look on his face. Nami was somewhat surprised and suspicious of Naruto, "What? Why? Luffy and Zoro are still fighting. Don't pirates like you have some kind of code about running away or something? They seem to."

Naruto palmed his face, "Once more for the benefit of those with no short-term memory; I am not a pirate. Say it with me now: Uzumaki Naruto. Is not. A pirate. I'm not a damn pirate! And anyway if you don't like pirates why the hell do you hang around… with PIRATES!"

Nami scoffed as they continued on, only turning back as they heard Buggy cry out in pain, "Luffy must have finally started in on Buggy. Oh well then." Nami continued on towards the treasure with Naruto in tow.

Being bored enough to actually want to go back and see Luffy fight Buggy, Naruto decided to break the monotony, "So after you get the treasure how the hell do you plan on getting out of this place? The only boats I saw were mine, Buggy's, and the little piece of crap that Zoro came in on."

Nami turned and winked at him, "I have my ways. Why are you coming with me anyway?"

Naruto shrugged, "Well I need money actually. It's not like I'm really broke, but I truly doubt that my currency would fly around these parts." Naruto pulled out his frog wallet and pulled out a wad of bills to show Nami.

Nami turned and looked at his currency, "You're right we don't use that. We use beli instead. What place are you from that doesn't use beli as its currency?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I come from a place called the Elemental Nations." He saw Nami looking at him blankly, "I heard the guys on the ship that I took to get here call it the 'final continent' or something like that if that helps."

Nami stared at him in shock, "You're from the final continent? But that place was just discovered around fifty years ago. The World Government doesn't even have any representatives there yet."

Naruto's eye twitched, "It's called the Elemental Nations. And it's not like the place was hard to find… it was just really, really, really, really, really, REALLY far out of the way. People have been there for at least hundreds of years. And I doubt your World Government will find it that easy to get its hooks into that place. It's really militarized already, it's just now coming into a period of peace after one hundred years of on again off again periodic warfare."

Nami blinked in surprise, "Really? How many countries are there in the elemental nations?"

Naruto thought for a moment, "There are five that have the most significant power, and then there are countless little ones that have militaries of their own. I would say that there are about twenty countries in the Elemental Nations."

Nami didn't know how to tell him so she just came out with it, "Naruto. The World Government has 170 countries from all over the world in it. Your home is probably the only place in the entire world that is untouched by them. But if you were able to catch a ship from there to the East Blue then it might not be that far off."

Naruto paled at hearing that information. He believed that the Four Great Shinobi Nations were powerful, he even believed that the other countries had tremendous ninja of their own, but against an allied army of over 170 nations they would be crushed or assimilated. He could only hope that the World Government kept their eyes away from the Elemental Nations or that they would let them be, but with his knowledge of human nature he knew that was a pipedream at best.

"Naruto? Naruto?" He was brought back to the regular plane of existence when Nami called out his name, "I said what did you do there? You're a pretty tough guy. And on that thought why did you leave?"

Naruto looked at Nami and smirked, "If I told you what I did for a living you either wouldn't believe me or I would have to explain it. And you tell me why you left your home to come out on the big blue ocean all on your own. It seems pretty dangerous for a girl like you."

Nami frowned but quickly covered it up with fake laughter, "I'm not nearly as helpless as you think I am Naruto."

Naruto chuckled, "I'm sure you're not Nami-chan. I think we're here." Suddenly an explosion rang out behind them, signifying a house coming down. Luffy soon burst out of the debris, "Wow… Luffy and Buggy are really duking it out huh?"

Nami simply stared at them, "How is it possible for such a fight to be taking place? I feel like I'm dreaming." She looked at Naruto who, other than being mildly interested in the fight, didn't show much surprise if any at all, "Why don't you look surprised by any of this?"

Naruto acknowledged her with a grunt, "Well I've been seeing stuff like this go on around me since I was a little kid. The Elemental Nations are full of people that can do remarkable things. I have to say that they're a few decades too late for me to be shocked by what they can do. There's no such thing as impossible in this world that's what I've learned."

Nami raised a delicate eyebrow at his choice of words, "A few decades too late."

Naruto frowned, 'Bite my tongue…' He pointed out at Luffy and Buggy's fight, "Oh look, Luffy's pissed."

That got Nami's attention. She had never seen the boy really angry about anything the entire time since they had met. She saw that he was upset about Buggy nicking his hat with his strange powers to separate his body into segments, "I thought he was the kind of guy that never got upset about anything."

Naruto nodded, "Everyone has their triggers Nami-chan, no matter how miniscule everyone has a breaking point."

They saw Buggy begin to target Luffy's hat in order to rile him up further, just out of cruelty. He eventually impaled the hat on his blades. Naruto cringed and subconsciously clutched at something under his shirt, he could only imagine how angry Luffy was at losing his hat, it must have been truly precious to him.

Buggy laughed as his hand flew back onto his wrist with Luffy's impaled hat on it, "Kuhahahahahah! What kind of treasure is this ragtag hat?"

Luffy outright sprinted at Buggy, "That's the hat I swore myself to with Shanks!"

Buggy cast the hat off of his knives onto the ground, "So that's why it looked so familiar. Me and that guy used to be on the same boat. We were comrades back when we were just trainees."

Luffy lunged at Shanks with a punch, "You say he was your comrade? Shanks was a great man!" He nailed Buggy right in his body as his head separated from his body and reattached, forcing the clown pirate to the ground. Luffy pulled on Buggy's cheeks and angrily spoke to Buggy about Shanks.

Naruto sighed, "Well it looks like Luffy's little temper tick is anything derogatory to do with either that hat or this Shanks person."

Nami re-entered reality, "Ah, I was so fascinated I kept on watching! I've got to get that treasure and get away!"

Naruto motioned towards the warehouse, "I'm right behind you." When Nami turned to look at him he shrugged again, "What? I'm bored and Luffy is fighting the only entertainment in town. Following you while you hoard all of this clown's loot could be entertaining therefore I'm going with you."

Naruto followed the girl and kicked open the door of the warehouse gesturing inside for her to enter… mostly so he could adequately see what she was working with from behind. Not bad at all he had to admit.

Nami squealed loudly as she began hoarding everything she could into a sack. Naruto saw some bills sitting off to the side and decided to line his own pockets. Hey, everybody was doing it. Soon enough Nami filled her sack with as much as she could and strolled outside with a content look on her face that Naruto just had to chuckle at.

"-Because of that, whoever touches my treasure… I never leave them alive!"

Naruto exited the warehouse to find Buggy lunging his entire torso at Nami with his blades pointed at her "Did you think you could fool me Nami? Put my treasure down so I can send you painfully to hell!"

"I'm not giving you a single thing!" Nami yelled at him as she cradled her sack of monetary gain.

In the middle of his death lunge at Nami, Buggy stopped with a pained look on his face. Naruto looked to see Luffy had planted a foot painfully right between Buggy's legs as he had left the lower half of his body back when he attacked Nami. Naruto pointed at Luffy and laughed, "If you're not cheating you're not trying!"

As Buggy's top half fell to the ground, Naruto cocked his fist back and plowed into Buggy's face, sending him flying back at Luffy, "Don't try to kill girls that aren't hurting you Buggy, that's not very honorable."

Buggy mumbled to himself in pain, "Some kid dared to kick my bottom half, and then some other punk got a sucker punch right in my face…"

Naruto looked at Luffy as the two nodded to each other. He then turned to Nami and tried to escort her away, "Nami, let's get you out of here. As long as you have that treasure around here you're going to get chased by that lunatic. Let's drop it and get you out of here."

Nami clutched the bag tightly, "Why should I put my treasure down and run? I don't want to!

Buggy growled from the ground, "Your treasure?"

Nami nodded, "Of course! Since I'm a pirate-treasure thief and I just stole from a pirate I'm telling you this treasure is mine!"

Naruto sweatdropped, "You know, pirates are known to steal from other pirates too when the opportunity arises. How are you yourself not a pirate again?"

Buggy flipped out from the ground where he lay, "What kind of dumb shit is that? Do you think that if you steal it it's yours? How the hell were you brought up?"

Naruto grinned at him, "Apparently remarkably close to the way that I was. I'm still not a damn pirate though."

Nami laughed, "A lecture from a bad guy? Enough of that nonsense." She stuck her tongue out in a pouty manner, "I don't think I've done anything bad enough to be lectured by a pirate!"

Naruto laughed out loud at that, "Who are you people? You guys are awesome! Where did you all come from!"

Buggy growled and split his body into multiple pieces, sending them at Nami, "Bara Bara Festival (Chop-Chop Festival)!" He surrounded Nami with his body parts and laughed, "See if you can protect her now!"

Luffy grabbed a foot that Buggy left behind and started tickling it, forcing him to stop his movements in order to laugh. Luffy did all kinds of things to his foot, smashing the toes into the ground, pinching the skin, all kind of things until Buggy yelled at him. Nami saw an opening and swung her bag at him, but it was caught by his disembodied hands. The two started a tug of war over the bag while Buggy tried to sneak some blades on her from behind.

Naruto narrowed his eyes at this and rushed in with a swirling ball of blue energy in his hand, "Alright Buggy I thought I told you…" He jumped into the air and drove the ball into Buggy's torso, "Leave women alone! Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto's attack drove deep into Buggy before it sent him flying off into the side of a building.

Naruto sighed and looked back at Nami, "Are you okay Nami-chan?"

Nami blinked blankly and nodded, "Yeah. Thank you Naruto."

Luffy ran up to Naruto with shining eyes that scared the blonde slightly, "That was so cool! How did you do that? Can you teach me how to do that? What was that?"

Naruto was feeling uncomfortable but answered all of his questions, "Um thanks, I channeled my body's energy called chakra to use it, it's kind of something personal so sorry I can't and I call it Rasengan." He then reached into his own coat pockets, Oh, you wanted this right?" Naruto said, handing off a map, "I took it from him when I hit him with that last attack."

Luffy grabbed the map and celebrated, "Alright! I've finally got the Grand Line map!"

"Wait you brats!" They all turned to see Buggy with blood coming from his mouth, a mark carved into his torso in the shape of a spiral, and his limbs off of his body, "I'll kill you all once and for all!" He called for his body parts to return but only ended up getting his hands and feet.

Nami stood on a pile of body parts, "Looking for these?"

Buggy's eyes bulged out of his head, "AHH! My body parts!"

Luffy gleefully shot both of his hands backwards, "A thief can do some cool things sometimes! Let me handle the rest! Get lost Buggy!" Luffy shot both arms forward and punched Buggy with both hands, "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka (Gum-Gum Bazooka)!" The attack sent the clown themed pirate flying into the distance.

Naruto whistled as he saw Buggy disappear into a dot, "Damn Luffy. How hard did you hit him?"

Luffy looked at Nami, "You're going to join my crew now right?"

Nami smiled as she tried to heft her large bag of treasure, "I'm just working with you while it serves my purpose, remember that. I'll do it for now because it seems like I'll make quite a bit of cash with you guys." She rubbed the bag to her cheek affectionately, "This much treasure should be worth at least 10 million beli, Buggy said that all of his stuff was high quality!"

Naruto walked around and observed the damage to the village as Nami and Luffy spoke about the treasure. Naruto smirked at all of the wrecked buildings, 'It looks like I'm going to be doing a lot of collateral damage again… Oh well, one hundred years was far too long to go without causing catastrophic property damage.'

Naruto walked over to Zoro and sweatdropped as he heard the man snoring. Naruto kicked Zoro to awaken him, "Oi, wake up! The fights are over, you and Luffy won!"

Zoro stirred and looked up at the blonde, "Did he get the map?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, Nami also stole a ludicrous amount of treasure from Buggy and Luffy sent him flying, you should have seen it, it was hilarious."

Zoro grunted, "Ugh, I don't think I can stand yet."

Naruto rolled his eyes and hefted the man up on his back, "Don't bleed all over my coat. Let's go." Luffy was over by the still fallen chief of the village. Naruto turned and saw a mass of villagers coming, his danger senses tingling, "Oh crap… I don't like this at all."

"What happened here?"

"It's definitely the work of those pirates!"

Luffy raised his hand, "Hey, I did that to the chief."

Naruto palmed his face, "Why would you tell them that Luffy? There was no need whatsoever for them to know that."

Nami glared at him, "Why did you tell them that kind of thing on purpose?"

Luffy was confused, "You guys saw me do it right?"

Naruto walked over to them with Zoro on his back, "Luffy means well but he just does not have the brain capacity for more complex thoughts other than 'Luffy smash!'"

"How dare you do this to our chief! Who the hell are you? The pirates?"

Luffy grinned and shouted, "We are pirates!"

"So you are?" The villagers all brandished weapons at the group.

Naruto waved his hands out in front of him while Nami yelled at Luffy, "Whoa! Wait! Hold on for just one freaking minute here!" He pointed at himself, "This guy: Not a pirate. Take note for posterity. Not. A. Pirate. Damn it!" He pointed at Zoro who was laughing his ass off on Naruto's back, "This gimp here… well he did say he was Luffy's friend so I guess he's technically a pirate. But-!" He pointed at Nami before he dropped his finger lamely, "Alright she says she's not a pirate, but she apparently travels the seas and steals stuff. That's like a qualification for a pirate even if she says she isn't so again, technically, she's a pirate too." Ignoring Nami's squawk of indignation he then pointed to a grinning Luffy and paused before waving it off as a lost cause, "Oh nevermind, this idiot just told you he was a damned pirate. But me, I'm not a pirate, so don't kill me, I'm just passing through."

"Get them!"

Luffy took off running, "Let's run away!"

Naruto rolled his eyes as he and Nami followed, "No shit Luffy. No, we should stay back there with the rabid people with sharp pointy weapons and lack of reasonable deductive skills!" He finished sarcastically.

Luffy grinned, "This is a good village! No matter what excuse we give them they'll still be mad at us. All for their chief!"

Naruto grunted, "Yeah but they really would have come in handy a half-an-hour ago instead of now when the fight is over and Zoro is dead weight on my back!"

They cut through an alley where Shoushou stood to block the villagers from continuing to pursue. Despite the villagers trying to reason with the dog to move he blocked the pirate group's retreat. Eventually they came to the docks where next to Luffy and Zoro's piece of crap tub in the water stood a boat that was actually respectable. Luffy looked at Nami, "Wow is this your ship?"

She shook her head, "No I stole it from some stupid pirates."

Three of the pirates Nami tricked for the boat rose up into view, "We knew you'd come back boat thief! If we just waited here long enough-!"

He was cut off by Naruto jumping on board and pummeling all three after unceremoniously dumping Zoro on the deck, "Whatever you wimps! Blah, blah, blah! Wasting my time!" He turned to Luffy and Nami, "Get your asses on board now unless you want the killer lynch mob of unreasonable people to catch up and violate us horribly!"

The three beaten up pirates stood up with bruises and swelled lips, "Who do you think you are kid?"

"Why the hell did you drop me Naruto?" The pirates turned to face the displeased face of Roronoa Zoro. Upon seeing his face they jumped into the water and swam away frantically. Naruto shrugged and unhooked the boat from the dock as Nami and Luffy jumped on board.

Luffy unfurled the sail, "Alright let's go!"

Naruto made a few hand-seals as the wind picked up and allowed the ship to move faster with the boost. As they pulled off he looked up, "Hey that looks like Buggy's emblem on the flag."

Nami shrugged, "I stole it from his pirates. I'll change it later."

"Stop right there!" They turned towards the dock to see the chief standing there, "I still have something to say to all of you!"

They all listened intently for his words, "I'm sorry! I owe you all!"

The kids all grinned at him as Luffy yelled back, "Don't worry about it! Just live happy lives!"

Nami looked around the ship, "Luffy where's the other bag, I gave you half of it?"

Luffy didn't bat an eye, "I left it in the village."

Nami snapped, "You left it! I gave you half of it! That's 5 million beli, that was my treasure!"

Luffy shrugged, "Well yeah but since the village was half destroyed I thought it would take some money to repair it."

Naruto nodded sagely, "Yeah, besides. Luffy did do a lot of the damage either directly or indirectly himself." He then got a tick mark on his head, "Oh man! I had a kick-ass ship and now I'm in this! I fought for and stole that first one fair and square and now I'm in this heap!" Naruto looked up with anime tears.

Nami was choking Luffy and trying to push him into the water, "If you ever do that again you're dead do you hear me!"

Zoro was still laughing like it was the funniest thing in the world. Naruto stopped crying and looked at Nami and Luffy in amusement, "Well at least this is looking to be something interesting. I think I'll stick with these guys for a while."

Luffy yelled out, "Alright crew! To the next island and adventure!"

Naruto's annoyed voice rang out across the ocean, "I'M NOT A DAMN PIRATE!"

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**Alright, my first attempt at a proper crossover and damn did this take forever to write. I didn't mess with the Buggy/Luffy fight seeing as how I thought that was important to the series, at least to the effect to get Luffy's skills across. Naruto will start showing more and more of his powers, but he simply didn't have to so far. The complete lack of any real threat in the East Blue part of the story will keep him from getting pushed for quite a while, but he'll show off quite a bit in the coming chapters, he'll also diverge more of what he did after the battle with Madara. I hope you all enjoy the story, I'll do my best on it people.**

**Questions? Concerns? Comments? Feel free to drop me a line, I read everything.**

**Damn this ran long… Kenchi out.**


	2. It's Not Lying, It's Distorting Reality

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Are you kidding me? If I did do you really think I'd be doing this with my free time? Right now instead of writing this I would be putting gas in my airplane.

**Chapter 2: It's Not Lying, It's Distorting Reality**

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"We need to plan things more." Naruto smirked as he heard Nami try once more to get Luffy and Zoro to do something other than just sit around, sleep, yell out in the middle of nowhere, or just all around do nothing useful. He would have included himself with the other two as someone that partook in the 'festivities' that were aforementioned, but seeing as how Naruto didn't call himself one of the crew he could say that about them and not himself, therefore freeing up his conscience to do all of jack-shit when Nami brought these things to him.

Oh Nami said that she wasn't a part of the crew, she would claim up and down that they were simply partners if anything, but the way she was trying to take the lead here it was clear that whether she admitted it or not she was a member of the crew.

Luffy looked at her strangely as he sat at the tip of the ship, "What do you mean Nami?"

She sighed, "Are we really going to go to the Grand Line like this?"

Luffy kept his confused look until the thought hit him, "Oh! That's right, even though Uncle Cabbage gave us plenty of fruits we don't have any meat on this ship!"

Naruto snickered as Nami yelled that it wasn't about the food supplies. 'Uncle Cabbage' was the name that Luffy gave to a strange man named Gaimon whom they had all met on a deserted island a few days ago. Naruto got a good eight silent chuckles off of the man's appearance, a man with a massive green afro and a body compressed into a treasure chest, but he really felt for the guy when he heard his story. Anyway, after they had befriended Gaimon, or Uncle Cabbage, he had allowed them to take some fruits from the island in order to stay alive while at sea. Naruto had to admit though that Luffy had a point. He wanted some meat too. What he wouldn't give for some miso ramen at the moment…

Anyway Naruto had tuned out their conversation as he was sure he would hear it again and again before he was done traveling with these guys. He thought more towards what he thought about these people.

Luffy was… well, Luffy. Naruto would go out on a limb and call Luffy stupid, but he would just be calling a past version of himself stupid in the process. Although he would swear to himself that he was never as thick in the head as Luffy was. Naruto would call himself ignorant, Luffy was just dumb. Dumb… but Naruto liked the guy. He was simple, not unpredictable or unstable. You knew what you were going to get with Luffy and that's just how he wanted it. He was straightforward, friendly, oddly charismatic, and absurdly strong, stronger than anyone else Naruto had met thus far anyway. He reminded Naruto a lot of himself actually.

Zoro was lazy, lazy as all hell. Not as lazy as Naruto's old buddy Shikamaru as when he wasn't found sleeping he found Zoro training with weights, however it was evident that the swordsman liked to multitask as he had found him lifting weights a_nd_ sleeping at the same time. That kind of thing eerily reminded him of Rock Lee back when he was in Konoha. Other than that Zoro was a pretty nice guy. He liked to drink as far as Naruto could tell as he had heard him mumbling about a lack of sake on the ship since leaving Orange Town, and that wasn't a bad thing either. He had an intimidating outer appearance at first, but Naruto found him to be a very nice guy, also very loyal as he told Naruto that prior to swearing allegiance to Luffy he hunted pirates. Naruto figured that he had one hell of a goal, to be the greatest swordsman in the world. Naruto knew some pretty amazing sword users in his day, but after beginning to realize just how big the world was when he looked at one of Nami's maps and didn't even see the Elemental Nations on it he started to realize that Zoro had one hell of a climb ahead of him.

Nami was kind of strange to Naruto. She was definitely hiding something as far as he could see. On one hand she claimed she wasn't a part of the crew and tried to identify their relationship as business partners or even an alliance, but she took an active interest in their well being, even his, and he wasn't even a part of the crew himself. She tried to make the others realize what a big deal their journey was and how much danger they really could have been in at certain times. It took a little prying and pestering, but eventually he was able to ascertain Nami's dream in life, she wanted to draw a complete map of the world and Naruto promised her that he would help her with that by taking her to the Elemental Nations, to make her one of the few people that have actually been able to mark it accurately on any maps. This drew a blush from the girl that elicited a laugh from the blonde immortal.

While he was lost in thought he found that they had landed somewhere, "What?" He looked around at the island they had stopped at and yawned, "Where are we? Somewhere that actually has a town this time?"

Nami nodded, "Yep, we followed the map and it says that there's a village on this island, so let's get going."

Naruto nodded and smacked the sleeping Zoro to wake him up, "Wake up sword-boy. We're going into town."

Zoro yawned and jumped off of the boat, "It's been a while since I've stood on solid land."

Naruto fought the urge to roll his eyes, "It wouldn't have been so long, but your ass is always asleep."

Zoro waved him off, "By the way, I've just noticed." He pointed up at a ridge. "What are those guys doing there?" There were three little kids and a teenager staring at them. The three kids had hair that looked respectively like an onion, a carrot, and a pepper. The teen had a long nose, black curly hair that was covered by a yellow plaid bandanna with goggles over them. He also had on brown overalls and a white sash.

Upon being discovered the little kids ran away, leaving the teen by himself. He shouted at them telling them to come back, but they were long gone. Turning back to the recently landed group he took up an easy stance, "I am the great pirate fleet leader, Usopp, who is in charge of security in this village! I'm also known as 'Captain' Usopp!" He took on a confident look, "It's best if you don't try to attack this village, because my 80 million men will destroy you."

Naruto's mouth quirked in amusement, "If you have 80 million people on this little island then you should be trying to get your own ass out of here instead of trying to keep us out. I call bullshit."

Usopp panicked, "Waah! I've been found out!"

Nami sweatdropped, "It didn't help that you just told us…"

Usopp despaired even more, "Argh! I can't believe I said that!"

Luffy seemed pretty entertained by this guy, "You're pretty funny, you know that?"

Usopp straightened up at that, "Hey, don't underestimate me! I am a man with high self esteem! Everyone calls me the honorable Usopp!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Uh huh… Sure they do." He moved past Luffy's crew and Usopp, "Where did those kids go? Did they run back to their town? I'm hungry… does this place have ramen by any chance?"

XxX

"Noooooo!" Naruto had tears in his eyes as he read the menu at a small tavern in Syrup Village, "No ramen! How can there be no ramen anywhere? This isn't funny anymore, I need my fix!" He was for the most part ignored as Usopp told them about where they could get a ship. Naruto perked up, "Oh so that's what you guys ended up talking about back on the boat."

Luffy grinned at him, "Yep! Every pirate crew needs an awesome pirate ship! And with us on it, it has to be the coolest ship on the seas!"

Naruto sighed and cracked a small smile at Luffy's enthusiasm. He may not be very smart, but damn if the guy wasn't enthusiastic, "So that's the plan for you guys? You're going to go and hit up that mansion this guy is telling us about and see if you can get a ship?"

Usopp nodded, "It's the only place in the village you can get a ship. It's not very big, but it's not really small either. It belongs to the owner of the mansion on the hill. But she's really a sick young girl that's always bed-ridden."

Nami looked stunned, "She's sick? Then how is she the owner?"

Luffy and Zoro weren't even listening at this point as they both wanted more meat and sake, respectively. Usopp ten explained how the girl living in the mansion was left everything by her parents when they died of sicknesses of their own, and how she was actually very lonely.

Nami sighed after hearing the story, "Alright… nevermind, we'll go searching for a ship somewhere else then."

Naruto grinned at her, "'We' Nami-chan? For someone not on the crew, or so she says, you sure don't act like it."

Nami glared at him, "And what am I supposed to act like then? A lazy ass like you?"

A nod and smirk was her answer, "That's precisely what you should act like."

Usopp noticed something, "Oh, earlier you guys said you were looking for companions? Is that right?"

Luffy finished off another plate of food and looked over at Usopp, "That's right. Is there somebody that actually wants to be our companion?"

Usopp pointed to himself, "Let me be the captain and I'll join you."

Naruto let out a bark of laughter while Luffy and Nami simply looked away and spoke simultaneously, "Um… Nevermind." Usopp's loud response to being so readily dismissed added fuel to Naruto's humor flame.

Eventually after looking out of the window Usopp excused himself, saying that it was 'that time again' and left Luffy, Zoro, Nami, and Naruto to their own devices inside of the tavern. Naruto looked out the window himself and took note of the environment, "Wow… This is a really peaceful village. I don't think I've seen an actual functioning village that runs like this place in a long time, if I ever have. It's like nothing ever happens here."

Nami leaned back in her seat and stretched, "I know what you mean. This place kind of makes you almost want to fall asleep just by walking through it. It's such a cozy place."

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, nothing like where I came from that's for sure."

This got everyone's attention. Luffy swallowed his food and spoke what was on everyone's mind, "So Naruto, where are you from anyway? You don't look like any East Blue person I've ever met."

Naruto chuckled, "That's because I'm not really from the East Blue Luffy. I'm from somewhere off of the map, it's actually so far south you'd think you'd have sailed around the world to reach it. It's also really easy to miss if you don't know where it is or you're a crappy navigator, barely anyone from the rest of the world has been there."

Luffy looked excited, "Wow! This place sounds really mysterious!" He then registered that Naruto said far south, "You're from the South Pole?"

Naruto face-faulted but picked him up with a smile, shaking his head, "Honestly, now that I think about it, it is a pretty weird place, but being out here and seeing some of the stuff I have so far, it's not that much stranger than being out on the ocean. But my village, it was actually pretty big. There were tons of people in it and they were all busy all of the time. Our military was pretty much the most important job in the village, the most respected, influential, and powerful people were a part of our military."

Zoro looked at Naruto, "So you had Marines stationed there?"

Naruto laughed, "Oh no, not at all. We were ninja. Every major nation had its own force of ninja, and they fought on and off all the time, it was really very irksome to think about."

Nami looked at Naruto with an appraising eye, "So what did you do as a ninja Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged, now was as good a time as any to tell them, "A little of everything. From menial chores, to escorts, to sabotage, to flat out assassination and kidnapping. If our leader thought it was the right thing for us to take he would accept the mission and assign it. You basically lived your entire life in that system, the only real way out was death or retirement, and not a lot of people lived long enough to retire."

Zoro was somewhat suspicious after hearing that, "It sounds like you were a ninja. A fairly good one too if the way you talk has any indiciation." Naruto nodded, "So how did you end up getting out of there?"

Naruto looked at him wistfully, "That is a story for another time I suppose."

The sound a door slamming open alerted them all to someone entering the tavern, "Usopp Pirate Group is here!" The three little kids from when they landed had shown up with wooden swords drawn.

They all just looked at the kids in confusion, "What the hell?"

They looked around for Usopp, who had led them there, "Hey, where's the captain? You don't think… He was eaten up do you?"

Naruto palmed his face while Nami laughed at the little kids, "What are you munchkins babbling about? Who ate who? And stop yelling, we're inside don't you know?"

"What did you do to our Captain Usopp? Give us back our captain you pirates!"

Naruto's eye twitched as he looked at them all, "For the love of all things ramen and ramen related… Why is it that all of you people keep calling me a damn pirate?" He gestured to himself, "Do I look like a pirate? No! Do I act like a pirate? No! All I am is just some guy that got on a boat with the wrong flag on it. Does that make me a pirate?"

The kids were a little taken back by his outburst, "W-What did you do to the captain?"

Naruto slumped in his seat in defeat, "Ask the guy with the hat…"

Luffy abruptly stood up and patted his belly, "Ah man. What a delicious meat!"

"Meat?" The kids suddenly jumped to another conclusion, "He… He ate the captain!"

Naruto snorted in amusement, 'Ah, I forgot how fun it was to pick on little kids sometimes. Does that make me a bad person? Nah, I'm just bored.'

Zoro chuckled off to the side as the kids turned their attention to him, "Tell us what you did?"

Zoro smirked at them, "Nothing really… We just ate him." He finished darkly.

The kids stared at Nami in fear, "What are you all looking at me for!" She snapped at them until they passed out before turning to Zoro, "Why did you tell them those weird things?"

Naruto got a few laughs off of the kids' mortified stony expressions, "Oh calm yourself down Nami-chan, it's just some good old-fashioned family fun. They'll wake up in like thirty seconds and forget that all of this just happened."

After waking the kids up and explaining what Usopp had said they all understood, "Oh, so it was time for him to go to the mansion again!"

Luffy was curious, "Why does he go all the way up there?"

"To tell lies!"

Luffy sweatdropped, "Isn't that supposed to be a bad thing to do?"

"It's not really such a bad thing! It's actually very good!"

Naruto snickered from his seat, seriously what is it with these people? Is everyone he meets out here going to be this goofy regularly? They then explained how Usopp went to tell stories to the girl that was stuck inside of the mansion due to her sickness.

Nami nodded in understanding, "So in order to help keep her spirits up he's been going for a year to amuse her with made up stories."

The kids all nodded with huge grins on their faces, "Yup."

"I like his nosiness."

"I like the captain's cowardice."

"I like his lies!"

Naruto hit the table in humor as Zoro sweatdropped, "What kind of strong points are those?"

Luffy then stood up and shouted that if he was making her feel better then they would go and ask for a ship. Despite trying to tell him that such an approach really wasn't the best way to get anything done, they all ended up at the mansion and watched Luffy climb over the gate keeping them out. Having no other options as they really couldn't let the idiot go off on his own, they all climbed over the fence except the little kids. Naruto noticed this, "Hey, can't you guys get over?"

They all shook their heads, "No, Captain Usopp was always the one to make sure we stayed outside."

Naruto frowned and picked all of them up before vaulting over the fence with one jump, landing on the other side. The kids were stunned as he let them go, "Whoa! How did you do that?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Um… a lot of practice?" He pointed over to where Luffy was going, finding Usopp sitting by a tree talking inside the building. By the time they had gotten over there Luffy had already asked for a ship.

Of course this was cut short, "What are you doing here? You can't just barge into the mansion like this!"

Usopp turned away with a sour look on his face, "Ugh, the butler again…"

The blonde girl in the window tried to save everyone some face, "Listen Klahadore these people are-."

"You don't have to explain ojou-sama I will ask you about it later." He cut her off, "The rest of you, please get out. Or is there something you need to say?"

Luffy smiled at him, "I want a ship."

"No way." The dismissal left Luffy rejected and in need of consoling from Zoro. Klahadore turned his attention to Usopp, "You… You're Usopp-kun. I've heard some rumors about you. The villagers talk about you all the time. The guards said you were lurking outside of the gates, what do you want here?"

Usopp tried to come up with some lie about mole-rats but Klahadore shot it down, "I can see that you lie very well. I've heard about your father too. You're the son of a filthy pirate so I'm not surprised you've turned out this way, but you had better stay away from Kaya-ojousama!"

This got everyone else's attention. His dad was a pirate? Usopp bristled at the slight against his father however, "Did you say filthy?"

Klahadore adjusted his glasses with the palm of his hand, "You and the ojou-sama belong to totally different worlds." This guy was really starting to rub Naruto the wrong way. He was acting like a superior douche, telling people to know their place, "Is it money that you're looking for? Name your price."

Kaya finally had enough of this, "That's enough Klahadore! Apologize to Usopp-san at once!"

He simply gestured at Usopp as if he were less than him, "There is no need for me to apologize to this uncivilized person, I'm just telling the truth. I feel sorry for you. You hate your father don't you? Because he's a dumb treasure hunter that deserted his family and his village."

Usopp clinched his fists. He'd better hit this guy already because Naruto was fixing to haul off and do it himself, "I won't let you say another bad thing about my father."

Klahadore chuckled, "You're not very smart are you, you should have just lied like usual. You could have said that he was a travelling merchant, or that he and you were not blood related."

"Shut up!" Usopp had had enough and finally punched the bespectacled butler in the face. Naruto smirked, it took him long enough to do something about it.

The butler held his face on the ground, "So violent… like father like son-."

"Shut up!" Usopp cut him off, "I'm proud that my dad was a pirate! I'm proud that he was a brave warrior of the sea! I may like to lie, but I'm not ashamed of having a pirate's blood flow in me, I don't need to pretend that I'm not!"

Klahadore continued to insult Usopp and his father saying that he only spent time with Kaya for her money. Naruto had tuned out the conversation at this point and started focusing on Klahadore. This guy wasn't just some random butler. No butler would take a punch like that and keep running their mouth, hell most butlers would have stopped speaking after the first time their master told them to stop. The way the guy adjusted his glasses… that was totally weird, such an unnecessary gesture to use the palm instead of the fingers.

He stopped pondering as he heard Usopp say he was never coming back. That was a lie, there was no way he was going to just leave that girl alone with that asshole of a butler by herself. Luffy was being held back by Zoro from going over and cleaning the guy's clock until he yelled for everyone to get out. After some apprehension they all left the premises except for Naruto who simply stood in place and stared at Klahadore.

The butler adjusted his glasses once more, getting a small tick from Naruto's eyes as he watched him do it, "I told you and your ragamuffin friends to vacate the area."

Naruto simply didn't respond and stayed staring, the two as still as statues. He finally turned and walked away, "Don't ever speak to me like that ever again. I'm not Usopp and I'm not Luffy. I have absolutely no problems showing you _your_ place. I've seen things that you couldn't even imagine and I've done things that you couldn't even comprehend. I'm not some random hood, you'd best keep that in mind _Klahadore_… understood?" Naruto didn't let him answer as he jumped back over the gate and left.

XxX

Something about that Klahadore just pissed him off. Maybe it was the casual dismissal of people he viewed under him? Maybe it was the way he walked as if he were better than him. Yeah right, he's better than Naruto… he's a damn butler! Maybe it just was the way he adjusted his glasses, because that crap was irritating to look at.

Naruto was broken from his personal thoughts once more as he spied an odd sight coming his way. A man in a long blue coat, blue hat, heart-shaped sunglasses and a strange beard that was actually a mushroom at closr glance was walking backwards down the road. Naruto stopped walking himself to watch the strange man pass him by until he too came to a stop.

The man looked at Naruto, then at the mansion Naruto had come from, then at the mansion again. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the strange man, "Can I help you with something or are you just going to keep looking back and forth at me because you're weirding me out."

The man focused fully on Naruto, "Now why am I weird? I'm just a simple hypnotist. What brings you out to these parts brother?"

Naruto felt something within him tell him to ignore this man and move along, but he was too damn curious to do so, "I'm just passing through…"

The man pulled out a ring on a rope and began to swing it in front of Naruto, "Well then allow me to show you one of my tricks then. When I say 'one, two, Jango' you will be very sleepy understand? One, two-."

Naruto tried to back off from the man, "Um, I don't think that's really necessary!"

"-Jango!"

After that Naruto saw nothing but darkness.

XxX

(Later That Night)

"Wake up Naruto." A kick to the side was Naruto's wake up call that evening as he opened his eyes to find Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Zoro standing over him.

Naruto sat up with a yawn, "What going on you guys? Why am I in the middle of the road?" His mind filled with recollection of what happened, "Oh damn it, that hypnotist guy."

"Jango." Usopp simply said.

Naruto blinked, "What? You guys met him too? He didn't pull his hypnotizing crap on you did he?"

Luffy grinned, "He got me with it too! He made me fall off of a cliff while I was sleeping!"

Naruto sweatdropped, "Of course he did Luffy. Why am I not surprised." He then looked at the serious faces that everyone else had, "What's with those looks? You'd think someone was coming to burn the town to the ground tomorrow or something." When all he got in response was awkward silence his eyes widened, "No way, really?"

Naruto looked at Usopp, "So what's going to happen? Do you know who's coming? What their plan is? Anything like that at all?"

Usopp gritted his teeth, "It's that bastard Klahadore. He's really Captain Kuro of the Black Cat Pirates. He'll have his crew come tomorrow with a plan to sack the town and kill Kaya to get her money for himself."

Naruto bared his teeth, "So I actually get to tear a piece out of that bastard do I?" Naruto looked at the rest of them intently, "I get Kuro. No arguments, no trying to pull rank on me Luffy, I'm not on your crew, I'm not a pirate, that guy just rubs me the wrong way and now I actually have an excuse to beat the crap out of him, I'm taking it."

Naruto stood up, "Now how are we getting ready for this?"

XxX

They brought Naruto to a sloped path surrounded by cliffs by the shore that they had coated with oil so that the attacking pirates couldn't climb. It was dangerous because the others could slip down it, but Naruto wasn't concerned about himself, if he used the water-walking exercise he could operate just fine, "And you're all sure that this is where they're attacking from?"

Usopp nodded, "This is main path to the village, if they want to get there this is the path they have to take."

Naruto looked around as the sun began to rise, "I'm going to stay hidden for the time being. If you all need help I'll jump in, but for now too many of us crowding the pass could be a bad thing."

Usopp laughed, "Sure, leave the crazy ideas and the shooting to me!"

Naruto laughed to himself and hid himself along the foliage of the sides of the pass to wait it out. After a while he wondered where they were until he heard Nami say that she had heard something from the north. Naruto cursed to himself and took off through the woods to reach the other side of the island.

Somehow Usopp beat Naruto to the other slope but he chalked it up to the adrenaline and the fact that he was the local, "This is your last chance! If you don't give up now my crew of a billion will destroy you all!"

Naruto heard the enemy pirates grumbling about what a stupid lie that was and smirked to himself, making his favorite cross hand-seal while he hid and subtly flooded the area with Kage Bunshin.

Usopp tried to bribe them with the 5 million beli that was inside Nami's ship but eventually they simply attacked. Naruto watched as Nami showed up and attempted to assist Usopp who attempted to snipe them off at a distance with his slingshot until he was felled from a shot with a hammer. Naruto cursed to himself as he watched Nami get injured trying to defend him, "Enough of this crap!"

The pirates turned to Naruto who was standing on the ledge, "Hey Usopp, sorry I'm late, I had a little trouble getting your army together!" Naruto snapped his fingers as his identical copies poured out of the forest and began attacking the shocked Black Cat Pirates.

Naruto picked Usopp up off of the ground and wiped him off as the long-range fighter was stunned by what he was seeing, "What is that? Are you that strong?"

Naruto grinned at him, "You bet. Now clean yourself up, we're just getting started, my clones vanish after one good hit to them so whoever else is left standing will actually be competent." Naruto walked over to Nami and helped her to her feet as well, "Are you alright Nami-chan?"

Nami nodded gratefully and steadied herself on her own legs, "Why were you so late Naruto?"

Naruto gave her a winning smile, "Well since we were fighting the 'Black Cat Pirates' I figured that was super bad luck, so I took the long way here and doubled around a dozen times."

Luffy and Zoro arrived at that moment with angry looks on their faces. Luffy pointed at Usopp, "Usopp! Why didn't you tell me which way north was?"

Usopp sweatdropped, "You took off running first, I thought you knew."

Zoro pointed his sword at Nami, "Thanks a lot Nami for leaving me at the bottom of the oily hill! You stepped on my head damn it!"

Nami waved it off, "Someone had to get out of there didn't they?"

The other two fighters noticed that there were a half dozen Narutos currently beating the daylights out of the invading pirates while there was one standing by Nami making sure she was able to stand by herself. Luffy pointed at the display, "Wow! You have a lot of twin brothers Naruto!"

Naruto laughed, "They're not brothers Luffy, this is another of my techniques, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu). It lets me split that energy of mine that I told you about, chakra, evenly between them and lets them become fully tangible and real entities. They can do stuff like think and fight and all kinds of things." Naruto stopped talking and narrowed his eyes as he felt the last of his clones dispel.

Turning around he saw Jango swinging his ring on the rope that Naruto could now identify as a blade. Was he hypnotizing his crew? Just as he thought that the men that Naruto had pummeled jumped right back to their feet, invigorated.

Nami yelled in surprise, "What? Naruto-kun just beat them all senseless a second ago and now they look as good as new!"

One of the pirates punched the cliffside and crumbled it. Zoro was in disbelief, "They can destroy the entire cliff with one punch!"

Naruto sighed, "Great, now instead of fighting weaklings I have to fight a bunch of berserk weaklings. Usopp, Nami, get back."

Zoro nodded, "Right, you guys get back. Me, Naruto, and Luffy will handle all of them. Right Luffy? Luffy?"

Luffy let out a loud yell forcing Naruto and Zoro to palm their foreheads, "Oh great. He's hypnotized too."

Luffy stormed down the hill at the mass of attacking pirates, "Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum-Gum Gatling Gun)!" Luffy blasted his arms out in a flurry of rapid fire fists that pounded away at the Black Cat Pirates, knocking them all back, if not out, effortlessly. He then ran past their fallen bodies and grabbed their ship's helm.

Naruto let out a high pitched scream as he realized what was going to happen, "Wait! Luffy, no! Don't destroy the ship! No!"

Luffy ripped off the helm of the ship and held it threateningly at the enemy pirates.

"He's going to use that thing to hit us? Captain, do something!"

Jango quickly pulled up his ring, "One, two, Jango and you will be asleep! One! Two! Jango!"

Luffy fell asleep while holding the helm and fell backwards, dropping the helm on himself and a lot of the pirates. Nami sighed in relief with a smile, "It looks like he finished all of them."

Naruto let out tears of anguish, "Damn it Luffy don't destroy it! I was going to steal that after we were done kicking these guys' asses! That's just great, I can't fix that, I'm not that good. Now I'm stuck on that other boat with the rest of you! I want a ship! I want open space! I want elbow room!"

"Hey Buchi, the ship's stern is gone!"

"You're right, I wonder what happened to it."

Heads turned at the sound of more people on the ship as two guys in cat themed costumes jumped out and landed on the ground. One was a fat guy with a cat half mask covering his head and no shirt, the other was a skinny guy. Both had cat claws with blades on their fingers.

Jango pointed at the group, "Buchi, Shamu, no matter what we have to get out of here, as you can see there are some people blocking our exit from this slope. Can you take care of them for us?"

The two newcomers acted cowardly at fighting them all, namely Zoro who was out ahead of the rest. However when the skinny one trotted out hopelessly and got close enough to Zoro he turned his killer instinct on and began to fight him head to head. In their initial clash Zoro ended up getting his swords taken by the skinny cat fighter Shamu.

"Give me my swords back." Zoro demanded.

Shamu chuckled, "Oh, these. Before we fight I have to say, that they're really obstructive!" He threw the swords aside, leaving Zoro with one.

Zoro lunged out swiftly and reached his swords before the skinny warrior drove his claws into his back when he grabbed for them. Upon pinning Zoro on the ground the fat brother, Buchi, jumped high into the air, "Killing technique… Cat Pounce!" Almost succeeding in driving both of his feet into Zoro's spinne or skull he cracked the ground with his landing.

Zoro was actually terrible at one sword techniques, thus the two brothers were able to overwhelm him and drive him back. Nami tried to get Zoro his sword but was stopped by Jango who cut her shoulder. Naruto growled darkly and narrowed his eyes at Jango as killing intent filled the area. Naruto stopped growling as he realized that it wasn't leaking from him, he had control of his own.

Jango was basically quivering, "Ah! That feeling is…"

Captain Kuro/Klahadore was standing at the top of the pass, "It has passed dawn and my plan is still not complete! What the hell are you doing? Don't tell me you've be stopped by these rats! Say something Jango!"

Jango backed off slightly, "Well you said that the Usopp kid wouldn't cause us any trouble."

Kuro laughed, "Yes I did, but the fact is that you all are simply weak."

The brothers took offense to this and questioned Kuro's strength as he hadn't fought in three years, "You're not our captain anymore! Before you kill us we'd better kill you first!" They both attacked Kuro with their claws but hit nothing but an afterimage.

Kuro stood behind them with an extremely long pair of cat claws on his hands, "You said you would kill who?"

As they turned to face him he had vanished again, hanging off of their shoulders like an old friend, however he had a blade at both of their throats, terrorizing them both, "I feel my body resisting me a little bit. You're right, I'm not your captain anymore, I'm just someone who paid you to do a job, and if you find yourselves unable to accomplish it I'll finish you myself. I find that these last three years have lowered my temper so I'll give you 5 minutes to kill these people and if you cannot… I will kill you all myself."

Nami took advantage of the confusion and kicked Zoro his swords. The newly inspired Nyaban Brothers attacked Zoro once more who simply crossed his swords in a particular movement, "Tora Gari (Tiger Hunt)!" Zoro's attack finished them in one move. He stood up and pointed at the Kuro, "Don't worry I'll beat the rest of you in just 5 minutes."

Jango hypnotized the still living Buchi who had a cross scar across his belly and chest where Zoro cut him. Upon being hypnotized, the large cat themed killer went berserk.

Kuro tapped his foot impatiently, "3 minutes… and I will kill all of you."

Naruto glared at him and finally moved towards him, "You know what? That might be more threatening to me if you weren't a damned butler and if you weren't so pathetically weak. What did I tell you yesterday teme? I guess it's time for me to really show you your place." Naruto's hands were sunk into his pockets as he strode away from protecting Usopp and started walking towards Kuro.

"Klahadore, stop everything!" Kaya screamed from the top of the pass, "I heard everything from Merry."

Kuro pushed his glasses up on his face, "So he's still alive? I thought I'd already finished him."

Kaya pleaded with him and tried to bribe him to leave the village as long as she gave him all of her money, but the man simply laughed at her proposal, "You misunderstand Kaya-ojousama. I want your money but I also want a peaceful life. The villagers trusted me for three years, it became a part of my peaceful life. My plan will only succeed when I obtain your money and peace."

Kaya pulled out a pistol upon understanding that he was here to kill her no matter what. And Kuro began to appeal to her sympathetic side, "Do you remember that for the last three years we've been together every day? We went to town together, I took care of you while you were sick, we were happy and sad together. I've spent 3 years doing these inane things, everything I've done until today, is to kill you!"

Usopp launched himself at Kuro to deliver a punch but he was clocked coming in and was about to be shredded with his claws until a set of metal shuriken cut Kuro's body and cut him across his face.

His crew had their jaws dropped, "The captain's been hit!"

Naruto stood with three more shuriken spinning around his fingers, "I've had enough of hearing you talk. Get up so I can kill you on your feet dead man. You're not in my league…"

Kuro calmly stood up with blood coming down his face, "So you're another of these ruffian pirates just like the other fools here. Jango! I will kill this boy. You take care of Kaya-ojousama. After you're done, kill her."

Zoro tried to stop the hypnotist from getting past but the berserk Buchi attacked him once more. Zoro ended up blocking him with his sword and foot, "I already beat you once, I won't lose to you!" He yelled, kicking him off.

Naruto motioned to Usopp who was still on the ground as he kept his eyes on Kuro, "Usopp. That guy is going to harm Kaya. Get up and stop him."

Usopp tried moving but was still too wounded to do much, in his place he ordered the kids he had been playing with to take Kaya and get her somewhere safe. Naruto nodded, "I guess that will do for now, but you still need to get up. I can beat Kuro, but this is your village, you need to defend it with your own two hands too."

Usopp nodded from the ground and fired a shot at the departing Jango from his slingshot, knocking him to the ground. It didn't keep him down as he got right back up and continued to chase. Usopp eventually staggered to his feet before he was attacked by Buchi. Buchi however was intercepted by Zoro and defeated for the final time. Zoro hoisted Usopp up on his shoulders, "I'll take you to find them, you can't walk and I can't find my way around without getting lost."

Kuro moved in front of them, "And who says I'll let you leave?" A foot planted itself in the side of his head, knocking him to the ground.

Naruto landed on his feet with his arms crossed and a scowl on his face, "Who the fuck cares what you say? I called you a dead man, and no one gives a rat's ass about what a dead fool like you has to say." Zoro took the opportunity to take off into the forest with Usopp.

Kuro stood back up and seemingly vanished again, reappearing right behind Naruto and taking a swing at him with his claws. Naruto drew a kunai and blocked it over his shoulder, "You should quit now and leave. Maybe then I won't kill you in the most humiliating way I can conjure."

Kuro backed off from the clash, "I want to know why you would risk your life protecting this pathetic village."

Naruto chuckled, "Trust me, my life isn't in the least bit of jeopardy from you or your loser crew. I could kill you all in one move but that would be overkill, and besides, Usopp wants this little battle here to remain a secret from the rest of the village and who am I to go against such a simple request. However I'm here to fight for two real reasons; one, Luffy, Zoro, and Nami-chan are here, and I'm getting rather attached to these guys." Naruto pointed down at Nami who was trying to wake up Luffy and winked at her, "Reason number two… I just don't fucking like your face."

Kuro lunged at Naruto with his claws, "Die boy!"

Naruto started dodging the slashes of the claws effortlessly, "*sigh* Dude you're not as fast as you think you are. Why are you even doing this? She offered you the money, you could have taken it and left and I probably would have let you leave since it was her choice."

Kuro kept attacking, "That's not good enough. This scheme is meant to erase Captain Kuro from the world once and for all. I am sick and tired of taking care of my idiot crew. Even though I achieved every pirate's dream of fame it only brought me trouble I didn't want! That is why I killed my name three years ago!"

Naruto shook his head and socked Kuro in the face, knocking him backwards again. He gave Kuro a sickened glare, "You damned coward. You wanted an easy way in life and when it started getting tough and bothersome you took a cheap way out. But that wasn't enough, no… You got away, and you're still trying to turn tricks! You're scum!"

Kuro pulled himself to his feet, "I have waited three years for this chance to happen and a low class pirate brat like you cannot stop me!" He vanished from sight before reappearing on Naruto's left side to thrust his claws out at him.

Naruto simply placed his hand out and caught his claws in one hand. "First of all, I _can_ stop you because like I told you from the start, you're weak and not even anywhere near my league. Second of all I'm not a brat, not in way shape or form. And third of all… I'M NOT A GODDAMN PIRATE!" Naruto broke the claws on Kuro's hand and backhanded him across the face sending him flying down the hill.

Nami stopped trying to wake Luffy in order to watch Naruto effortlessly dissect Kuro with not even an ounce of effort on his face, "Naruto-kun who or what are you? Where does a guy like you even come from?"

Kuro stood up with blood dripping from his head as his crew tried to encourage him to keep fighting, "Shut up… I thought I said that I would kill you all, including Jango, when my plan is complete." The crew tried reasoning with him, "I never thought of letting you leave in the first place. If anyone knew that I was truly alive I would be in trouble soon thereafter."

Naruto shook his head once more in disgust, "You really are an asshole. Using your men like disposable pawns… What kind of leader are you?"

Kuro laughed, "That's what these pirates are! A kid like you doesn't know anything!" He choked on his words when Naruto vanished and smashed him in the body with his knee.

Naruto spoke coldly as Kuro was hunched over his knee, "You're absolutely nothing." He picked up Kuro by his collar and threw him aside, "Get up. Get up and do your worst so that I can break you at your absolute best. I want to see the look on your face when you realize that you had no chance of winning here today."

Kuro stood shakily and hunched his body somewhat, "You want to see the power of a pirate that has fought in many battles and has survived and thrived?

"He's going to use the Shakushi? We're in the direct path, he'll kill us all!"

Naruto's lips quirked as he heard the crew begin to panic, "Well now you've got me interested. You may have fought and survived many battles but I was literally born for combat and was raised around it."

Nami had pulled Luffy's unconscious body onto the boat and she had attempted to loot the Black Cat Pirates' ship, "What? Did everyone stop?"

Suddenly crew members began appearing with slash marks on their bodies. Men were being eviscerated, having limbs cut off, all kinds of grievous slashing wounds. Even the walls were slashed. Naruto didn't blink as the sounds of the carnage rang out around him, while men were dropping around him left and right.

Nami blinked in horror as she watched the blood fly across the pass, "How could someone do this to their own comrades?"

A low growl began to rip from Naruto's throat as he heard the cries of agony. Naruto shut his eyes and thrust his arm in a random direction as a shockwave passed by his body. In his grasp was the throat of Captain Kuro with his claws at his side. Naruto could feel the man's neck giving out under the pressure of his grip, "You couldn't see a damn thing and yet you massacred your own men just to get a decent shot at me? And the real kicker is… you're not even that fast. I've fought guys faster than you, hell, I'm faster than you."

Naruto opened his free hand to form a Rasengan in the palm of his hand and shoved it into Kuro's chest. Kuro screamed in agony as Naruto kept it low powered enough to leave a permanent spiral mark without shredding his entrails. Naruto waited until Kuro passed out and threw him at his crew, "Take this piece of shit and leave this place. I don't want your ship. I don't want anything to do with that pathetic bastard whatsoever. **Get off of this island or I will destroy you all.**" He finished in a warped and dark tone as traces of red flickered into his eyes.

The crew scooped Kuro up and hightailed it back onto the boat to hastily escape. Naruto waited until the boat was sailing off into the distance before sitting down on the ground. Nami sat down next to them with a bag, "So Luffy's still asleep huh? Heh, you steal some more stuff?"

Nami smiled at him and nodded, "You must be exhausted after all of that."

Naruto shook his head, "Not really Nami-chan that was too easy for me to get tired. I'm just trying to calm down. I almost lost it listening to that teme talk. Is your shoulder okay? Jango cut your kind of badly."

"Yes, I'm fine it was just a flesh wound really." Nami's smile dropped as she sat down next to him on the ground, "I've never seen anyone fight like that in my entire life. It was almost scary, you didn't even do that clone thing that you tried at first."

Naruto shrugged, "He was weak. I've fought people that would have taken him apart like a mannequin. As fast as he thought he was, he was moving in slow motion to me. I don't use my jutsu on weak people."

Nami sweatdropped, "That was Captain Kuro. One of the most notorious and famous pirates in the East Blue."

Naruto scratched his head, "Really? Well this region of the world is really weak then. Other than being fast that guy didn't have anything. Luffy could have smashed that guy if he didn't smash himself after getting hypnotized."

Nami looked skeptical but accepted it as one of the strange boy's quirks, "Why did you let all of the pirates go if you could have beaten them?"

Naruto sighed, "They were all just idiots that couldn't pick a decent leader. They were misled by a man that was willing to sacrifice all of them for his own selfish gain."

Nami adjusted the bag in her lap, "What are you talking about Naruto-kun? That's the way all pirates are."

Naruto noticed that she called him 'Naruto-_kun_' and filed that away for later thought, but for the time being he gave her a dry look and simply pointed down at the boat where Luffy was sleeping. Nami laughed sheepishly, "Well I guess you and Luffy are the anomalies."

Naruto smiled at her before a tick mark showed on his head, "Maybe so Nami-chan… but I'm not a damn pirate. What will it take to get my point across?"

XxX

One day after the battle with the Black Cat Pirates they were found in the tavern that they had been frequenting by Kaya who led them to the shore where they had just fought the day before. There happened to be a very pleasant surprise waiting for them.

Nami clasped her hands together in a pleased fashion, "It's a caravel!"

Naruto was much more vocal with his excitement however as he ran up and hugged the side of the ship, sticking to it with chakra like a spider, "Oh thank Kami! Finally, elbow room! I spoiled myself when I started this little journey of mine. Oh how I've missed having a proper ship!"

The sight of the grown man hugging the ship like a lost family member caused sweatdrops all around. Merry coughed into his hand and launched into an explanation, "This ship was designed by me, it may look a little old. It's name is the Going Merry, it's a caravel ship with a rudder in the middle." He looked at the four people of whom he was speaking to, "Aren't you the people who defeated the Black Cat Pirates? I thought there would be more of you."

Luffy threw his hands into the air in celebration, "Yes! You'll give this ship to us?" Kaya laughed in amusement and nodded.

The group began to pale as Merry tried explaining to Luffy how to steer the ship until Nami interjected, "He doesn't understand that. You'd better explain it to me."

Naruto appeared at her side with a sly look on his face, "Well, well now. I thought you weren't a member of the crew Nami. Why would you want to know how to run the ship?"

Nami stuttered for a moment before turning to Naruto, "I just don't feel like being lost at sea! W-What about you? You're still coming on the ship too aren't you?"

Naruto waved it off, "Yeah, but that's because this is the only ride out of here. I'm not going to actively take an interest in what's going on unless I want to, or whatever is happening is directly my problem. I'm just along for the ride so to speak." He turned towards the ship to get a better look on it as a smirk crossed his face, "Though the company is quite pleasurable I should say."

Nami sputtered and blushed at how blunt he was being but before she could call him on anything as shout caught everyone's attention, "Somebody stop me!"

Usopp was rolling down the hill with an oversized pack on his back heading right for the ship.

Luffy looked at him in interest, "What's he doing?"

Naruto let out an unmanly shriek, "Luffy! Stop him before he destroys the ship! I want my elbow room!"

Luffy stuck out his foot and planted it on Usopp's face to stop his momentum, much to the long-nosed teen's relief, "Thanks."

Long story short, Usopp decided to go out and join the crew, thus leading to raucous celebration on board that led to Usopp painting the crew's emblem on the sail. Eventually upon finding out Usopp's skill at using a cannon as well as a slingshot Luffy drank down what was in his mug with a massive grin, "Alright! The crew has a captain, a swordsman, a navigator, a sharpshooter, and… whatever the hell Naruto is!"

Naruto had taken up a spot in the common room away from the table where everyone else was to lay about in the couch to relax a bit, "I'm not on your crew Luffy! I'm just here for the free ride and I help you out sometimes because I'm not a moocher. That does not a crew member make. I'm just some guy, like a drifter or something."

Luffy pointed at Naruto, "You're the crew's vagabond then!"

Naruto irritably snapped at Luffy, "That's not a real crew position dumbass!"

Luffy looked confused, "Would resident ship's hobo be better then?" Luffy didn't notice the killing intent starting to radiate from Naruto while Zoro and Nami laughed at him.

"Show yourself! I'll kill all of you!" A shout from on the deck ripped their attention away from the indoor festivities.

* * *

**Alright chapter 2 up. I'll be rolling through a few of these chapters in order to set up a decent base for people to read, in addition to getting Naruto to Arlong Park where the story will be taking a divergence from normal. I want to get him to the Grand Line fast so that I can have him fight real fights. Hell, I want him to fight Smoker so that I can have fun with that.**

**Anyway, as per the course, leave your much appreciated thoughts, concern, or what have you in your reviews. They make me feel awesome. And I'll have another chapter out by either tonight maybe, or tomorrow. When I'm motivated to do something I'm a damn machine.**

**Kenchi out.**


	3. Anything For A Pretty Face or two

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. However if I did I would have an eternal grin on my face due to the amount of money that would currently be in my Swiss bank account ya heard?

**Chapter 3: Anything For a Pretty Face (or two)**

* * *

"Show yourself! I'll kill all of you!"

Luffy immediately made his way to the deck where a man with short black hair, sunglasses, a blue hoodie with a purple shirt underneath, and white pants was kicking things around on deck, "Hey! Who are you?"

Upon hearing Luffy's voice the man brandished a sword from his waist that looked like some kind of cleaver, "It's none of your business to know who I am." HE then lunged at Luffy and slashed at him forcing Luffy to dodge, the attack took out the banister, "Remember that!"

Naruto sighed, "If you're attacking the ship then yes it is our business who you are you idiot."

Nami and Usopp were watching inside through a window, "There's only one guy out there."

Zoro was sitting inside without caring, "Leave it to Luffy then."

Naruto shrugged and went inside to sit down. Luffy could beat this guy up himself, and if Zoro didn't even care enough to get up and look then he sure as hell didn't care.

"I've killed many pirates. An infamous pirate like you…" The man lunged at Luffy with his sword once again, "Shouldn't dare to kill my buddy!"

Luffy was getting pissed off at getting accused of doing something he no inkling of doing, "I don't know what you're talking about." Luffy jumped over the attack and grabbed the man's head, "But stop destroying my ship!" Luffy flipped over his back with his head in his grasp and threw him face first into a wall.

The man passed out after peeling off of the wall and hitting the ground, "…I almost got him…"

After hearing the loud smash of the strange attacker's body hitting the wall Zoro walked out, "Huh? Isn't that Johnny? What happened? Where's Yosaku?"

Johnny miraculously jumped right to his feet at the sight of Zoro, "Zoro-aniki!"

Naruto walked back outside, "Zoro you know this guy?"

XxX

Apparently Johnny and his friend Yosaku, a man with strange headgear, a green trenchcoat with a black shirt underneath, and yellow plaid shorts, were bounty hunters that had worked with Zoro in the past. While they had been resting due to Yosaku's sickness at the island that Usopp shot their cannon at it ended up getting blown up by the aforementioned cannon fire.

Apparently as alluded to by Nami, Yosaku had scurvy, and after being given vitamin C he would recover shortly. This drove home a point into the rest that they needed a chef for their crew. Joni recommended a floating restaurant two days from their location, and gave Zoro information on a man named 'Hawk-eyes' that was thought to be in the area.

It was a nice looking place called Baratie, however they found a Marine ship floating out nearby. A man with iron bolts attached to his knuckles noticed their presence, "I've never seen that flag before. I am Lieutenant Fullbody, the iron fist, of the Marines. Who is your captain?"

Luffy stepped up, "I am, me, Luffy. I just finished my flag two days ago."

Fullbody then noticed Johnny and Yosaku, "Oh I've seen you two before in some government office. You're the two shabby pirate hunters Yosaku and Johnny right? You've been caught by these pirates?"

Johnny and Yosaku took offense to this and went to teach him a lesson but were thrashed by him and thrown back onto the Going Merry. Fullbody then took a woman from the ship and entered the restaurant claiming to be on vacation.

Naruto kicked at their flattened bodies, "Kami you guys suck… Am I going to see anyone in the East Blue that isn't a total wimp?" He asked to Nami, but she was unresponsive as she had a firm glance on one of Johnny and Yosaku's wanted posters. It must have been angering her because her hands were shaking with the paper in her grip.

"Hey! Danger!" Usopp pointed out at the Marine ship, "Those Marines are pointing their cannons at us!"

Luffy jumped up and expanded his body to its balloon form to send the cannonball back, however he ended up sending it at the restaurant instead. Sending it crashing through the roof. Naruto palmed his face as the rest of the crew freaked out. Luffy started running around frantically, "Oh no! That could have killed somebody! What am I going to do?"

Naruto shook his head as he saw people walking outside with chef's gear on. Naruto pushed Luffy off of the boat onto the floating restaurant, "Well then _captain_. Go and handle that for everyone then."

Watching Luffy get carried inside by the chefs brought an amused smile to Naruto's face before he climbed up to the crow's nest and laid down. The others crowded below him when Usopp pointed at the restaurant, "Um, Naruto was that really the best idea?"

Naruto yawned and looked up at the clouds, "Hey, he's the captain right? Well the captain has to be responsible for stuff like that." Crashing could be heard from inside, "Yep, he'll be fine." Naruto shut his eyes and took to sleeping.

XxX

Luffy ended up as a worker in the restaurant in order to pay off the damages he caused with the cannonball. He met Sanji, a blonde cook that he demanded be on his crew, but before that he had more pressing issues to take care of.

For two days the crew had to stay at the restaurant to wait for Luffy. The others got their kicks by going inside and eating there while simultaneously messing with Luffy. Luffy was constantly chewed out and rotating jobs due to his complete inability to handle even the most mundane tasks and a bored Naruto got his kicks by making Luffy's job that much harder by sneaking around and setting pranks for the rubber man as he went about his day.

Eventually after two days passed Naruto was sick of the place. While Nami was able to get Sanji to give her food for free everyone else had to pay, and Naruto didn't have much money in the first place therefore he stopped going inside the restaurant and stayed on the ship to eat. He took to spending his time in the crow's nest, sleeping while the others went about their own business.

One day however he woke up when he felt his body moving inside of the crow's nest. Getting up he blinked in surprise when he found that the boat was moving. He saw Nami steering the ship, but no one else on deck. Figuring that everyone else was inside or something, Naruto used Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu) to speed down behind her, "What's up Nami-chan!"

Nami screamed in surprise and turned to face Naruto like she had seen a ghost, "N-Naruto what are you doing here?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion, "I was asleep in the crow's nest, that restaurant was boring as hell after I got sick of making Luffy mess things up. So where are we going now?"

Nami got back on the wheel, "I'm going to Commi Island and Cocoyashi Village."

Naruto smirked, "What about me Nami-chan? What about the rest of the crew? What am I a figment of your imagination?"

Nami looked down, "Everyone else isn't here. I left them back at Baratie."

Naruto's jaw almost dropped at that admission from the orange-haired girl, "What? Is Luffy really in that much trouble that you had to take the ship? Why are we the only ones here, couldn't someone else have come?"

Nami flinched somewhat, "Well you see I kind of stole the ship."

Naruto simply stared at her blankly. After a minute he spoke, "Alright then."

Nami couldn't believe what she was hearing, "What?"

Naruto walked over to the side and sat down leaning against the railing to get some more shut eye, "Alright then. I told you all I'm not a part of your crew, I'm along for the ride. The ship is moving, thus I am moving therefore I am riding. It doesn't matter to me who's running the ship as long as the ship is running. So let's chit-chat! What's in Cocoyashi Village that has you stealing ships to get there?"

"It's my home." She didn't bother hiding it. Nami believed that he really didn't care what she had done, he really was just there for the sake of being there, "Why did you even come with us in the first place? You don't seem to want do do… well anything."

Naruto sighed and cracked an eye to look at Nami, "Honestly Nami, I've seen a lot of things. I don't think there are a whole lot of things that can surprise me anymore. I'm bored, very bored. I'm out on the ocean to find something to do, anything to occupy my time because time is one thing that I have nothing but. Whether that anything is a purpose to live for, or a person to help, or someone powerful to fight, that's why I'm here."

Nami frowned, "Why would you want to leave your home so badly? Was it that bad?"

Naruto let out a laugh, "It's not that I hate my home. Quite the opposite actually, I love my village. But they didn't need me anymore. Ninja are fast becoming a relic in the Elemental Nations Nami-chan, there was no more reason for someone like me to be there. I fought for my village, I lived for my village, but now they don't need me so I left years ago to wander the land, eventually I got tired of that too. I never realized how small that place was until I left, this world is huge. I know I can find something out here if I keep searching." He smiled at her, "So what about you? Why leave your home and come all the way out here, then steal your friend's ship to get back."

Nami got a somewhat dark look on her face, "You'll see when we get there."

Naruto's face turned serious at this. Nami had changed clothes now to a more revealing green top that revealed a tattoo on her right arm. Once again he decided not to press the issue because she was right, he would find out when they got there. And that was more than enough for him, he just hoped that whatever was happening to put such a look on Nami's pretty face was fixable… and maybe able to give him a decent fight too.

XxX

They landed outside of Nami's home village in order to disembark and walked east on Commi Island silently with Naruto following closely behind Nami taking in the things that he saw, 'This is a really nice place. What could be going on here to make her so somber right now?'

Soon they came upon a gate walling off an area from the rest of the island by shore. Naruto had to blink as he pointed blankly at the massive building and structures behind the gate, just sitting pretty in clear view of anyone "How the hell did I miss this when we sailed over here?"

Nami kept her eyes on the place ahead of them, "We didn't sail this way when we came here. It's not like it's hidden, it's out in the open to show that they don't fear repercussions from the Marines… although it helps that Arlong has them in his back pocket."

Naruto nodded, "So what do I call this monstrosity, who the fuck is Arlong, and why should I not kick his face in with my fist as I am wont to do from the displeased look you have on your pretty little face?"

Nami simply stared at the gate as if she were preparing for something until they heard rapid little footsteps behind them. A little boy brandishing a short sword stopped in front of them pointing it at them. Naruto raised his eyebrow at the boy while Nami just looked at him coldly, "Get out of my way so I can kill Arlong! If you don't get out of my way I'll kill you too!"

Naruto gestured towards the boy, "Is this kid serious?"

The boy had tears running down his face, "I said get out of my way!"

In the blink of an eye Nami whipped out her staff and cracked the kid in the side of the face, busting his mouth and sending him to the dirt before planting her foot on his chest. Naruto could see the strained grip she had on her staff, "Now that you understand just go back to your house!" She dropped a stack of bills beside him, "I'll give you my money, it should protect your life."

Naruto simply gestured towards the fallen boy, figuring that this warranted some kind of explanation, however Nami just moved past him and entered the facility. Naruto shook his head and spared the boy one last glance as he watched him pick himself up before he followed Nami inside.

Naruto had to blink as everywhere he looked inside he saw human-fish hybrid people. What was Nami doing with these guys? They looked like they wanted to tear him apart simply for just being there but him being with Nami kept them from acting, thus he stayed close to her for the time being, no need for a senseless fight… yet. However this didn't keep him from throwing out an aura of 'come and try it' as he gave the fishmen a look of challenge. He could feel the tension rising by the time Nami reached the main building.

There was a merman in a hat with a sawfish nose and long black hair going down his back sitting by himself on a patio. He wore an unbuttoned yellow tropical shirt showing that he was very physically imposing as well as brown shorts. The way he carried himself Naruto figured he was the boss of these mermen. He looked at Nami with a sharkish grin, "So you're back? It's been a long time!"

Nami put a smile on her face, and Naruto now knew why it took so long for her to come inside, she had to paste that artificial smile on because he could just feel the ire for this guy radiating off of her, "You still have a very weak security system."

The merman laughed, "You think anyone would dare to go against me?"

Naruto blocked a snort, 'Yeah because that little kid that was coming to filet your ass shows just how much you're loved here.' Of course he kept that little thought to himself for the time being. Nami was trying to keep up her act here, no need to blow it all himself.

He motioned to the sack that Nami was carrying, "How much did you get this time? Come now, don't leave me in suspense."

Nami waved the sack in her hand, "I got a pretty good amount, but I felt a little lonely this time." She gestured back at Naruto who smirked upon being introduced.

The boss fish started laughing, "Where did you get that from? The person who loves to betray people like you?"

Nami smiled faintly, "You think so Arlong?"

Arlong pointed at Naruto, "You, filthy human, who are you and what are you doing in my territory with Nami?"

Naruto shrugged, "Nami-chan stole the ship I was sleeping on to get here and I figured why not go along with her? I'm just along for the ride. Besides, she did say she was lonely, right?" Naruto finished, throwing a sly grin in Nami's direction.

Nami broke her character and started sputtering nonsense in Naruto's direction. Naruto smirked and sidled up to the girl, throwing an arm over her shoulder and pulling her close, "Nami-chan, we can't keep this a secret for long. Just think about it, all that time alone together on the ship… how we just stole away, leaving everyone else behind… you can't fight it girl."

Nami finally got him off of her and cracked him in the head, or so she thought before he vanished in a puff of smoke, a log dropping to the ground in his place.

"Now that wasn't nice Nami-chan, and after all I did for you." Naruto said from the seat next to Arlong on the patio, surprising everyone there, "After I let you steal all of that crap from everybody and didn't say a word." He looked around from his seat, "Man you've got a nice place here, the mortgage must be a killer though."

Arlong had to hide his surprise at the boy just appearing from Nami's side next to his own, "Who are you boy?"

Naruto looked at Arlong and got a grin on his face, "You wouldn't happen to have an old relative by the name of Kisame would you?" Naruto quickly waved his own question off, "Nevermind. I'm Uzumaki Naruto. I'm just some random guy, just passing through. Don't mind me."

Arlong gave Naruto an appraising look, "I see. What is it that you do with skills like that _Uzumaki Naruto_?"

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever I need. I do what I want, and I take what I want." He raised an eyebrow at Arlong, "Why do you care, I thought I was just some 'filthy human'."

Arlong slapped his webbed hand on the table and grinned, "Then it's settled! You work for me now!"

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "_I _work for money."

Arlong's grin got strained, "Like I said, you work for me now."

Naruto didn't blink, "_I _work for-."

"Enough!" Arlong broke the table with his fist, "I'm trying to spare your filthy human life because I can see that you have some skill, I should kill you out of principle just for daring to set foot in this place. However, you're also familiar with our little Nami and you look like you carry yourself well, better than the rest of the humans on this island, thus this makes you somewhat potentially valuable to me."

Nami's breath hitched as she watched Naruto unflinchingly stare down Arlong without a thought. Naruto was currently weighing the positives and negatives of standing up and headbutting this guy in the face.

The positives were that for one, it would make him feel better. That guy seriously had no idea who he was talking to. For another, it might make Nami smile, and not a fake one like she had been doing since they had arrived, a true smile like the ones she used to give when they were with Luffy and company.

The negatives were, if Nami was holding back her anger then chances were that she wanted to do it her damn self but something was stopping her from doing so, and if he acted on his desire to break this guy's jaw, that might have some negative repercussions for Nami that would really force Naruto to kill this guy, and he didn't really feel like slaughtering a base of mermen today… not without a good reason anyway.

Naruto simply smirked and stood up, "Okay Arlong, you've got me. As long as you can pay me some good money I'll work for you. What do you want from me?"

Arlong grinned once more, "A good choice. The job I have for you is quite simple. Just stay with Nami and keep her safe. She's very valuable to us you see? She seems to trust you enough to bring you here and believe I wouldn't eviscerate you thus you must be somewhat reliable to her."

Naruto looked at Nami. Her eyes were very sorrowful as she looked at him. She didn't want him to get involved in this, but in response he simply gave her a huge foxy grin and turned to Arlong, "Deal. However I don't answer to you." Arlong was about to snap again when Naruto raised his hand, "I answer to Nami, who answers to you apparently, therefore you are still indirectly my boss, but Nami is the only one that can tell me to do anything. That isn't too bad is it? I don't think your mermen would accept me as a regular member of your crew anyway so this should work out better."

Arlong chuckled, "You don't fear us do you Uzumaki?"

Naruto shook his head, "If I told you all of the things that I've seen in my time you'd understand why your appearance means very little to me." Naruto reached his hand out, "So do we have an accord?"

Arlong grinned and slapped Naruto on the back, "Very well Uzumaki." He turned to the rest of the mermen, "Our sister has returned and she's brought us a new ally! Let's celebrate!" The mermen all let out a loud cheer at Arlong's proclamation.

XxX

Nami wasn't very pleased with Naruto's actions at Arlong Park, but what could he have done? She didn't want him to haul off and start a one-man war against them and he was stuck there until he could find a way to leave, not that he was leaving anyway with all of these questions of his still up in the air. Nami had basically taken him aside in the middle of the mermen's party and told him to leave.

At first he was apprehensive about leaving her there but she simply laughed bitterly, "Arlong would never harm his golden goose. Just head to a village a short ways away from here, that's Cocoyashi Village. There should be a house with a tangerine grove in the back."

Naruto walked through the village of Cocoyashi and apparently word of him more or less joining up with Arlong moved fast because he was getting looks from the people ranging from fear to outright hostility, 'It's been a long time since anyone has looked at me like that.'

Naruto eventually made it to a quaint looking place at the top of the hill. Naruto made his way to the front door and gave it a spirited knock before being greeted with a pistol in his face, "Well hello to you too."

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" Naruto tried to look around the gun to get a look at the feminine voice. The person threatening him with a gun was a woman with bluish hair with a red tie keeping bangs from her face. She wore black pants and a yellow sleeveless top that showed off a tattoo that reached from her shoulder across her chest… where Naruto's eyes stopped. A pistol being pushed against his cheek attracted his attention back up, "You should answer now before I pull the trigger."

Naruto calmly placed his hand on the gun and lowered it, "Nami sent me here for some reason. Apparently she didn't want me around Arlong or something. Now pretty lady, what may I call you?"

"My name is Nojiko and since you know her well enough, I'm Nami's sister." She lowered the gun, "What are you doing with Arlong's men?"

Naruto shrugged, "Following your sister I guess."

Nojiko sighed and moved out of the doorway, "Well come on in I guess." Naruto walked inside at her behest, "Why she would send you here in this village I don't know."

Naruto smirked, "Well maybe she was trying to keep the mermen at Arlong Park from murdering me just for standing around. They don't seem to tolerate me like they do her."

Nojiko sighed again as she led him through the house, "She's too valuable to them to harm. And they've gotten used to her by now, in hindsight it probably was a good idea for her to send you here."

Naruto walked into a room where Nojiko sat at a table across from a little boy, "Hey you're the brat whose ass Nami kicked outside of Arlong Park! What the hell are you doing here?"

The boy jumped up and glared at Naruto, "She didn't kick my ass, she just caught me off-guard!"

Naruto snickered, "Yeah, because you having a sword pointed at us threatening to kill us is you off-guard. She flattened you. If I wasn't so confused by it I probably would have laughed my ass off."

The boy was about to shout at Naruto again until Nojiko gave him a stern glance, "Chabo settle down."

Naruto looked to the side and had to do a double take as he saw an unconscious Usopp laying on the ground, "Holy crap, they caught us fast. How the hell did they get here? Nami stole their ship."

Nojiko looked strangely at Usopp on the ground, "You know this person?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, he's a part of the crew that Nami was travelling with. She stole their ship and came here while we were at Baratie. I was asleep somewhere where she didn't bother to look so she couldn't really kick me off. Who beat him up?"

Nojiko laughed slightly, "It was me. It was either that or let him get killed by the mermen in Gosa Village." Nojiko noticeably flinched after mentioning Gosa Village and turned to look at Chabo who was holding back tears.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "What exactly happened to Gosa Village?"

Nojiko looked away, "Arlong and his pirates happened to Gosa Village."

Naruto stood up and walked towards the front door, "I'm going to see for myself what exactly you all aren't telling me. You and your sister are keeping something very important from me and I plan on finding out what that something is." Naruto exited the premises before vanishing outside of the window in a whirlwind of leaves.

XxX

Naruto stomped back to Cocoyashi Village forgoing an outright run to stomp back and cool himself off. The village of Gosa was completely destroyed, houses had been upturned like some kind of joke, there wasn't a soul in the entire village. There was something seriously wrong with that Arlong guy, Naruto hoped that for Nami's sake he didn't have to see him again or he might just forget Nami's apprehension towards Naruto trying to kill him.

Apparently there were still lunatics outside of the Elemental Nations that had no problem destroying lives out of personal greed and evil. Naruto was just waiting for one good excuse to crush that fool under his heel and be done with it. No one would miss that scum if he suddenly up and got vaporized one day, he was sure of that.

"Arlong Empire! They're thinking of building their own empire?" Naruto heard Usopp's distinctive voice by a few buildings near the outskirts of town, "He'll conqueror all of the towns in the East Blue, that means my town too!"

He saw the two of them leaning against a wall watching Arlong shake the people down. Nojiko closed her eyes lazily, "Maybe. The best thing we can do now is stay quiet and be patient."

"No pretty Nojiko… The best thing you can do is give me a reason to kill him and be done with it." They both jumped in surprise as Naruto appeared between them with a perturbed look on his face.

Nojiki recovered first, "Where did you come from?"

Usopp pointed at Naruto angrily, "You and Nami stole our ship and left us at Baratie! How can you show your face to me?"

Naruto looked at Nojiko, "I came from Gosa Village. I shouldn't have gone actually, I'm so pissed off right now I couldn't see straight half of the way here. But that's a conversation for another time that I _will_ be having with both you and your sister about exactly what the hell is going on here." He then looked at Usopp, "I can show my face to you here because I'm not a coward and none of you scare me. Besides, I didn't steal anything. Nami stole it, I was just asleep in the crow's nest, so sue me."

Usopp's jaw was slack, "Well why didn't she just kick you off?"

Naruto grinned, "Because I'm too awesomely sexy to just throw off of a perfectly good ship like that. Right Nojiko?" Naruto finished with a wink sent her way.

Nojiko rolled her eyes and rested them back on the spectacle Arlong was causing, "Gen-san!"

Arlong had grabbed a scarred man in a police uniform by his collar and hoisted him up, "You've been stockpiling weapons… A person with a weapon is one that wants to go against me and I can't forgive that. Because that person has destroyed peace in my area!" Arlong smirked cruelly, "So I guess I have to kill you as a lesson for the others, so that everyone knows what will happen to anyone who dares to go against me."

Usopp's eyes bulged out, "Are you kidding me? He's only got a sword and he's going to be killed?"

Naruto kept a stone gaze on the proceedings with his fingers tracing the kunai pouch on his thigh, "Give me the okay Nojiko… I'll cut that arm that's holding that man up right off for you. He'll never see it coming I guarantee it."

Nojiko suddenly ran out into the open, "Arlong you can't do this to us! We have always paid you for the last eight years! Until now there has been absolutely no one who has gone against you! Release Gen-san!"

Arlong looked at the girl in amusement, "I already told you that owning a weapon means trying to go against my rule. I have to kill this man to maintain peace in the areas under my control. Or do you want me to destroy the whole village? You can choose. If you hurt any one of us the village will be completely destroyed."

The villagers all backed off with anger in their eyes. Naruto clinched his fists alongside Usopp, "Usopp you have no idea how much I want to kill this person right now… I'm just fucking begging him to give me a current reason to do so."

Usopp kept his eyes on Arlong, though his hands were creeping uncharacteristically towards his slingshot, "Why don't you go out and do it? You weren't scared of Kuro and you destroyed him. That's what Nami said."

Naruto scoffed, "He was going to kill you and that girl Kaya right in front of me. I wasn't going to let decent people like you die right in front of me if I could help it. I like to fight, true, but I only really fight when there's a good reason for it."

Usopp shot him a quick look, "Well then why not fight him now? He's threatening that man out there and saying he'll destroy the village."

Naruto's eye twitched, "Because from what I've seen this place seems to want to handle its own problems. Like I said to you, they want to defend this place with their own hands, apparently their doing it in their own way, how I don't understand but they are, I can see it in their eyes." Right then Genzo yelled to the people not to fight, to be patient. Naruto cringed when Arlong slammed him face-first into a beam, "That man is doing that right now. He's trying to save himself and the village without fighting. Jumping in when he's so sure it will work would just be an insult to him and these people."

Arlong grabbed Genzo and lifted him over his head to slam him on his neck, "The ones who dare to go against me will end up like this! This is an example!"

Naruto's eyes widened, "Uh oh! Murphy's Law I swear!"

Usopp placed his goggles on, "On it!" He fired a shot at Arlong that hit home right in his face, "Explosion marble!"

Everyone buzzed about what just happened, "Look there's someone on the roof!"

"Who the hell are you?"

Usopp stood with his arms crossed, "I am the bravest warrior out of the East Blue. Captain Usopp!" He spoke bravely but his knees were shaking. All of the villagers were wondering who this guy was. Nojiko just looked concerned, "Everyone calls me Evil Usopp from Hell and are afraid of me! If you go back to where you came from I'll forgive you, for I have over 8000 crewmen with me!"

Arlong stood up, smoking from the explosion, "I don't care if you have tens of thousands of men with you… I will kill them all." He looked at Usopp with murder in his eyes, "You puny human you dare to go against me? You're just a weakling!" Arlong lifted the house that Usopp was standing on up off of its foundations before throwing at the protest of the rest of his crew.

Usopp survived and took off running to escape. Arlong had to be held back to keep from causing more damage to the surrounding buildings. Naruto decided to reveal himself and try to run damage control, appearing in the middle of the ruckus with a shunshin, surprising everyone there he looked over at Arlong, "What the hell is wrong with him?"

A towering fishman in a karate gi walked up blocking Arlong from Naruto's view with a strict gaze, "Nothing you need to concern yourself with Uzumaki. What are you doing here anyway?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I came here because you all seem to want to cut me a pair of gills and staying in Arlong Park with the rest of you didn't seem to be the smartest move in that instance. I don't work for you anyway, I work for Nami, and until she tells me to do something I do whatever I want."

The fishman walked closer to Naruto in an attempt to tower over him, "As long as you're on our island _human_ you listen to what all of us fishmen say. We control everyone that lives here."

Naruto scoffed and turned around, "Then it's a good fucking thing that I don't live here huh? You might want to handle Arlong before he razes this place to the ground." He kept a heated glare on Naruto who was walking towards the villagers. Naruto felt his eyes on him, "Well? Are you going to just stare at my back? I know I'm sexy and everything but I wasn't aware you were into the interspecies thing, let alone with a dude." Naruto walked through the crowd of people to leave a fuming fishman to attend to his boss.

He sneered at Naruto and then looked at the villagers, "This time you're safe, we'll be back."

Naruto sat on the rooftops as he watched the villagers fuss over Genzo's wounds. They were talking about some system, but Naruto couldn't hear what this system entailed.

"Long time no see everyone."

Everyone's attention turned to Nami entering the village. She frowned at the village and widened her eyes at the sight of Naruto waving at her from the rooftops before he jumped down and landed next to Genzo and Nojiko.

Nojiko smiled at her sister, "What's wrong? You don't usually walk through the village?"

Nami looked around, "I heard the noise so I came through. It's Arlong, right?" Genzo just kept looking down, as if to ignore her. Nami just kept on walking up the hill. Nojiko looked over at Naruto and walked off after her.

Nami sat down by a grave at the edge of a cliff and placed a bouquet of flowers on it, "Seven million beli to go"

Nojiko came up from behind her, "Your name is still pretty bad."

Nami chuckled humorlessly, "I _am_ a pirate, but Arlong is an understandable person. I collect and steal money for them. Soon I'll be able to fulfill my promise." She smiled back at Nojiko, "If I can get 100,000,000 beli I'll be able to buy this village."

XxX

Nami left soon thereafter to head back to Arlong Park. Nami told him that the fishman he attempted to provoke was Kuroobi, one of Arlong's elite pirates. After scolding him for being an idiot she left to head to Arlong Park once more.

Naruto sighed as he sat with Nojiko inside of her house, "I don't understand. Why won't you all just let me kill Arlong and be done with all of this? I'm begging you, tell me something that will make me go off and kill him. I need an excuse, please give me one."

Nojiko set her cheeks in her hands as she rested her elbows on the table, "Is that why you intentionally provoked Kuroobi back there? Because you wanted a reason to fight them?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Yeah, I'm that transparent huh? If he had tried to attack me all bets would have been off. But still I've told you I can do it, I told you I'm willing to do it if you would let me. I could torch Arlong Park to the ground after I beat the shit out of all of the fishmen, why not let me do it? It would be so easy."

Nojiko shook her head, "No it's not Naruto. You just don't understand, it's our problem, not yours."

Naruto gave her a dry look, "It's been my problem ever since I landed here. As long as I'm here or stuck with Nami per the terms of my agreement it's my problem, now spill it. What exactly is going on here? What is this guy doing to you all?"

Nojiko looked at Naruto, "Arlong has been taxing us all for eight years. We are all forced to pay a tax regularly to Arlong and his crew. 100,000 beli per adult and 50,000 per child."

Naruto almost fell out of his seat when he heard that, "That's insane! Who the hell has that kind of money to spend regularly in this little place?" Naruto clenched his fists, "That's just unreasonable! This is almost like Nami no Kuni all over again! Doesn't anyone patrol this place?"

Nojiko sighed, "The man that does is on Arlong's payroll."

Naruto growled, "Tell me again why I can't just smash him?"

Nojiko rolled her eyes, "Because the marine that watches this place is on Arlong's payroll."

Naruto stood up, "Then why don't I just drop him too?"

With her hands on her hips, Nojiko stood up with an angry look at Naruto, "Because he's a Marine captain! Do you know what will happen to you if you hurt him? The entire force of the East Blue's military will come down on you!"

Naruto stood up face to face with her and looked down into her eyes, "As if. The only thing a rat like that does is hide behind his money and status. If he comes here, and I get a hold of him I'll put him down. Maybe then somebody competent'll be stationed nearby so that some actual justice can be carried out. So far I'm not liking what I see of your Marines. Most of them are corrupt, incompetent fools. I would actually pay cash to meet one that was actually doing their job. If the Marines will come after me for actually doing the right thing then fuck them. They can try to kill me, I'm not as weak as you seem to believe, you don't even truly believe I could beat Arlong even though I repeatedly assure you he has no chance against me you still think I can't win."

Nojiko had tears beginning to form in her eyes, "Arlong and his crew have beaten everyone! The only way we can be free is if Nami's plan works!" Nojiko bit her tongue as she didn't want to say that to an outsider.

Naruto narrowed his eyes, "What plan?" Nojiko averted her eyes from his. Naruto grabbed her chin and turned her face back towards him, "Nojiko, what plan? Talk to me, you've already told me this much and I'm as involved as someone like me can get without directly marching on Arlong Park with intent to kill."

Nojiko broke down and told him everything. About how Arlong appeared and took over, about her and Nami's adopted mother Bellemere, about how he shot her in front of the girls for not having the money to pay the tax for them all, about how Nami was forced to join Arlong's crew and her plan to free the village, all of it. By the end she was in tears in Naruto's arms who could do nothing for her but let her cry, as far as he could tell it had been a long, long time since she had allowed herself to do so.

Naruto sat with her in his lap, just letting her cry on him as he silently tried to comfort her. Eventually she stopped shaking in his grasp, "Are you okay?"

Nojiko looked up at him with puffy eyes, "Yes. I'm sorry, this is really embarrassing, breaking down like that."

Naruto smiled at her and rubbed her back consolingly, "It's no big deal to cry Nojiko. Everyone has to once in a while, and you've been through a lot. It's alright, it didn't bother me at all. Although you got my sage coat totally soaked." He finished with something of a chuckle.

Nojiko blushed as she saw the large wet spots on Naruto's red coat, "Sorry Naruto-kun." Nojiko blushed deeper as she realized what she just called the blonde foreigner, "Um, could you put me down?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Why Nojiko-chan?" He held her a little bit tighter, "What? Is this making you uncomfortable? I thought you liked it."

Nojiko hit him on the chest lightly, "I don't know you nearly that well to be cuddling with you new guy."

Naruto put on a mischievous smirk, "Well you could get to know me."

Suddenly there was an uproar from cliffside that gave Nojiko an excuse to hop out of his lap and run to the door, "Oh would you look at that! There's something going on outside, I guess I should go and check it out!"

Naruto laughed loudly as he saw how abruptly she bolted from the house.

XxX

Naruto leisurely made his way to where Nojiko had run off to and found her along with the other villagers staring out at a ship just off shore, "So what's going on here?"

The villagers were wary of his presence and telling him anything due to him working with Arlong. Naruto rolled his eyes at their hesitance as Nojiko answered his question, "There's a ship here to help get the survivors from Goza Village out of here."

Naruto nodded, "Okay I understand that, but why is it firing on Arlong Park?"

"What!"

The ship fired a cannonball at Arlong Park but no explosion ever rang out. Naruto shook his head, "Those poor fools…"

Nojiko looked at him strangely, "What do you mean?"

Naruto's eyes were locked on the Marine ship, "Do you really think Arlong is going to let that slide? You should all stop watching this right now, it would be better if you didn't see what was about to happen."

Suddenly cries went out on the ship before a whirlpool opened up underneath it. Nojiko kneeled down to a little boy who was watching in horror, "Even though they came to rescue us…"

Nojiko put a hand on his shoulder, "This is the truth. No one can escape from Arlong's power."

As the ship was sucked into the whirlpool Naruto scoffed at Nojiko's words, "What did I just get through telling you Nojiko-chan? It's not that, it's just that the right people aren't doing anything to stop this."

Genzo turned to Naruto, "Don't you work for Arlong? Why are you speaking like this?"

Naruto gave the scarred man a smile, "I don't work for Arlong, I told him I work for Nami so that I could stay here until this was finished. And I'm speaking like this because it's the truth. Let me loose on Arlong, stop putting all of your eggs in one basket." The village gasped when Naruto said that, "If she can't pull it off then that would break her heart. Not letting her know that you all know what she's doing is even worse because you're making her feel alone."

Genzo moved towards Naruto, "We're trying to give her a way out, in case she ever does want to just quit and have her own life."

Naruto shook his head, "She's in too deep now, Nojiko told me she only needs 7 million more. She won't quit now no matter what, you can at least let her know that you support her. Trust me, there's not much worse than having no one on your side." Naruto walked off, "I'm going back to Arlong Park to get something kickstarted here, I'm sick of all of this posturing and sitting around, it isn't my style in situations like this."

Nojiko blinked and ran after him, "Wait you idiot!"

XxX

On the path back to Arlong Park, Naruto stopped and blinked at the sight of Usopp being mashed between Zoro's sheath and Sanji's foot, "Hey guys, you made it here after all. Seriously, you guys were fast."

"Naruto!" Was the collective cry from the crew minus Sanji who didn't know him that well at all.

Naruto noticed the new member, "Well it looks like you got that cook you were looking for."

Usopp stroked his chin, "There must be a reason she joined those mermen."

Naruto smirked, "Yeah there is, but it's not my place to tell. This place likes to keep their problems local." Naruto looked around, "Where are those other two swordsmen guys that were with you?"

Sanji pointed back the way they had come. Naruto sighed, "Of course I just missed them, that's just my luck." Naruto kept walking down the path, "Alright then, I'm going to Arlong Park. You guys can do what you want but I will be looking for any reason to kick Arlong's ass, of which I hope will be coming soon, he'll fuck up and overstep his boundaries very soon. Later."

Nojiko just watched Naruto walk off towards Arlong Park whistling a jaunty tune. She looked at the rest of Luffy's crew, of which most were just relaxing, "Are you just going to let him go right into their base alone? That's so reckless!"

Zoro looked up from where he was sitting against a tree, "Well he says he's not a part of the crew therefore Luffy doesn't have any say over him. I don't think Luffy would stop him if he was anyway. The guy knows what he's doing I guess."

Nojiko rubbed her temple, "If I tell you Nami's story for why she joined Arlong's crew will you leave?"

Luffy stood up, "I don't need to hear this because I don't care. I'll be taking a walk."

Usopp watched Luffy walk off in the opposite direction than the one Naruto went in, "You don't want to hear about her past?"

Luffy didn't turn around, "No, I don't."

XxX

(A Few Hours Later)

Naruto quickly got bored waiting at Arlong Park for anything to happen. Nami hadn't even come back. He hadn't seen her for most of the day and he knew that she could take care of herself, but the thing that had unnerved him more than anything was that whenever he looked at Arlong he had a satisfied look on his face and whenever he locked eyes with Naruto he would give the immortal a smug grin.

Naruto's senses started tingling and he shunshined out of Arlong Park.

Upon being sure of the blonde's absence, Arlong let out the victorious laughter that he had been holding back in Naruto's presence.

XxX

Naruto arrived back in the village to find many people crowding around the doctor's office. Naruto pushed his way through them all and found Genzo sitting by a bandaged up Nojiko. Naruto let out a low growl, "What happened?"

Genzo gritted his teeth, "That rat Major Nezumi came and took all of Nami's money. Arlong told them where it was and they tore apart the property looking for it."

Naruto looked at Nojiko and noticed that her bandages were on her back. He gently ran his hand over them as his eyes softened on her, "What did they do to you?" Upon primarily getting silence for his question his eyes sharpened, "Hey!" He snapped, getting everyone around to jump at his tone of voice, "I said what did they do to you?"

Genzo looked away with his fists shaking, Nojiko looked down, "That bastard shot me in the back."

Naruto didn't say a word. He simply turned and walked out of the building, passing all of the villagers with a stern look on his face. As he came to the outskirts of the village he saw Nami running towards it with tears in her eyes. He caught her and held her in his arms for a moment before lowering his mouth by her ear, "I said that all I needed was an excuse. Just one good excuse to raze Arlong's fortress to the ground and he gave it to me."

Nami's eyes widened, "W-What?" Like her sister not long before her he could feel Nami involuntarily shaking against his chest.

"He broke your heart. He used you and tricked you." Naruto let her go and continued to walk along the path towards Arlong Park, for the last time, "No one hurts my precious people…"

Nami stared at his back until he walked out of sight before continuing to run into the village as she heard the people begin to rally.

XxX

Naruto came to the east gate where he saw Johnny and Yosaku get thrown out by a group of mermen. They looked extremely beaten up. Naruto looked them over with a raised eyebrow, "So I guess you all know what they did to Nami already right?"

Johnny and Yosaku nodded, "We accused her of being a witch, of killing Usopp-aniki… After understanding the situation we tried to fight for Nami-aneue. We almost had them… We can't face her after all of the things we said."

Naruto wanted to roll his eyes but he really didn't feel like being sarcastic or witty right now, "You guys are both weak you know that right? Did you really think that you had a chance of taking Arlong and his men out as you are? That was just asking for trouble."

Johnny and Yosaku both looked down without saying a word. Naruto walked forward and patted them both on the shoulder getting them to look up at the whisker-cheeked blonde's smiling face.

"That being said, I have to say that fighting like that for a friend definitely puts you two up a notch in my book." Naruto walked past them towards the gate, rolling his shoulder to get any kinks out, "That puts you both at notch one."

Getting over their momentary shock, the two swordsmen jumped up to try and stop Naruto from confronting the fishmen, "Wait Naruto-aniki! You should wait for Luffy-aniki, Sanji-aniki, Usopp-aniki, and Zoro-aniki. You can't go in there alone."

Naruto looked back at them and saw that the villagers were coming up armed with anything that they had to fight, "You might be better off trying to stop them than me. It just occurred to me that none of you have ever seen me fight before have you? I mean Nami saw a little bit, Luffy and her have seen me use one real attack but other than that there hasn't been much of a reason for me to cut loose."

Johnny and Yosaku now had people at their back as they stared at the mysterious man in the red coat, "What are you saying Naruto-aniki?"

Naruto cracked his neck, "What I'm saying is; Luffy and the others better get here soon or there won't be anything left of Arlong Park for them to attack." Naruto formed a blue ball of energy in his hand and thrust it into the iron gate, sending it flying off of the hinges. He created three Kage Bunshin to stand outside the gate when the people started making for the entrance, they simply stood there shaking their heads and blocking the way.

The ruckus brought a bunch of Arlong's men rushing towards the gate to see just what had caused it when they found Naruto and the entire village of Cocoyashi a good way behind him outside of the threshold, "What are you doing here _Uzumaki_? Arlong-san didn't call for you or Nami."

Naruto bared his teeth, revealing his naturally sharpened canines, "I told Arlong already, that I don't work for him… I'm here for Nami and nothing else. And from this day forward the little arrangement he had with her is null and void."

"You think you can take my prized map maker away from me Uzumaki?" Arlong's laughter came as he sat on his patio looking over Naruto with an amused face, "And why would that be puny human?"

Naruto lifted his cold blue eyes to Arlong who almost shivered at the lack of emotion in the usually vibrant blue orbs, "Because I'm going to cut your heart out for breaking hers, and 100,000,000 beli is worthless to a dead man."

* * *

**Chapter done. Alright, due to reviews saying such, yes, Naruto is ridiculously overpowered in this story, I didn't say it outright but here it is. He's been around for at least 100 years, how would he not be? This was by design. Although he's super strong the basis of him entering this world is that he's bored, simple as that. He can't just fade into the background and let things lie, that's not in his character so he moved on.**

**Any other questions that anyone would like to ask me go ahead, I have no issue with any concerns or thoughts that you would like to share as long as it's something that I can actually answer, I am by no means a professional, I'm just a guy trying to expand and improve on my writing experience as well as provide the good people of with more decent reading material. Remember that there are no stupid questions… unless I read it and say, "Damn that's a stupid question."**

**Alright, enjoy your day, I need to get to class. 8 am classes are a pain in my ass.**

**Kenchi out.**


	4. Nobody's Side But My Own

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. If I did my home would be a combination houseboat tricked out like a pirate ship/dojo on the inside, and I would sail up and down the east coast in a chunin flak jacket and a headband with a dollar sign on it so can't act like I ain't got money. Get up on it!

**Chapter 4: Nobody's Side But My Own**

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Arlong looked long and hard at the expression on Naruto's face, "Who do you think you are Uzumaki? You're out of your element here boy."

Naruto shook his head slowly, "No, I'm actually right in my element. I was born for this kind of thing." He looked around at the mermen standing between him and Arlong, "You might want to tell your gofers to get out of my way before they lose a limb. I have no problems killing every last one of them to get to you."

Arlong laughed loudly, "You have quite a bit of courage for a puny human. Boys show him what courage gets you around here. Give him the treatment we gave the last two losers that came in here." The mermen all began to slowly move in on Naruto threateningly, pulling out flintlock pistols and blades.

XxX

Johnny and Yosaku watched as Naruto simply stood in place while the mermen drew ever closer to him. Yosaku turned to his sunglasses clad friend, "What do we do Johnny? Naruto-aniki is in real trouble."

The villagers all stood behind them and the Kage Bunshin Naruto posted to keep them out, crying out to let them in to help him fight, but they simply stood in place. Nojiko ran up to the front and looked one of the clones in the eye, "Let us in! He's all alone in there, he needs help."

The clone smiled at her and placed its hand on her cheek, stroking it in a calming fashion, "Calm down Nojiko-chan. Boss wouldn't have done this if he didn't know what he was doing. He just doesn't want any of you to get hurt that's all."

Nojiko snapped out of the trance that the clone's hand had put her in, "And he's going to let himself get killed all alone because he doesn't want us to fight and get hurt?"

The clones all started to laugh a bit, "No, he's not worried about the mermen hurting you all. He's worried about him hurting you himself. He doesn't want any of you to get in the way while he cleans house of all the small fry." The clones looked up and smiled, "Hey you guys are late, the boss is about to start."

Luffy, Usopp, Zoro, and Sanji looked inside past the clones to see Naruto facing down a couple dozen fishmen. Usopp freaked out at that sight, "What is he doing? Is he insane?"

"A little bit." Was the admittance of Naruto's clone, "Yeah boss is crazy, but we're the best kind of crazy."

Sanji pulled the cigarette from his mouth, "What kind is that?"

The clones all grinned ferally, "The unpredictable kind. By the way, you might want to get out of the way of the gate."

XxX

Naruto started flying through hand-seals at a rapid pace, confusing the mermen who had never seen such a thing before. Naruto eventually stopped and held one of the seals, "I hate suiton ninjutsu, so many damn hand-seals. Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Technique)!"

Upon hearing the name of the technique, Arlong started to laugh uncontrollably, "You think you can make a waterfall? What an idiot."

Naruto simply kept a straight face until he heard a noise sounding like swelling water growing louder and louder. A smirk appeared on his face as suddenly a massive wave came spilling over the main gate of Arlong Park that the ships were to come through. The mermen watched in horror as they were hit with the full force of Naruto's tidal wave caused by his jutsu. The torrent of water crashed around within the gates of the fortress until finally spilling out into the bay, delivering many mermen into the drink.

As they all swam to the surface a few were dead from the blunt force trauma of being hit by a damn tidal wave but there were a few survivors, "Is that all you've got, a little water? We're mermen you fool."

"I know." The mermen couldn't hide their shock as they saw Naruto walking on the surface of the water towards them, hands going through more hand-seals at a pace that back in his days in the Elemental Nations could be construed as leisurely, "I'm not done yet, we're just getting started. I still have to dispose of you lot once and for all. Suiton: Kippari no Uzumaki (Water Release: Whirpool of Finality)." Naruto kneeled down and placed his palms under the surface of the water. Slowly an eddy began to form that began spinning the mermen. As they tried to swim away they found that the pull of the whirlpool was getting stronger and stronger before finally the depth of the whirlpool was deep and massive. The mermen were all sucked to the bottom of the attack when Naruto finally pulled his hands up. There was a trail of water leading from his hands to the surface, before he finally clinched his fists and broke the link between him and the whirlpool, the water then imploded sharply, leaving no sign of any of the mermen that were just a moment ago on the surface.

The water settled and returned to its normal state. Naruto turned and started making his way back inside of Arlong Park via the waterway, whistling to himself the entire way.

XxX

Everyone watching him dispose of the mermen were all wide-eyed at the display out in the water. Luffy snapped his hand out to point at Naruto, "Naruto is awesome! He's not the ship's hobo, he's like a super-hobo!"

The villagers watched Naruto stride slowly back into Arlong's base as water poured from the east gate entrance, draining Naruto's first jutsu that started the fight, "Who is this guy? He can beat up Arlong's men so easily and go right back for more."

"He can walk on the water and cause whirpools and you're thinking about him beating Arlong's men?"

"He must be some kind of lord of the seas or something!"

The clones stood steadily in front of the gate after the rest of the water drained. Genzo stepped forward, "Why? What is the reason that you are risking your life in this fight? Why is this so important to you?"

The clones gave him a stone glare, "That bastard made Nami cry. I will never let those close to me suffer ever again now that I truly have the power to do something about it. If you have a better reason for me to want to get involved then please by all means share it with me and I'll make sure the boss gets the message."

XxX

Arlong growled as he watched Naruto reenter his facility carelessly, "Hachi… call our little pet to deal with him."

Hachi, or Hatchan, an octopus fishman, stepped forward, "Come on out my powerful monster! Mohmoo! I've got an extra snack for you today!"

Naruto turned around as he saw something coming towards him, barely submerged under the water. Eventually it emerged in front of Naruto, a massive cow-like sea-dwelling creature. Naruto raised an eyebrow as it towered over him, looking down angrily. Naruto's lips quirked before he yelled out to Sanji, "Hey chef-boy, so if I kill and eat this thing would that make it beef or seafood?"

Sanji shrugged, "I don't know, I was actually wondering that myself. Why don't you try it and I'll find out."

Luffy pointed at Mohmoo, "Hey! We beat that thing up when we first got here!"

Naruto watched the monster cower somewhat at the sound of Luffy's voice, "You're scared of Luffy? Then you really don't want to fight me. Tell you what, since you're more like their pet I'll let you go just stay out of my way."

Mohmoo looked at a grinning Luffy, then at a grinning-er Naruto, Luffy, Naruto, Luffy, Naruto. It finally turned around to head back out of the base deeming discretion as the better part of valor. Naruto's grin never slipped, "Good choice."

"Mohmoo what are you doing?" Arlong's voice stopped the creature cold in the water, "Okay, if you really want to go I won't stop you. Just go Mohmoo." He spoke in a threatening tone.

The monster suddenly turned on Naruto with intent to kill, "MOOOOO!"

Naruto shook his head with a frown on his face as the seacow bared down on him, "You picked the wrong side to be afraid of my friend." The seacow launched at Naruto and dove at him in an attempt to devour Naruto in one bite.

Arlong laughed as he watched his pet dive onto Naruto's body.

XxX

Nojiko watched the massive sea creature seemingly devour Naruto in one bite in horror. He had been the first person she had met from outside of the island that had been ready and willing to fight for them, "No N-Naruto-kun…" Tears started to fill her eyes.

The clones watching her break down frowned, "Nojiko-chan stop crying, please? It's okay."

She looked up at them with teary eyes, "How can it be okay? He just got eaten by that monster!"

The clones shook their head, "If he was eaten then we would have been dispelled. He's not dead, he's just milking it. Look underneath the underneath Nojiko-chan."

Nojiko blinked her tears away, "What?"

XxX

The sea cow surfaced, looking around in a confused fashion. It hadn't tasted anything other than water so where did the human go?

"In the immortal words of my old sensei; you really shouldn't let your opponent get behind you all the time."

Naruto stood behind the sea cow with an evil grin on his face and his right hand with a spiraling blue orb of power in it, "Ahem… Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi, Sa no Rasengan (Hidden Leaf Village Ultimate Hidden Taijutsu: One Thousand Years of Death, Rasengan Style)!" Naruto shoved the blue ball where the sun doesn't shine… though it was unknown how he was able to do it to a fish. Thinking about it simply gave people terrors so they stopped wondering it.

The Rasengan carved into the massive seacow's backside, forcing it to cry out in massive pain as Naruto sent Mohmoo flying into the air at Arlong Park, knocking out the very top of the tower with its body and having it continue on into the distance. The rubble from the tower fell down and actually crushed a few mermen to death.

Naruto simply stood on the water looking at his destruction with a somewhat pleased look on his face, "Are you done throwing the weaklings at me yet or did I kill them all? I can do this all day Arlong."

XxX

"Who is this boy? What kind of powers are these? I don't know of any Akuma no Mi that grants such immense power in combat!" Genzo watched Naruto utterly decimate the majority of Arlong's forces with little actual effort whatsoever.

Clones all shook their head, "No Akuma no Mi. What is it with you people thinking that a stupid fruit gave boss that power? You couldn't be any further from the truth on that front."

Zoro looked at the clones, "Well then how did he get it? I've never seen anyone do anything like this in my entire life, how can anyone be as strong as to manipulate the sea itself?"

The clones grinned, "Good old-fashioned hard work is all I can say. Countless years of effort went into our training to hone our skills in order to fight foes far beyond our capacity."

Zoro shook his head in disbelief, "There's no way that any amount of training could get anyone to be able to make a tidal wave at will. What could you have possibly been doing to develop that kind of skill. You can't be any older than 18 years old!"

Naruto's clone had an amused look on his face, "You'd be surprised. And yes I did learn how to do that in the first 18 years of my life. That's a simple move compared to some of the other things I can do."

Arlong growled at Naruto, "Chu! Hachi! Kuroobi! Kill this idiot already!"

Naruto finally stepped on land and looked around at the havoc he had caused, "You should have just let things go as they were Arlong. If you had let Nami leave and gather the rest of her money I might have honored the village's request to leave you alone. Now I have to crush you. You brought this on yourself."

Chu, a merman in a blue vest and brown pants, walked forward at Arlong's request, "You can't beat us. We're not weak like the rest of the crew, we're Arlong's elites. Chu inhaled and spit a shot of water at Naruto who dodged easily. Thinking it was just a fluke he fired again, once again Naruto effortlessly dodged. Chu got a tick mark on his head and began firing rapid-fire shots of water at the troubling opponent.

Naruto had his eyes closed as he moved around the speedy projectiles, "Slow, slow, slow… You're all so SLOW!" Naruto finished with delivering a heavy blow to Chu's ribs, doubling him over and forcing him to spit out all of the water in his body. Naruto grabbed Chu by his face and headbutted him, cracking his skull if nothing else by evidence of the blood that began to pour from his hairline and threw him aside.

He crossed his arms in front of the rest of the fishmen, "Anyone else want to get maimed before I kill Arlong?"

Kuroobi growled at the arrogant human, "Hachi if we attack him together he can't win against us. He's just one boy!"

Hatchan nodded and drew six swords for each of his arms, "Got it. He can't beat us together." He rushed at Naruto swinging wildly, "Takoashi Kiken (Octopus Foot Miracle Swords)!"

Kuroobi followed suit rushing in with his hand cocked in a karate stance, "Hyakumaigawara Seiken (Hundred Tile True Punch)!"

They both made contact with Naruto as he burst into smoke. Out of the smoke flew a log that had been utterly splintered and obliterated by the assault of the fishmen. Kuroobi and Hatchan looked around for any sign of the boy, "Where are you coward? Come and fight?"

"I'm a coward because I won't stand still and take your attack head on like some kind of brain-dead monkey?" His voice sounded out all across the area, "The thing you need to realize, and you already should have seeing as how you're both pirates, is that I don't have to fight fair."

The sound of some kind of metal instrument whipping through the air rang out from somewhere. Hatchan saw it coming and moved in front of Kuroobi to block it with his blades, however before it got close it burst into smoke, and out of the smoke came a rapidly spinning and flipping Naruto who got past Hatchan's protection and kicked him right in the jaw, "I just have to win!"

Naruto let Hatchan fall to the ground as Kuroobi started assaulting Naruto with his fists and feet, "I've been waiting for this ever since you showed up in our territory!"

Naruto dodged and blocked easily enough, keeping himself from countering the blows, "You've been waiting for me to get pissed off enough to come inside of Arlong Park and kick all of your asses? What a coincidence, I have too!"

Kuroobi growled and threw a punch at Naruto who simply stood still and caught the punch in his teeth, he bit into Kuroobi's hand, causing the fishman to cry out in pain as Naruto took out a chunk of his fist.

Naruto ignored his cries of pain and chewed before spitting it out. He scraped his tongue with his hands, "Bleh, gross. I've wanted to try that since I was little and saw a guy like you. I now have to say that you mermen taste like crap, you have to be the cheapest seafood ever!"

Kuroobi looked at Naruto murderously, "I have had enough of you! This ends now!"

Naruto smirked, "I agree… Um, what is this again?"

Kuroobi set himself in a traditional stance, "This is the true essence of Fishman Karate! This punch can shatter one thousand stone tiles and will be more than enough to obliterate a lowly human like you! Senmaigawara Seiken (Thousand Tile True Punch)!" He came at Naruto with a renewed speed and thrusted his fist out with more intensity than any other attack.

However Naruto simply ended up standing on his outstretched fist, "That's much better, but still…" Naruto reared his foot back, "Too slow!" Naruto proceeded to punt Kuroobi in the head, snapping his neck and sending his head hanging backwards limply. Naruto jumped off of the deceased fishman's arm and allowed him to fall back, dead.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Geez. Maybe I kicked him too hard."

He looked back where he saw Hatchan standing back up glaring at Naruto, "You killed him."

Naruto shrugged, "It was either him or me, and I value my life much more than I value any of yours. You guys are simply in the wrong place, at the wrong time."

Hatchan pointed all of his swords at Naruto, "I won't forgive you!"

Naruto sighed, "I really should have let Zoro fight you, he would be having a ball right now."

Hatchan's eyes widened, "Zoro? Roronoa Zoro? Where!" He was looking around rapidly for the man that had fooled him earlier. Naruto reached into his pack and flung a kunai at the merman. Hatchan saw it coming and dodged it, "I'm not falling for that again!" However a shadow appeared above him that was expanding rapidly.

"Dynamic Entry!" Naruto drilled Hatchan with a kick in face that sent him into the concrete ground, cracking it and leaving a crater. Naruto stood up straight with a big grin and delivered a thumbs up, teeth shimmering. "Whoo yeah! Gai-sensei, check out _my _eternal youth!" Naruto stopped and slapped himself across the face hard enough to draw blood from his mouth, "I will never do that again."

XxX

Nojiko watched the battle in awe, "He's amazing… He just beat Arlong's entire crew without a hand being laid on him. And he told us the whole time that he was entirely capable of it. I thought he was just full of it, but he never seemed overconfident when he said it."

Luffy grinned while he watched Naruto fight, he had to be the strongest person he had ever seen. At first he was upset seeing as how Naruto had come in and commandeered the entire fight, but right now he didn't care as long as someone was doing it.

Nojiko smiled, "I believe in him. I regret ever doubting him. This fight is giving everyone a new hope."

XxX

Naruto took a moment to look around at Arlong Park. What once was a pretty scenic little place was now mostly rubble. The walls were crumbling, there were bodies strewn all about, Naruto had destroyed the little pool that lead to the ocean, the only thing that was pretty much still standing was the main tower itself that Arlong was still sitting under, "Man, I fucked this place all up. Do pirates have insurance?"

Arlong was seeing red as he watched how Naruto was carelessly destroying his men, some random human that walked in out of the blue one day and turned his empire upside down in a matter of hours. He stood up and stared Naruto down, "I'll tell you what. If you surrender now I will spare the lives of everyone of the villagers of Cocoyashi Village. However if you fight me I will kill every last human from that wretched village. I will not spare any man, woman, or child, except my dear Nami of course, I still need her to make her wonderful maps for me. No matter which you choose I am going to kill you, you have caused far too much trouble for me, but you can at least spare the lives of all of the others."

Naruto shook his head, "How can you still believe that you have a chance? I've killed pretty much everyone loyal to you so even if you do get rid of me then what will you do after that? You're the captain of nothing! You have no way to actually enforce your rule over anything because you have no muscle! But even so, I already promised to kill you for the senseless pain you've caused this village and Nami-chan. You can simply save me the time and carve out your own heart now to skip the painful part where I have to butcher you myself if it would make you feel any better."

Arlong bared his sharp teeth at Naruto, "I'm a cut above the rest of these fools. Do you want to know why I'm here in the East Blue? Because Jinbei kicked me out of the Sunny Pirates for being too dangerous."

Naruto grinned darkly, "If you were weak enough to allow yourself to be kicked out then you're obviously not that strong are you?" He looked at Arlong and laughed, "You have no idea what power is. You're just a big fish in a small pond… literally. Your plan to kill everyone else has one massive gap in it, in order to do that you need to kill me first, and I'm sure you'll find that to be as impossible as looking both left and right at the same time." Naruto then made a Kage Bunshin and made it look left while he looked the other way, "But of course nothing is impossible for me unlike you."

Arlong growled and grabbed a handful of water before throwing it at Naruto's Kage Bunshin, dispelling it and getting a frown from Naruto, "Now that wasn't nice. But you should know something very important before we fight Arlong."

Arlong picked up another handful and threw it at Naruto. The ball hit him as he burst into smoke. Right then, Arlong got drilled in the face with a punch that sent him flying through the bottom floor wall of his tower. Naruto cracked his knuckles and walked towards the hole in the wall, "I never make just one Kage Bunshin."

XxX

Nami came upon the scene of the rest of the villagers watching something inside of the walls of Arlong Park. There were people crowding the gate and people climbing on top of the wall to look inside at what was going on. Nami slowly came forward, "What's going on?"

The villagers turned with excitement in their eyes, "Nami, the guy that you brought to the island is destroying the Arlong Pirates! He's just beaten every last one of them!"

Nami ran ahead of them all, "What? Really?"

She reached the front where she saw her sister looking on in awe, "Is he really?"

Nojiko nodded, "Yes. He just walked in and started fighting. They haven't been able to lay a hand on him thus far." She wiped at her eyes, "I can't believe what I'm seeing. Where was Naruto-kun years ago? If only he could have come sooner."

"Nami!"

The girl in question looked to where she saw Luffy sitting on the wall with a huge grin, "It looks like you aren't a part of Arlong's crew anymore Nami! So how would you like to come with us?"

Nami's eyes widened. Even after all of this, Luffy still wanted her on his crew. She opened her mouth to speak but couldn't. Luffy turned back towards the fight, "You don't have to answer right now. Naruto's still busy fighting for you and I want to see what he can do firsthand so we can wait for your answer!"

Nojiko smiled at Luffy's words, 'You really have found some great people Nami.'

XxX

Arlong stepped out of the rubble of his building and towered over Naruto who had been walking towards him. He opened his mouth as teeth fell out onto the ground. Immediately, replacements took their place.

Naruto smirked, "It's good to know that you can do that, because you're going to be losing a lot of those before I'm done with you here."

Arlong started snapping his teeth at Naruto who dodged before punching Arlong in the mouth, forcing him to lose even more teeth from the impact. Arlong quickly regrew his teeth, "You weak humans! How dare you ! Mermen are naturally stronger and more superior to you filthy mongrels."

Naruto picked shards of Arlong's teeth out of his fist, "Right… I'm a mongrel and you're the one that's half fish, half man. Your logic is infallible."

Arlong pulled out two pairs of his own teeth and held them in his hands before using them as weapons against Naruto. One of Arlong's missed attacks hit a fallen pillar and took a chunk out of the stone. Naruto drew a kunai and blocked with one hand while forming hand-seal with the other. A Kage Bunshin puffed into existence and punched Arlong into the face before dispelling and allowing Naruto to stab Arlong in the shoulder up to the hilt.

Naruto flipped away from the melee with a smirk on his face once more, "Did that hurt? Good. I'm not even close to being done with you yet you piece of crap."

Arlong grunted and pulled the blade out of his shoulder, "This isn't going to come even close to killing me punk!" He threw it aside and rushed Naruto down once again with his teeth weapons. Naruto dueled him using his kunai and eventually broke his guard. He took advantage of this by delivering a kick to Arlong's ribs that sent him flying into the water.

Naruto sighed as Arlong didn't immediately surface. Naruto simply walked over to the face of the water and crouched down, staring into the blue water with a blank glance. Naruto eventually quirked his eye as Arlong sure had been taking a long time down there, it wasn't like he himself was going to go into the water with him. It might make the fight more fun, but he wasn't here to have a _fun_ fight, no he was here to humiliate Arlong and then kill him in a way that no one that would see it would ever forget. With this in mind Naruto pressed his hands together before forcing enough space between them to form a Rasengan.

Right as he finished the blue orb he saw Arlong's fin sticking out of the water, speeding towards him. Naruto grinned and suddenly the Rasengan ended up having a sharp wind whipping around it. Arlong burst from the water shooting at Naruto extremely fast, leading with his nose, "Shaku on Datsu (Shark on Darts)!"

Naruto thrusted the Rasengan out with both hands, "Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto's Rasengan collided with Arlong's sharp nose… there was no contest.

The attacks were heavily mismatched. Arlong's attack was based off of simple physics. The combination of the natural hardness of Arlong's nose along with the momentum generated by him swimming top speed and launching at his opponent like a torpedo was impressive, however Naruto's Fuuton: Rasengan was pure energy condensed down to the size of a baseball with all of the power of a drill from each side of it, in addition to that he added his own natural chakra, wind, the cutting element.

Arlong was lucky that his nose was a strong as steel, allowing him to bounce off of the Rasengan so quickly or else he would have been missing his entire skull. Fortunately for him he didn't lose that much…

"Gaah my nose!" Arlong stood up with deep bloody cuts all over his face and the top half of his body. His shirt, needless to say was shredded, the tattoo on his chest was completely unnoticeable due to the incredible amount of damage his upper body had taken. Blood was pouring down his entire body. He removed his hands from his face to reveal that Naruto had ripped his saw nose off at its base.

Arlong's blood poured from where his nose had been severed from his face, "You filthy worthless human! I'll kill you, you son of a bitch! I'll kill every last one of you weak humans! I'll tear you all asunder!"

"Uh huh…" Naruto went to clean out his ear until he realized that his hands were all bloody from carving up Arlong with his Rasengan, "I'm actually surprised that you survived that. I guess out of all of the wimps in the East Blue you're the least wimpy. Be proud of yourself, you're the only person I've ever hit with that directly that didn't die on contact, though I guess that nose of yours was good for something after all."

Arlong slowly walked towards Naruto, dead set on ripping him in half if it was the last thing that he ever did.

Naruto chuckled darkly as he strode out to meet Arlong head on, "You still have some fight left in you, you're not a coward, I can admit that. You're still a dead man though."

Arlong yelled as he launched a punch at Naruto. Naruto caught his punch in his hand and pulled him in to deliver another punch that sent Arlong flying into the wall of his tower. Naruto called out to him, "Are we done yet?"

His response was Arlong bursting from the walls with a long sword in his hands, a massive blade, saw-like, much like his nose. Naruto shrugged, "Okay if that's how you want to play then that's cool with me."

Naruto pulled out a sealing scroll and wiped some of Arlong's blood from his hands onto it before it shrouded him in a puff of smoke, "You think that sword is shark-like?" The smoke cleared to reveal Naruto resting a massive sword on his shoulder, the blade was totally wrapped down, "Come on down then."

Arlong charged him and swung his blade at Naruto who pulled the wrapping off of the top of the sword and clashed with Arlong's blade.

The merman's eyes widened at the appearance of the weapon, it looked to be completely covered in scales, "What kind of freaky sword is this?"

XxX

Johnny, Yosaku, and Zoro watched Naruto's actions with interest.

Johnny pointed out at Naruto, "Naruto-aniki is a swordsman? Zoro-aniki why didn't you tell us about that?"

Zoro shook his head, "I didn't know. I've never even seen him use that before. What kind of sword is that anyway? I've never seen anything like that in my entire life."

XxX

Naruto grinned, "Allow me to introduce a weapon I obtained a long time ago. Samehada. And in the words of the guy that used to wield this thing; it doesn't cut…" Naruto swatted Arlong's blade away and slashed the weapon down across his shoulder and chest, "It shreds!" Naruto dragged it down and watched it carve into Arlong's chest deeply with the jagged scales.

Naruto swung the blade again, this time catching Arlong crossways in the torso, as he cut into him he sent him flying once more into the top floor of his tower.

Naruto jumped up inside of the mess he had made during the fight and looked around at a room filled with maps and sketches of other cartography related things, "What room is this?" As if he didn't already know.

Arlong picked himself up using his sword as support, "This is the room where I keep the maps that Nami has spent eight years writing. It isn't difficult for a merman to research navigation, but it's so hard to find a good navigator. Out of all of the people I've sought out around the world, there is no one that can write a map as accurate as her. She's really quite talented!" He pointed his blade at Naruto, "I won't allow anyone else to use Nami's talents except for me!"

Naruto held Samehada over his shoulder, "Use? What the fuck do you think she is? Just a tool to you!"

Arlong spit blood onto the ground, "She is the best Navigator I've ever seen despite being of your puny species, she's also a tricky little one. I plan to keep Nami in this room writing my maps until she dies. If she needs food I will get it for her, if she wants any dress I will buy it for her. I will give her anything she wants as long as I can keep getting these maps from her." He gave Naruto a bloody evil grin, "Because we are friends."

Naruto frowned as he looked around and set Samehada to the side before making a few hand-seals and putting his fingers to his lips, "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" Naruto immediately set fire to the nearest desk with maps stacked on top of it.

Arlong's eyes bulged out, "What do you think you're doing?" Arlong moved to stop him, "Stop now!" He found Naruto's fist buried right in his belly, "No…" He choked out weakly, "My maps…"

Naruto sunk his fist into Arlong's body up to his wrist, "You made her write maps for you for 8 years? You took a little girl's mother away from her and ripped her away from her sister and village for a few goddamn maps?"

Arlong desperately sunk his teeth into Naruto's neck to kill him, however Naruto barely flinched as the blood ran down his neck, "I need to destroy this place. I need to destroy anything that links Nami to you and your despicable acts to let her move on."

Arlong spoke as he stayed latched onto Naruto's neck, "I am Arlong, the strongest pirate in the East Blue! There's no way that a human like you can defeat me, I won't accept it!"

Naruto gave Arlong a chilling smile, "You don't have to accept your death to die. By all means, haunt me when you're gone, you won't be the first dead face to stick in my dreams." Naruto pushed Arlong off of him, ignoring the blood from his neck/shoulder wound running down his sage coat.

Arlong snarled and ran at Naruto before jumping at him while rotating wildly with his teeth open, "Shaku on Tusu (Shark on Tooth)!"

Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin and held out his hand with a Rasengan in it as the Kage Bunshin formed a Rasengan, forcing it to grow even bigger. Naruto waited until Arlong got right within range before slamming it right into the back of Arlong's head, "Odama Rasengan (Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!"

Naruto's attack drilled Arlong through the floor and Naruto powered him through each and every floor, sending him all the way to the ground floor.

XxX

Everyone watched as the top floor caught ablaze. Nami gasped, knowing immediately which room this was. Countless flaming papers began floating down from the building. As they began to land, tears started to fill Nami's eyes, 'Thank you Naruto…'

With a loud and violent crash, finally the entire building came down as the floors folded in on themselves, sending floor after floor collapsing to the ground. Smoke and debris flew from the destroyed building and obscured the scene of the wreckage from view.

"Naruto/Naruto-kun/Naruto-aniki!" Everyone that had known this man in some way yelled for him as they all ran inside of Arlong Park to search for him. Genzo looked around with his police hat covering his face, "There is no way that any human could have survived that… No matter how tough they are."

The villagers were all watching with shocked expressions, "Arlong Park has fallen… But where are Arlong and the other guy?"

Nami ran into the rubble, "Naruto-kun!"

"Ow…"

A pile of rubble pushed up revealing a quite filthy Uzumaki Naruto with a perturbed look on his face, "My coat… Shima is going to kill me when I send this back to her…" Naruto walked over to some place and reached into it, pulling up his sword, "I'm sorry Samehada. I didn't mean for you to get caught in rubble. Here, eat up as an apology." Naruto generated chakra into the blade as it… purred? Purred in satisfaction. Naruto grinned, "Until next time then!" He then resealed it into his scroll.

"Naruto!" Naruto looked at Luffy who had a massive grin on his face, "You won! You stomped that stupid fish!"

Naruto smirked, "Oh yeah… I'm fine." He then pointed over to a random pile of rubble, "He's assuredly not." Naruto walked over a decent ways and kicked away chunks of concrete, wood, and plaster to reveal the remains of Arlong. After moving more rubble he scratched his head, "Well I can't rip his heart out seeing as how I pretty much pulverized the top half of his body." He placed his hand up as people started walking over, "Man, that was overkill… You really don't want to see this."

Nami walked over anyway and looked at the mangled corpse of Arlong. There was nothing above his waist. All of it was just a bloody smear on the ground. The Odama Rasengan had pretty much turned him into fishman paste where it had hit, and the fact that Naruto had drilled him at least several stories into the ground with it didn't hurt either.

Naruto noticed that Nami couldn't tear her eyes away from Arlong's body so he formed a few hand-seals and placed his fingers by his lips, "Katon: Goukakyu no Jutsu." Naruto incinerated Arlong's body to simply get rid of him.

As she saw Arlong's body go up in flames she turned to Naruto and gave him a tearful smile, "Thank you so much Naruto-kun!" She threw her arms around him gratefully. Naruto simply held her and let her cry on his shoulder.

"Arlong Park has been destroyed!" A massive cheer went up from the villagers at the sight of the symbol of their oppression being eradicated. However their mirth was cut short.

"Stop right there!"

Everyone turned to see a man in a Marines uniform that looked like a rat with men flanking him entirely, "This is my lucky day isn't it? I came to watch an interesting fight from beginning to end. No one will ever believe that an unknown boy like you would be able to defeat Arlong, or that you have any of the strength necessary to tear this place down on your own. Because of you boy every single Beli of Arlong will be mine! Drop your weapons, I, Commander Nezumi of Unit 16 will be happy to accept all of the treasure!"

Naruto tensed up in Nami's arms, this she noticed, "Naruto-kun?"

Naruto got her to let go of him so that he could turn to face Nezumi with the blankest of faces, "You're Commander Nezumi?"

The man nodded proudly. Naruto nodded in understanding, "And all of the rest of you are his men and you knew full well what he was doing the entire time?"

The Marines all nodded but were confused, what was this kid getting at asking all of this?

"Fuuton: Renkuudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)!"

The man directly in front of Nezumi exploded and showered him and the surrounding Marines in gore. He screamed in horror, "What is the meaning of this? Do you think you can get away with thi-."

He was cut off by a hand being shoved through his chest. Naruto's hand, covered in wind chakra was sticking out of his back. Naruto looked up at Nezumi with an evil grin, "Whoops… my finger slipped. It's just that when someone senselessly harms an innocent woman I can't control it, it's something of a little tic of mine."

Nezumi let off a death rattle, "You- You- You will pay for this."

Naruto chuckled, "You first." Naruto pulled his arm out with a wet squelch, dropping Nezumi onto the ground, and looked at the horrified Marines, "Boo." The Marines all took off running as Luffy and the rest of his crew proceeded to beat them all up before letting them all run off.

Naruto looked out and saw a ship in the distance. Counting down from 120 he turned towards it and inhaled deeply, a ring of a shockwave building around his mouth and just held it until his count was done, "Fuuton: Renkuudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet)!" He let out a high speed projectile of a highly pressurized air ball from his mouth at the ship.

The Marines had high-tailed it to their boats to row back to their ship. As many of them were climbing aboard they saw a mass of rippling air flying at them. The ball exploded on contact with the ship's hull sending tons of refuse and debris flying.

Genzo watched the display and gulped in fear, "You killed them."

Naruto shook his head, "No I killed most of them. I _should_ kill all of them, but I won't, I'm not a monster."

"Why?"

Naruto turned towards him and looked back at Nojiko who blushed at the way he was intently looking at her, "Oh… no real reason in particular, I just felt like they needed to die." He smiled and turned to leave, "Well, that was a long haul. I killed a bunch of mermen and corrupt military men… pretty good day." He walked back out from the gate towards Cocoyashi Village whistling a jaunty tune.

XxX

(Two Days Later)

The night of Arlong's defeat a raucous celebration that the whole island partook in was thrown. At the end of it however, the hero of the day, Naruto, was nowhere to be found. Chalking it up to simple modesty they let the issue drop and went to bed. The next day however found people in shock as they awoke to a mass of Kage Bunshin carrying materials to Goza Village. As they followed the clones the people almost had a heart attack. Overnight, Naruto and a mass of his Kage Bunshin had begun to rebuild the village, and they were almost done by daybreak.

The crew and Nojiko found the real one who was pretty much in the center of the town directing traffic, "Naruto what are you doing?"

Naruto turned to them with a massive grin, "Oh, well I was getting a bit stir crazy, I mean all you guys have been doing for days is partying. I wanted to do something productive so I decided to rebuild this village."

Usopp pointed at him, "Don't you ever run out of energy? Who does things like this?"

Naruto grinned at him, "Someone that can."

Johnny and Yosaku then threw themselves in front of them, "Please teach us Naruto-aniki."

Naruto blinked in surprise at the two men on the ground in front of him, "Um… what?"

Johnny spoke up, "You were right Naruto-aniki. We are weak. We were completely useless to everyone the entire time. Everyone else is so strong, and our old friend Zoro, it seems as if he has left us in his wake as he gains his own strength. We don't ever want to be as useless as we were when we tried to fight for Nami-aneue again."

He raised an eyebrow at the two men, "Why me? I'm not really a swordsman specialist. Why not Zoro, he's more familiar with you two isn't he?"

"Zoro-aniki has a dream that he has to achieve. If we were to go with him now we would only be in his way. Please."

Naruto stared at them silently for the longest time as the sounds of construction rang out around them all. He finally walked past them, "Fine, but you two had better be ready to work. I won't have any weaklings training under me. I'll whip you into shape even if it kills you both."

"Thank you Naruto-aniki!"

Naruto walked back to Cocoyashi Village, "Don't thank me yet. You're going to hate me before long, I guarantee it."

XxX

(The night before Strawhats' departure)

Naruto sat out by himself. The villagers were still partying a week after Arlong's defeat and he had grown bored of that. His clones had relinquished the rest of the work of rebuilding Goza Village to the survivors saying that it wouldn't be right of him to take the right to rebuild their lives away from them too.

He had returned to Arlong Park to peruse over the wreckage for anything of value out of boredom.

"So here's where you are, I've been looking all over the place for you." Naruto turned around to find Nami smiling at him, "You haven't really been around much since the battle."

Naruto chuckled as he picked through the mess, "This is your home. This is your celebration, I've said it before and I'll say it again; I'm just passing through."

Nami frowned and walked with him as he continued to pick through the refuse, "So why did you do all of this for us then? You don't even consider yourself part of the crew."

Naruto kept his eyes peeled as he listened to her question, "Well, I'm not. I helped you because I can do whatever the hell I want, and it just so happened that I was feeling particularly bloodthirsty that day, that kind of thing happens when someone hurts the people close to me."

Nami blinked, "You think we're close?"

Naruto nodded, "Well yeah, you're a friend of mine Nami-chan. All you had to do when we got here was ask me to, and I would have blown that place to hell right then and there. But nooooo, you had to drag it out for like two days and cut your arm all up to get me to take the decision out of your hands. Actually the decision was out of your hands when that asshole Marine robbed your house and shot Nojiko-chan."

Nami cringed, "You shoved your hand through his chest."

Naruto picked his ear, "Yep."

Nami walked next to him, "Do you think he felt it? Was it painless?"

Naruto rubbed his head, "Oh Kami no, that bastard felt every last second of it until I pulled my arm out. Trust me, getting an arm shoved into your chest fucking sucks." He growled to himself as he looked around, "Hey Nami, if Arlong was a pirate then where the fuck is his ship? Don't they need ships to do nautical things? Why else would they be pirates?"

Nami thought for a moment, "Well Arlong's main ship was broken down to build Arlong Park."

Naruto pulled at his hair, "Again I reiterate, how was he a pirate again with a lack of naval transportation?"

"I think he had a ship graveyard or something on the other side of the island. I never left with them, I always found my own way around so I don't know." Nami shrugged apologetically.

Naruto sighed, "A graveyard huh… Well it's better than nothing. Maybe I can find a rinky-dink tub to get me far enough to get a proper ship."

Nami looked down, "So you're really not coming with us. I suspected as much this time. It's because of me right?"

Naruto grabbed her chin and made her look at him, "No Nami-chan, it's nothing because of what you did, I told you already I didn't care about that."

Nami looked into his eyes with her mouth slightly ajar. Naruto shrugged to himself and moved in, gently placing his own mouth against hers. After a moment he pulled away, "You're sweet Nami-chan."

Nami touched her lips with a massive blush on her face, "W-What was that for?"

Naruto smirked, "Well you just looked so cute and confused right then, I had to take my chance. You aren't going to kill me now, are you?"

Name shook her head with a giggle, "No Naruto-kun, it's just no one has ever had the courage to do that to me before."

Naruto chuckled, "Well honestly I'm still slightly wary that I'm going to catch a staff shot to the testicles because of that. I'm not am I?"

Nami giggled again and shook her head no, "A thank you kiss is the least I owe you for what you've done. Besides, it's not like I didn't enjoy it." She finished under her breath.

Naruto walked around Nami who was still standing in place, watching him circle her, "But anyway, it's that I can't keep following you guys forever, you all have your own dreams and adventures to go for. This is your story, not mine. I can't just stay with you all doing nothing, I need to find something out here for me."

Nami held her hands behind her back, "What's your dream Naruto-kun?"

Naruto smiled, "I had a dream, but circumstances that couldn't be helped put it out of my reach, I'm not really bitter about it though. I did everything else that I ever sought out to do, some of those things far more important than my ambition. Nowadays, who knows? I'm just content going around to break my boredom, this is actually the most fun that I've had in years."

Nami raised an eyebrow, "How old are you?"

Naruto grinned at her, "How old are you?"

Nami got a tick mark on her head, "You don't ask a lady that kind of question Naruto-kun."

Naruto's grin got wider, "I'm old enough. I'm legal for you if that's what you're wondering Nami-chan." He got a decent laugh off of the flustered look on her face, "That's all I'm going to say about that. If you can actually guess my real age I'll give you 100,000 beli."

Nami's eyes got dollar signs in them, "19."

Naruto started walking back towards Cocoyashi Village, "Nope."

"No fair, nobody knows how old you are. What if I get it and you lie?" Nami thought for a moment, "23?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nope. And trust me I won't lie, because you definitely won't get it anytime soon."

"26?"

Naruto shook his head again, "Nope. That's three strikes Nami-chan. You can try again when we meet again." Naruto then shunshined out of her presence.

"What?" Nami pouted and stomped on the ground, "That's not fair Naruto-kun you never said I had a limit!"

XxX

After bidding the Strawhat Pirates farewell with the rest of the village, Naruto took Nojiko with him to the north side of the island to find himself a ride off of Commi Island seeing as how commerce hadn't picked back up and probably wouldn't for quite a while, and water-walking all the way to another island probably wasn't the best idea.

All the way up there Nojiko kept sneaking glances at the immortal blonde. He caught her doing it, but let it go. If she wanted to tell him what it was all about she would. Naruto eventually assisted Nojiko over a small ridge as his eyes widened, "What? Ship graveyard my ass! More like used ship superstore!"

Apparently Arlong did have decent little stockpile of ships to choose from, as his domination of this region of the East Blue had him taking many ships for years. As Naruto got closer to inspect them however he found that while there were many that looked great from afar, a lot of them had fallen into disrepair over time.

Naruto frowned as he tested the wood on one of the hulls, "Okay, I guess this is a ship graveyard after all. This is no good… These things wouldn't get me six miles off of the coast before something breaks and I'm not good enough to restore these things. Nojiko-chan do you have any shipwrights on the island?"

Nojiko shook her head, "No, ships were commissioned from afar before Arlong took over. Now we're just waiting for word to spread that Arlong is dead for trade to fully return to the island. Why do you want to leave so quickly for anyway Naruto-kun?"

Naruto's face twisted negatively as he kept looking at ships, "I did just kill a Marine officer. Even I'm not crazy enough to stick around here for retaliation. And even if I was, Commi Island would just get caught in the crossfire, and I'm not destroying this place after it was just freed just so I can fight off some glory hound Marines. Leaving is all that I can do."

Nojiko bit her lip, "Are you sure you have to go? Maybe you aren't in trouble, you did destroy the ship that was off of the coast before it could get away."

Naruto shook his head, "No, I didn't kill them all, I just blew the ship up. I'm sure that quite a lot of them survived and made it back to their base. And that's why I need to get off of the island. I'm a sitting duck as I am." He eventually stopped in place, forcing Nojiko to bump into him, "What do we have here?"

Nojiko squinted, "It looks like a discarded Marine ship. Arlong must have defeated some of them fairly recently."

Naruto grinned to himself, "Oh yeah… Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." Naruto created thirty clones and pointed at the Marine ship, "Go and make sure that thing is useable. I'm certain it is, but when you're done take it to Arlong Park so we can fix this thing up in private." He got a unanimous cry of "Hai boss!" From his clones as they sprang into action.

Nojiko gave him a fake smile as she saw him beaming at possibly getting a ship and a way off of the island.

XxX

Johnny and Yosaku looked at Naruto excitedly, "We have a way out of here Naruto-aniki?" Naruto nodded as Yosaku whooped in joy, "Yes! That means we don't have to wait around here to get slaughtered by the Marines!"

Naruto frowned, "What do you mean we? I can beat a Marine's ass, and besides they'd be after me not you. All you idiots would have to do is pretend you don't know me."

Johnny took on a pondering look, "I wonder how much your bounty is Naruto-aniki."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Johnny, "Bounties are for pirates. I'm not a pirate."

"But you-."

Naruto cut off the argument, "I what? Killed a Marine officer and a _pirate_? So what? It's not like pirates are the only ones out there that can kill officers. Besides, that guy was totally weak, he probably would have killed himself bathing in waist deep water."

Johnny and Yosaku let it drop, "So is the ship ready yet?"

Naruto grinned, "Yeah pretty much. All the clones have to do is take all of the shit with the emblem of the Marines off of everything and cover it and we're golden. They repainted the whole damn thing, it looks bad-ass if my clones all thinking the same thing in their memories is anything to go by."

Johnny and Yosaku jumped to their feet eagerly, "Well let's go see it then!"

Naruto smirked, "Sure thing guys."

XxX

"I can't believe it." Johnny's sunglasses had slipped down his face slightly as he simply stared at the ship.

Yosaku was much the same way, sans sunglasses, "I know… It's just…"

Naruto grinned at them widely, "I know, it's awesome right?"

The ship was a two mast ship that was basically the exact same size and shape of a regular Marine ship, however that's where the similarities ended. Naruto had taken the debris from Arlong Park and had used it to make many training implements to be used on the deck. From human-sized targets used for long-range practice, to simple bullseyes set up near the back of the ship, to three seven feet concrete pillars. Apparently Naruto was a decent hand at wood working because the wheel was in the shape of a spiral with grooves carved into it around the edges for necessary grip. The masts had been painted blue… and let's not forget that the hull of the ship was painted orange… yes orange. Orange with blue trim.

Johnny and Yosaku yelled at Naruto, "You painted it orange!"

Naruto snickered, "Yes, yes I did. You got a problem with that? I saw a ship that looked like the circus came to town, therefore I painted my ship orange."

"WHY?"

Naruto raised a finger in a scholarly fashion, "Because orange is bad-ass. It's an eternal truth. What was I going to do, leave it blue like the Marines? That's like keeping a big bullseye on our backs."

"And painting the damn thing orange wasn't?" Naruto turned to see Nojiko who had an amused look on her face as well as arms full of supplies, "Where in the world did you get orange paint anyway?

Naruto slumped his shoulders, "Why is everyone hating on the orange?" He then noticed that she had her things packed as well, "Nojiko-chan what's going on? What's with all of the stuff?"

Nojiko gave him a brilliant smile, "I'm coming with you."

Naruto's eyes bugged out, "I'm sorry Nojiko-chan I think I just misheard you, would you mind repeating that for me?"

Nojiko walked up to him and poked him in the chest, "You heard me right. I'm coming with you. There's no way I'm letting Nami go off and have all of the adventures while I sit on this island watching the grass grow."

Naruto stammered, "B-But what about your tangerine groves?"

Nojiko waved off his concern, "The villagers will take care of it until I can come back. Anyway shouldn't you be happy I'm coming? All you have with you otherwise are these two idiots." She pointed at Johnny and Yosaku.

"Hey!" They both said in defense.

Naruto scratched the back of his head, "Well yeah, but I feel okay putting these two idiots' lives in mortal danger."

Hey! Naruto-aniki!"

Naruto ignored them, "I'm going to be doing some stupid things that only I'll be able to get away with because I'm awesome. It's going to be pretty rough Nojiko-chan, I plan on heading to the Grand Line like Luffy's crew is going to. That's where all the action is."

"The Grand Line?" Johnny paled, "Naruto-aniki we're not that strong!"

Naruto grinned at them evilly, "I know. What did you think we were going to be doing until we got there and all the way through? Now that Nojiko-chan is apparently coming I now have double incentive to whip your sorry asses into shape and make you competent. Your asses are mine until further notice."

The two bounty hunters gulped. Nojiko looked at him hopefully, "So I can come?"

Naruto nodded at her with a smile, "Come on aboard Nojiko-chan."

Nojiko squealed happily and sped aboard with all of her things. Naruto sighed and shook his head as he looked at the other two, "Get your stuff together and get ready to go. We have places to be getting to."

They looked at each other and back at Naruto, "Where?"

Naruto snapped at them, "My foot will be getting to the cruxt of your asses if you both don't move like you're on fire, now!" They were both off like a shot.

Naruto sighed as he began walking aboard the ship before another presence stopped him, "Gen-san. How are you? Have you come to see me off?"

Genzo stepped up towards the boy, "Nice ship. The color could make you go blind though."

Naruto had a small storm cloud over his head as he pressed his fingers together, "I did my best… I think it looks really cool. It's better than Luffy's ship anyway."

Genzo had sharp eyes on Naruto, "I tried to keep her from going. I didn't really want her to become a pirate like her sister, but to let Nami go and not let Nojiko go would have made me somewhat hypocritical."

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his blonde locks, "I'm not a pirate… I haven't even done anything piratey, why does everyone call me one?"

Genzo paid his griping no mind, "That girl is like a daughter to me Uzumaki. Keep her safe and keep her happy. If I find that you have harmed her in any way-."

Naruto cut him off with a sharp look of his own, "That's enough Gen-san. I would never hurt Nojiko-chan, just like I would never let harm come to Johnny or Yosaku, no matter what I say to them that hints to the contrary. Whatever it is that Nojiko-chan is here for I'll do my best to make sure she gets it, even if it's just an adventure like Nami-chan is going to have, I can sure as hell do that. Rest assured, she will be fine." He gave the man a smile as he jumped onto the deck of his ship, "Take care of yourself Gen-san. I'll bring her back safe and sound."

Naruto disappeared from the deck as Genzo turned to return to the village, "She doesn't want an adventure you blonde fool, she wants something else." An amused look fell onto his face, "A god in battle, a fool in life… of course he would be." He let out a bark of laughter as he looked back at the orange ship.

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**Chapter complete. From now on I will not be updating every damn day, it will fall into the rotation of updates with the rest of my stories as was my original intention. So that's how things are going to go in the story from this point. Naruto will still show up for some important parts but it will pretty much be him on his own with his own crew.**

**As always any questions, concerns, or the like will be read and taken into account if you so choose to allow me to see. Stay cool ladies and gentlemen.**

**Kenchi out.**


	5. The AntiPirate

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Any thoughts to the contrary are flattering and a pipe-dream at best and might get me thrown in jail… but it will be white-collar jail so it might be okay… I beat up men for a living dude, prison is scary but I might be alright… maybe.

**Chapter 5: The Anti-Pirate**

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Johnny and Yosaku were standing on deck with constipated looks on their faces and their hands in a ram seal. Naruto sat off to the side holding Samehada… it was feeding time apparently. Despite knowing how bad of an idea it would be for this information to get out, Naruto figured he could try to teach some jutsu to his crew since he _was_ going to be taking them into the middle of the Grand Line for kicks, the problem was…

"Anything?" Naruto asked lazily while Samehada purred in his grasp from the delicious flow of chakra, "Come on, it's been three hours, you're telling me that you can't even feel it?"

Johnny and Yosaku fell to the ground in exhaustion, heaving and panting, "No Naruto-aniki, nothing. Are you sure we even have that chakra stuff in the first place?"

Naruto frowned and walked over to them with Samehada in grasp before setting it on them both. Samehada rumbled in Naruto's hand, getting a nod from the whiskered blonde, "Yes you both have chakra, but you guys never use it. That and you also didn't even know anything about it until today. I had to train for years before I could access it, there was a school for it when I was a kid and they didn't even teach you any jutsu until you were like ten or eleven years old."

Johnny and Yosaku went wide-eyed over the thought of a bunch of kids blowing things up and making tidal waves like Naruto for a school grade. Naruto ignored them and carried on, "Yeah… I guess that's why more people didn't know how to do anything with chakra, because it takes a while for your body to actually get used to the concept of such a power and that's not even talking about the training that you have to do to access it."

Nojiko came from below deck, "Hey guys. What are you all doing up here?"

Sealing up Samehada, Naruto smiled at the girl, "Ah, Nojiko-chan. Come here, I want you to try something out for me." Nojiko shrugged and walked over while Naruto turned to Johnny and Yosaku, "Girls naturally have better chakra control because they have less chakra, so let's see if our girl here can use hers." He turned towards Nojiko and placed her hands in the ram seal, "Okay, now I want you to focus. Focus on the bridge right between your physical and mental energies."

Nojiko blinked blankly, "Um, how do I do that Naruto-kun?"

Naruto stepped back, "A very good question. Well the way it worked for me when I was little was just tensing up my body and then having my mind set on reaching in and pulling that energy out." Nojiko stood still for a moment before nodding and trying to pull her chakra out.

After a minute or two she dropped the seal and looked at Naruto apologetically, "Sorry Naruto-kun, I can't do it either."

Naruto waved it off, "It's okay, I wasn't expecting any of you to actually be able to do it, yet anyway... I'll just have you work with the exercises that I did as a kid before the instructors tried getting us to use our chakra… I guess that stuff had uses after all." Naruto scratched his head, "Though that does narrow down what I can teach you by a lot." Naruto pointed at the two bounty hunters, "Not so much you two, because all you want to be able to do is actually not suck with a sword. That will be easy enough, all things considered." He then turned to look at Nojiko, "No, it's you that I'll be having the real trouble with."

Nojiko pointed at herself questioningly, "Me? But I never asked to learn how to fight. I just want to travel."

Naruto nodded, "I'm well aware of that Nojiko-chan, but I'm going to have enemies. Hell, I already have enemies. You're going to need to know how to defend yourself in case it becomes necessary and chances are that it will. I don't want you to be a sitting duck waiting on one of us to save you."

Nojiko frowned but nodded, "I understand. Oh, I came up here to ask you something. Just where are we going next? You said we were going to the Grand Line, do you have any idea about how we're going to go about getting there?"

Naruto laughed nervously and rubbed the back of his head, "Ask directions?"

All three of the ship's other inhabitants stared at Naruto in shock when Nojiko spoke up, "You mean you don't know how to get to the Grand Line and you're trying to take us there?"

Naruto shrunk back, "Hey… It's not like I've been around in this world the entire time. I've been winging it since we left… hell, I don't even know where we are right now."

"WHAT!"

Naruto recoiled at the sound of three people yelling at him as he cleaned out his ear, "Well yeah? What do I look like, a compass? I can barely read a land map, what the fuck makes you think that I can read a nautical map?"

Nojiko growled and immediately shoved Naruto out of the way before running inside to his personal lodgings. The immortal blonde stood up and dusted himself off, "What was her deal?"

Johnny leaned against the mast, "Naruto-aniki, it's really dangerous to not even know where you're going at sea. You could be stuck wandering forever or end up somewhere really dangerous that you can't survive."

Naruto stroked his chin, "Ah, I see. That's why Arlong had that hard-on for Nami-chan making him his stupid maps." Naruto eventually stopped thinking about it and laid down on the deck, "Whatever. If we're lost, we're lost. It's been two days, too late to change anything about it now."

Yosaku's jaw dropped at how detached their leader was being, "How can you say that Naruto-aniki?"

Naruto shut his eyes and yawned, "Well yeah, I mean this won't kill _me_, and it's not like I'm in a hurry to be anywhere or do anything."

A series of heavy thudding footsteps kept Naruto from curling up and going to sleep in the sun before a heeled shoe crashed into his abdomen with breath-taking force. Nojiko stood over him with tick-marks on her head, "You're so lucky that you didn't do anything that sent us off course since we left Commi Island. I know which way we're going."

Naruto pried the girl's heel from his ribs, "So where are we going Nojiko-chan, and why did you find it necessary to drop a heel on my kidney?"

Nojiko sighed and walked up to the wheel, turning it in the correct directions, "We're heading towards Loguetown. It's actually a good thing we're going that way too since if we need to head to the Grand Line that's the place that everyone stops at beforehand." Naruto just stared at Nojiko who looked at him with a smirk, "What? You think I'm the sister of a navigator and I didn't pick anything up from it?"

Naruto chuckled, "Well consider me humbled by your knowledge Nojiko-chan. I am just a humble barbarian from the 'Final Continent', don't you know?"

Naruto turned to Johnny and Yosaku, "Okay, it's time for me to whip your sorry asses into shape. Get over here, now." The two men shrugged and walked over to him, "Okay, last chance to back out. From this point forward if I hear any inkling of quitting from either of you, you are going to suffer for wasting my time."

Johnny and Yosaku both gave him firm looks. Yosaku spoke for them both, "We're not backing out Naruto-aniki. We want to be strong for the people we want to protect."

Naruto pulled out a sealing scroll and in a puff of smoke had a bunch of bands in his hands, "Well we'll start you both off with this." In the blink of an eye he had placed them on the men's arms and legs, "Ready?"

The men looked at Naruto blankly, "What are we supposed to do with these Naruto-aniki?"

Naruto chuckled and made a half-tiger seal, "You'll see."

The bands glowed before Johnny and Yosaku crashed to the ground in a heap with a loud smash. Nojiko ran to look from where she was, being surprised from the sudden noise. Both men slowly picked themselves up as Naruto held back laughs, "Hey! Don't break the wood you bastards! Stand up!"

They both reached their feet with their legs shaking. Johnny's sunglasses were slipping down his face, "Naruto-aniki, what's going on? Is this your training?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep. If you're going to be a swordsman you're going to want to be able to cut your opponent before they can cut you. The way to do that is to be way faster than anyone else that you could be fighting. You also need to be able to block pretty much anything and break through pretty much anything. These weights will help you with that."

Yosaku was sweating, "Weights?"

Naruto pointed to his wrists and ankles. The two men looked at the bands, '"H-How much is this?"

Naruto did a quick run through in his head, "I would say 25 lbs. per limb, so you're both sitting with 100 lbs. each right now."

Nojiko paled from her spot, "100 lbs.? Naruto-kun that's a lot of extra weight to be carrying around! That will kill them!"

Naruto shook his head at the blue-haired girl, "No it won't they'll be fine, they're just being drama queens. A friend of mine from when I was a kid did this with weights way heavier when we were thirteen. These two will be fine." He turned towards Johnny and Yosaku, "Okay, 100 pushups, 100 crunches, 500 punches per arm, 500 kicks per leg, and 50 laps around the ship. Go now and if you quit or fall off the boat during the laps I'll strap you to the lower part of the stern and leave you there until we dock. Understood?"

The men groaned in agreement, irritating Naruto, "What was that? I don't think I heard you correctly, did you just say, 'Kick our asses and tie us to the front of the boat for a few days until we man up Naruto-aniki.'?"

They both stiffened up and dropped to the deck to eke out pushups. Naruto nodded in a satisfied manner, "That's what I thought. Now remember, push yourselves but don't pass out or something. However…" Naruto made a Kage Bunshin, "If he sees you actually slacking off I'll have him 'motivate' you."

Nojiko frowned as she leaned on the wheel, "That's cruel Naruto-kun."

Naruto walked up to the helm where the girl was leaning, "No it's not, it's necessary. If we go into there as we are and I wasn't awesome enough to keep them safe they would get slaughtered, it's that simple. I know it, they know it, and that's why I'm doing this. There should be visible improvement by the time we get there, I need to work their basic parameters before I actually try teaching them skills. The basic stuff they know bolstered by an absurd amount of physical skill to augment it would work wonders for them."

Nojiko watched them struggle to complete their pushups, "If you think it's needed, then okay Naruto-kun."

Naruto poked her on the forehead, "You know, part of me is telling me to make you do it too." Nojiko's jaw dropped, "But you don't want to be a swordsman so the workout I'm giving them might not work with you. I need to find something for you to do as well as find a way for you to defend yourself."

"Speaking of defending ourselves…" Nojiko said, ending his thoughts, "There's nothing in the ship's armory. No bullets, no guns, no blades, not even any cannonballs or cannons to haul to the deck. We've got nothing."

Naruto pointed at himself, "We don't need cannons right now. I'm better than a damn cannon, I can kick everyone on a ship's ass by myself and steal all of their stuff, before even sinking the thing… not that I would ever do anything like that. You're right though, we don't have anything, we definitely need to fix that."

Nojiko sweatdropped, "Is there anything else we need to fix before we go to the Grand Line?"

Naruto thought about it, "Well, we need weapons, ammo for the weapons, more food, medical supplies, stuff for basic upkeep of this thing, we need those two to be whipped into shape before they get themselves killed, you to get some kind of way to fight on your own so I don't have to bring your pretty little head back to Cocoyashi Village to get buried, people to actually help run the ship that know what they're doing, a guy that actually knows their way around this watery wasteland called the ocean, someone to patch you all up when you get busted up, and tons of other stuff that slip my mind at the moment."

Nojiko sighed, "Is there anything we _don't _need to fix?"

Naruto grinned at her foxily, "Well me of course."

"Ha ha." Nojiko stated dryly. She looked out at Johnny and Yosaku who were throwing punches slowly and heaving, "Are they alright?"

Naruto spared them a glance and waved off her concern, "They're fine…" A loud thud sounded out as they both hit the deck in exhaustion, "That's just them feeling the burn."

"Hey, get your sorry asses up!" Naruto's Kage Bunshin barked at the downed and aspiring swordsmen in training, "What did I say about passing out?"

XxX

(One Week Later)

Naruto had Johnny and Yosaku run the same drills twice a day. Every second of their waking existence was spent training. In between the hated mass drills he had them fight him. Though he didn't use Samehada, or even anything with a bladed edge, no he used a bokken, just a simple wooden sword, all of them did. With a bokken anyway he could correct their mistakes without cutting them into ribbons or impaling them. Oh it felt like he impaled them when he jabbed them in the belly with it, but it was safer than the alternative.

Naruto had one hand in his pocket and had the other using the solid piece of wood to defend himself from the attacks. Naruto sighed as he parried the strikes of the two men, "Too rigid, too stiff. I know it's a sword but you two are far too unflexible in the way that you fight." Naruto blocked a shot from Johnny and kicked his leg out from under him, dropping him to his knees before palming his face and shoving him off. Yosaku came in next and swung overhead at Naruto who cracked him in the hands, forcing him to drop the sword before pushing him down from behind.

Naruto watched them pick themselves up off of the ground, "You guys only really know the basics, and that's okay."

The pair gripped their practice swords and gritted their teeth. Yosaku spoke up, "But how can we beat someone like you without any knowing any good moves?"

"I don't know what you're talking about." Naruto twisted the sword in his hands, "I don't have a single blade-technique."

The mouths of Johnny and Yosaku dropped at the revelation of that knowledge, "But how can you be called a swordsman and have such a powerful sword if you don't even have any listed techniques for it?"

Naruto chuckled, "Because it's not about what you know you can do with your sword, it's just about what you know you can do period. You can _make_ your own moves, you don't need me to teach you that, all that needs is a little imagination and you two are two halves of the same brain."

Johnny lowered his sword, "So then what are we going to get out of all of this?"

Naruto raised his finger in an astute manner, "What you will be getting out of training with me on your swordsmanship will be an appreciation for the unorthodox, knowledge of angles, and strength and speed." He then grinned evilly, "And by the time we're done you will realize that no one will ever be as rough on you as I'll end up being. You think this is hard, we haven't even gotten started yet. Come to think of it…" Naruto made a half-tiger seal, forcing Johnny and Yosaku to buckle under the additional pressure, "You guys are starting to move around a little too easily, 5 more pounds per limb!"

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto shunshined to the helm to see what Nojiko had called him for, "What's the matter Nojiko-chan? Do you need something?"

Nojiko shook her head and pointed at an island in the distance, "We're almost to Loguetown, I just thought I would tell you so you would stop torturing poor Johnny and Yosaku."

Naruto gave her a dry look and pulled out another set of weights, "Would you like to join them? I can find another practice sword too so you don't feel too terribly left out."

Nojiko turned away and proceeded to the other side of the ship, "No thank you! I'm fine over here!"

Naruto smirked and waited for them to reach land.

XxX

Naruto stretched as everyone hopped off of the ship, "Alright everyone. We're here to get stuff that we need for the Grand Line, I will be going off with Nojiko-chan to keep her safe and maybe find something cool for her to use. You two just walk around and do whatever you want, consider it a way for you to adjust to your new weight." The two men glared at Naruto but held their tongues.

Naruto grabbed Nojiko's hand and led her off into the crowded city. The blonde man and blue-haired girl looked around in interest. Naruto marveled at the size of the city, "I never see cities this size. Even back in the Elemental Nations cities never got much bigger than Konoha and this place is bigger than that."

Nojiko giggled at the look on Naruto's face, "This city isn't even the biggest there is Naruto-kun. We're going to see all kinds of amazing things on this journey, so you might as well get used to seeing marvels like this."

Naruto laughed, "Who do you think you're telling? You need a few more years under your belt before you start trying to tell me to expect the unexpected."

Nojiko stuck her tongue out at Naruto, "You're not any older than me Naruto-kun. You might be strong but you haven't seen everything the world has to offer yet. You're in the same boat as me." She finished with a light shove.

Shaking his head in amusement he kept looking around with a sigh, "So this is where all the pirate stuff started huh? It doesn't seem like it. This place seems really sleepy, totally way too docile to be a pirate hot-spot."

Nojiko was window shopping as she answered him, "Well this is where the Pirate King Gol D. Roger was set to be executed. Apparently his final words over twenty years ago inspired the age of piracy that we're in."

Naruto smiled, "It's funny how single moments like that can start entire eras and movements and things. Well, not really funny… more terrifying really, how influential people can be. It's okay if the person is good, but any idiot with determination and a misguided goal can burn the world." He noticed Nojiko looking at him oddly as they walked, "Sorry, ignore that. I ramble from time to time."

"It's okay Naruto-kun." Nojiko assured him, "You keep a lot of secrets don't you?" She noticed his eyes snap to hers, "Don't worry about it. Any secret you have is your business to keep. I'm certain you'll tell everyone when you feel you need to. You're a good man, a little eccentric, but I'd rather you be eccentric than a bad guy."

"I'm a good guy because being a bad guy is boring Noji-chan." Naruto said as they proceeded through the streets, "From what I've seen all bad guys do is get other people to do the stuff that makes them bad. Bad guys never do anything themselves unless they have to, they wait for the guy that challenges them to show up before they try something. Being a bad guy most of the time is static and boring with a lot of mind games and mental chess being played."

He pointed to himself, "I am dynamic, a man of action. While I enjoy doing nothing from time to time I am also bored very easily, and when that happens I look for something active to do. Shadowy dealings and behind the scenes cavorting isn't really my thing. I do what I want because I can, it just so happens that being a good guy is far more fun than the alternative, you also meet more hot women that way."

Nojiko gave him an incredulous look, "What?"

Naruto smirked, "I met you and your sister doing something good didn't I? Case in point right there."

Nojiko rolled her eyes as a smile pulled at her lips, "Idiot."

Naruto simply kept moving ahead, feeling content at having made her smile, "Yes. Yes, I've been called that from time to time."

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

The two aspiring swordsmen did much the same as their shipmates, wandering around the city and pretty much looking around. None of them had any damn money to buy anything, even though they saw a sword shop that was just crying out to them to head on inside they would just be hurting themselves since they had nothing to buy any weapons and they wouldn't be coming back even if they found something that screamed for them to buy it.

The two just trudged around aimlessly and bored… and also somewhat exhausted because of their increase in weight on their bands, but at this point it was welcome compared to running laps on a moving ship and fighting their god of war captain.

"Man, Naruto-aniki is being a tool." Yosaku said as they walked along the docks back towards the ship, "He wants us to come up with our own path in being swordsmen, what kind of stuff is that? We went with him to learn something, like the stuff that Zoro-aniki can do, and all we've been doing is running, getting yelled at, and getting beat up."

Johnny rubbed his eyes under his sunglasses, "I don't think he would mislead us or anything. Besides, have we been trained for real at all since we started using swords? This might be the best way for us to get better, you don't know."

Yosaku yelled in exasperation to the sky, "And he expects us to go to the Grand Line? Who are we kidding here? We're going to get slaughtered!" He was grabbed by the arm and prevented from moving, "Hey Johnny, what was that all about?"

Johnny was looking at a poster on a wall full of bounties.

**Dead or Alive**

"**Straw-hat" Monkey D. Luffy**

**20,000,000 beli**

A picture of a grinning Luffy, complete with straw-hat and scar under his eye.

Yosaku grinned, "Hey! Luffy-aniki has one! That's really high, the highest in the East Blue! Way to go." Johnny slapped Yosaku on the head, "What the hell was that for?"

Johnny simply pointed at the poster he meant for Yosaku to read.

**Dead or Alive**

"**Seed of War" Naruto Uzumaki**

**55,000,000 beli**

The picture had Naruto after the fight with Arlong, covered in Nezumi's blood from thrusting his hand through his chest and a dark look in his eyes.

Yosaku had the same look of surprise on his face that Johnny did, "What. The. -"

XxX

"-Fuck?"

Naruto tightly gripped a poster of himself while reading the bounty, "Seed of War? That's the best they've got? Couldn't they have come up with something cooler? I mean come on…"

Nojiko gave him an odd look, "The name is the thing you're freaking out about? How about the fact that you have 55,000,000 on your head? Why is it so high?"

Naruto crumbled the poster, "I did pulverize the top half of Arlong's body, shove my arm through a Marine Captain's chest, and then blow up his ship with his men still on it. I'm surprised it's not higher, Nezumi must have been as much of a pushover as I thought." He frowned visibly, "Still though… Seed of War?"

Nojiko shook her head, "You did kill about two dozen Marines in the span of three minutes as well as obliterate an entire base of mermen if you forgot." She gave the picture a long, hard look, "How did they even get this picture? They were running from you so fast no one could have possibly had time to do it."

"This is true." Naruto tossed it aside carelessly, "Oh well, you coming Nojiko?" Naruto started walking off.

Nojiko stood gaping at him, "You're just going to leave it at that? Naruto-kun this is a big deal, you didn't do anything wrong!"

Naruto turned around and grabbed a hold of her hand before pulling her along, "I know, but it's the word of some random guy against a bunch of Marines that saw me do it. Not only that, but I really don't care because first of all if all Marines or bounty hunters are as weak as Johnny, Yosaku, and that Nezumi loser then keeping them off of my back will be a piece of cake."

BOOM

"What was that?" Nojiko wondered as smoke came from the center of town.

Naruto's eyes drifted from the smoke to the girl, "You want to go see?" Nojiko nodded, "Well then hold on Noji-chan." Naruto grabbed her and shunshined towards the town square.

XxX

Johnny just kept walking along back towards their ship, "Man… Naruto-aniki has such a high bounty… That's insane."

Yosaku noticed something, "Hey, what is a Marine ship doing next to ours?"

Johnny's eyes widened at the sight of a royal blue, normally colored Marine ship docked right next to their orange abomination, "AAH! They must have thought that it was an actual Marine ship! If there are any Marines on that ship when Nojiko and Naruto-aniki get back they'll chase us!"

One Marine jumped out and looked around Naruto's ship, "Hey! This one must have been commandeered by someone! It's marked out all of the Marine stuff on it, not to mention it's totally orange! Have you seen this piece of crap?"

"How could I not have, I saw it from two miles out!" Called out a voice from the real Marine ship.

Johnny let out a girlish shriek, "AAHH! They're going to take aniki's ship back!"

Yosaku's eyes hardened at that thought, "No. We have to protect aniki, we can't have him fighting alone all of the time. We have to fight too."

Johnny grabbed him by his collar, "Are you insane? These are Marines? The _real_ pirate hunters! They chase real pirates, not just the weak ones that we were going after!"

Yosaku shook his head and drew his sword, "I don't care! Naruto-aniki would have done it, so I will too! I will be strong like him!" With that Yosaku rushed the gangplank and ran onto the orange ship, surprising everyone that was on board.

One Marine looked at Yosaku oddly, "Who the hell are you and what are you doing here?"

Yosaku growled, "I'm here to take back my aniki's ship! Leave now or I'll make you!"

The Marines started laughing, "Who does this guy think he is? He doesn't even look like he knows how to hold that thing, how is he going to take this thing back?"

"Like this!" Yosaku rushed the first Marine who blocked with his rifle and pushed him off, "This is Naruto-aniki's ship!"

The Marines pulled out their rifles and fired at Yosaku who took cover behind the mast, "Oh man… How am I going to do this? They all have guns, all I have is this sword, and I'm weighed down." His eyes widened in realization, "Wait a minute… I'm weighed down!"

_(Flashback – Two days after setting course to Loguetown)_

_Johnny and Yosaku were slogging around the ship as fast as their legs could carry them with their tongues hanging out, panting pitifully. Naruto was overseeing them, walking up and down the mast, sticking to it with chakra, "Feel that burn guys, that feeling of your muscles screaming at you to stop moving? Don't listen to it or I will jump down there and break my foot off in your asses!"_

_Naruto looked down to see Nojiko pouting up at him, "You're going to kill those two Naruto-kun."_

_Naruto grinned, "Nah, they're fine. Right guys?"_

_Johnny and Yosaku both groaned loudly. Naruto got a tick mark on his head, "What was that? Was that, 'Please jump down here and beat some spirit back into us Naruto-aniki.'? Well Okay, if you insist!"_

_Johnny and Yosaku suddenly sped up, "No need for that Naruto-aniki!"_

"_Seriously, they heal really fast. The fact that they can get up and do this again after what I made them do yesterday is nothing short of amazing. They should just be one big bruise right now." Naruto smirked and jumped down onto the deck, "Can you access chakra yet Nojiko-chan?"_

_She shook her head in the negative, "I can't feel anything Naruto-kun. Are you sure that I even have it?"_

_Naruto nodded, "Everyone has it. Just keep trying whenever you have the time. Even these guys can do it." He looked at Johnny and Yosaku, "Come here you guys. You're done for the day."_

_The two yelled in victory and dropped to the ground and crawled over to Naruto and Nojiko who let out a small laugh as they collapsed at their feet. Naruto crouched down and lifted their heads up, "Alright, this is important. I want you to wear these things everywhere you go, for everything you do." _

_Johnny tried picking himself off of the ground, "But Naruto-aniki this is hard… I've never seen anyone train like this." _

_Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "Have you ever seen anyone that was actually _strong_ train? How do you think Zoro got good? He just picked up three swords and started going nuts? No, he did retarded stuff like this that looks insane at first glance. Compared to the stuff I'm going to make you do soon this is tame." Naruto thunked them both lightly on the head, "Make everything an exercise. I only want you to take them off in one instance." The two had their eyes firmly locked on Naruto, "The first time you two fight I want you to take them off. Just to prove to you that I'm not blowing smoke when I make you do this stuff. You don't even tamper with these things until then."_

(End Flashback)

Yosaku unsnapped the bands from his legs and arms and felt an absurd amount of pressure drop from his body.

"Did we kill the guy?"

"No he's still hiding behind the mast. Hey! Aim for the mast!"

XxX

Johnny saw the Marines on the other ship pointing their cannon at Yosaku who was crouched behind the mast, "Crap…" He reached for his weights and unsnapped them, letting them drop onto the dock with a crack, "Hold on Yosaku you idiot!" Johnny pulled out his sword and jumped onto the Marine boat, overwhelming them at how fast he got in front of the cannon. He kicked it, turing it to the side in time for it to fire at the helm, destroying the method of steering the ship and disabling it.

Johnny surprised himself at how hard he kicked the cannon, so much so that he didn't notice the Marines looking at him oddly, "Who the hell are you? Another one of these weird guys I assume."

"I'm that idiot's partner." Johnny pointed over at Naruto's ship with Yosaku taking off his weights, "And as stupid as this is, I can't let you blow him up. So I have to have his back on this." Johnny saw them pull out rifles and take aim at him, "Shit." Johnny evasively rolled out of the way and took off behind the mast.

He waited for them to stop firing as he readied himself for a counter-attack.

"Reload!"

Johnny rushed from behind the mast, kicking a barrel sitting on the deck at them to avert their attention, and knocked the rifles from their hands with a slash before whipping back around and taking them all out with a second wide slash. Johnny stayed in a crouch, just taking in the moment, "Did that really just happen?"

One of the Marines groaning in pain on the ground looked up at Johnny weakly, "W-What crew out there has the ability to steal a Marine ship… And who paints it orange?"

Johnny was stunned by the question, 'That's a damn good question. Naruto-aniki never named us.'

XxX

Yosaku shut his eyes tightly and sprang from behind the mast ready to attack as the Marines were reloading. They abandoned trying to reload and attempted to use the bayonets on their rifles to stab and slash at him. Yosaku parried a thrust from one of the Marines and elbowed him in the face before he slashed at another, getting him right in the chest, eliminating him from the fight.

The last Marine found time to reload and got off a shot at Yosaku who saw it coming and shifted his body out of the way of the shell, shocking himself at how fast he was moving. Before the man had time to register the fact that he missed, Johnny had run past him, finishing him with a bypassing cut.

Yosaku turned and saw that he had defeated all of the Marines aboard the ship. A grin started covering his face and he leapt in the air, whooping in victory, "I won! I actually won! I can't believe this! I'll never badmouth Naruto-aniki's training again, this is awesome!"

"Hey Yosaku!"

Yosaku ran over to the side of the ship to see Johnny doing the same from the Marine ship, "Hey Johnny!"

Johnny had an identical grin on his face, "Did you win too?"

Yosaku started laughing madly, "It's never been that easy before! That was just after a week of training!"

Johnny thumbed his finger over his shoulder, "Naruto-aniki said we didn't have any ammo or weapons so I think we should raid their supply. I mean they did try to take our ship."

Yosaku slapped the side of the ship before jumping over and heading over to Johnny, "Hell yeah! Now that's showing initiative!"

XxX

(With Naruto and Nojiko)

Naruto and Nojiko appeared in the middle of a crowd of people, dispersing them out of shock from seeing two people appear in a swirl of random leaves. Naruto saw Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro running away from the square towards the docks. Naruto had to blink, "Did we just run into Luffy and your sister's crew again? What the hell? How did we catch up to them?"

Nojiko looked at the men of the Strawhat crew run away, "I don't know. Is your stolen Marine ship that much faster than theirs? It has to be because you left two days after they did." Nojiko gasped as she saw the amount of Marines chasing them, "If they get back to the rest of the crew where Nami is-."

Naruto groaned, "Oh well, I guess things have been quiet enough. Come on, let's make sure your sister and her friends don't get arrested."

Naruto picked up Nojiko piggyback style, ignoring her sound of surprise, and took off running along the rooftops of the city, keeping pace with Luffy's crew and the Marines. Nojiko cried out when it started downpouring randomly in the midst of the chase. Nojiko looked behind them and tapped Naruto on the shoulder, "Naruto-kun what is that?"

Naruto saw a mass of smoke moving towards Luffy who had left Zoro behind to fight some girl with swords. The mass turned into a muscular white haired man smoking two cigars at once. He wore a thick white and blue Marine jacket with fur lining the neck, wrists, and hem in addition to brown leather gloves, blue jeans with a brown belt, and brown leather boots. He also had a jutte on his back.

"My name is Smoker, I am the Captain of the Marine main base. I won't allow you to get out of here Monkey D. Luffy!" Smoker's arms turned to his namesake as he sent them out at Luffy, snatching him up into the air.

Sanji tried kicking at the smoke to free his captain, "What is this?" However his leg was caught just as easily when he kicked at Smoker's face.

"Don't mess with me you weakling. Howaito Auto (White Out)!" He covered Sanji in smoke and picked him up like Luffy. Luffy stretched his arm out and grabbed a hold of Sanji to try and pull him out. Smoker caught him and mashed Luffy's face into the ground.

He attempted to pull the jutte from his back. Naruto, upon seeing this, was about to spring into action until a hand rested on Smoker's arm, "I don't think so."

Naruto's eyes widened at the sight, "Fast…" Suddenly a massive storm came up, forcing Naruto to hold tight to Nojiko lest she get blown away like Smoker was. The storm was the opportunity for Luffy to reach his feet and escape with the rest of his crew.

Naruto jumped to the ground as the mysterious man vanished, "Who the hell was that guy? He's the strongest guy I've ever seen since I've shown up here. Where can I find more guys like that to fight?"

Nojiko hit him on the shoulder, "You want to fight that guy? What's wrong with you? Guys as dangerous as Arlong aren't enough for you anymore?"

Naruto picked his ear, "Nope, not really. Arlong was a jabroni, that guy's a champion." Naruto's eyes cut to the side, "Speaking of jabronis…" Naruto threw a kunai on the ground as a motorcycle stopped in front of it. Naruto stared at Smoker, who had come back from being blown away. Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin, "Nojiko-chan, go with my clone back to the ship. Tell the others to get everything ready for us to leave, I might need to make a quick escape."

Nojiko nodded nervously and grabbed the Kage Bunshin's hand, "Be careful Naruto-kun."

"Aren't I always?" He gave her a wide grin, "Now get on out of here."

Nojiko gave him a hesitant smile and took off with the Kage Bunshin to the ship. Naruto's grin dropped as he turned back towards Smoker, "So I assume you're here to keep chasing Luffy. I can't let you do that. You see that strong guy showed his face to get him free, and I have to believe that someone that powerful doesn't just do random things for no good reason, that's not his style, so in order to meet this person that I can fight him I'm going to have to stop you from pursuing Luffy."

Smoker climbed off his bike, cigar smoke billowing from his mouth, "The 'Seed of War' Naruto Uzumaki, one of the youngest Marine killing pirates in the entire world. Are you saying that you intend to pursue Monkey D. Dragon, the most dangerous man in the world?"

'Dragon is the man's name. Good to know.' Naruto snickered, "Young? Yeah, sure let's go with that. And Nezumi was a shitstain, fuck that guy. I'm not a pirate just because I killed some crooked Marine captain, but it doesn't matter at this point." Naruto dropped into a stance, "If you want some, come get some."

Smoker shot his arms out in smoke again in an effort to surround Naruto. The blonde was faster than the attack however, as he evaded the shot and ended up in Smoker's face, hitting him with a series of rapid fire punches. Naruto was noticeably irked as his fists went through much like Sanji's had. Naruto avoided Smoker's counter of using his body to engulf Naruto's frame by flipping up one of the walls nearby, "What the hell is that? Why can't I hit you? I know I hit harder than Sanji or Luffy can."

Smoker's face appeared in the massive cloud of smoke that he became, "This is a logia type Akuma no Mi. Anyone that uses these kinds cannot be harmed by most attacks other than their weaknesses. Now get ready to face the gallows that Straw-hat avoided earlier, Howaito Supaku (White Spark)!" His massive smoke body charged at Naruto.

Naruto rolled backwards in retreat, "What the hell… Now I can't run or he'll follow me to the ship and then everyone else is screwed." He yelled at Smoker, "Fuck off! You're really starting to piss me off now!"

The smoke overtook Naruto who was trying to think of some way to get Smoker off of him so that he could leave since any attack he could muster would just past through him like smoke. That was it! Like smoke! He was smoke! Naruto quickly burst out of the smoke before Smoker could solidify it around him and retreated towards the ship a bit further.

Smoker laughed as he chased Naruto towards the ocean, "Just give up Uzumaki! It'll be easier for both of us!"

Naruto looked behind him again, "Yeah, actually it would be. Since I would just break out of wherever you would put me and be on my merry way, but I have people to take care of and you're in the way, so now it's time to remove you!" Naruto pressed his hands into the horse seal and took a deep breath, "Fuuton: Tatsumaki Sandan (Wind Release: Twister Shot)!"

Naruto spat out a massive tornado that ripped up the streets and messed up houses and other nearby buildings. The tornado pulled Smoker's body into the forceful whirlwind. Naruto held fast to the ground with chakra as he watched his opponent get tossed about into the air. Naruto snickered as the attack cleared up, "Later Smoker. Feel free to find me again when you put yourself back together."

Naruto ran off towards the ship.

XxX

Nojiko had her hand over her face, shaking her head slowly, "Naruto-kun is going to kill you two. You're both so stupid, I really underestimated how dumb you two were, I gave you the benefit of the doubt. Never again."

Johnny sat on the brand new cannons they had moved from the other ship onto theirs. Johnny was gleefully buffing the one he was sitting on, "Why would he be mad? He already has a bounty, how the hell would he find himself any worse off now, and we have cannons and tons of ammo right now! Whoever's ship that was, they were loaded!"

Yosaku was busy hauling crates of bullets under the deck for storage, "Yeah, and we actually beat our opponents! With all that Naruto-aniki has done for us, getting him some firepower was the least we can do. After all we are just his humble pupils."

Naruto appeared on the deck in a burst of leaves with a mirthful look on his face, "All right, today has been eventful. Let's get out of here before Smoker pulls himself back together and starts hunting me down. There are some seriously weird powers out there, I swear." Naruto looked at the four new cannons he had lining his deck, two on each side, "Where did these come from?"

Nojiko pointed at a Marine ship docked right next to theirs, "Your 'humble students' ripped them off as a thank you for your diligence in teaching them." She said in a stupid voice.

Naruto stood still for a moment just staring at Nojiko, then at a grinning Johnny, then back and forth a few more times. He finally threw his hands up and walked towards the helm, "I'm not even going to say anything… Johnny! Yosaku!" Naruto called out as he started getting the boat out of the docks.

Both men ran right up to Naruto's back, standing like new recruits, "Yes Naruto-aniki!"

Naruto's eye twitched as they still hadn't realized what they had done, however he still kept his back turned, "Did you take off your weights to fight those Marines on that ship?"

Both men grinned, "Yeah we did, but we put them right back on after we won, it's your winning training method after all!"

"I see." Naruto nodded to himself and made a half-tiger seal, "Weight increase!" Both men dropped to the ground once again.

Groaning as they found themselves unable to move from the deck, Yosaku had to ask, "Naruto-aniki… Why?"

Naruto turned around slowly with a displeased look on his face, "You two stole those cannons. I can understand kicking their asses because they were trying to take my ship, but you stole everything from them. What is the definition of a pirate?"

Johnny shakily tried to pull himself up, "Um… we don't know?"

Naruto made a hand-sign and dropped them both to the ground again, "Piracy is defined as any criminal act of violence, detention, or depredation committed for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship that is directed against another ship, or against persons or property on board a ship. Do you know what that means?"

Both shook their heads from the ground and found Naruto's fists angrily bouncing off of their skulls, "It means that you literally made me a pirate, _for real!_"

Both had huge bumps on their heads. Johnny looked up at the angry immortal, "Um, how much weight is this aniki?"

Naruto turned back to the helm and kept steering the ship, "Since you both got used to 100 pounds so quickly and because you pissed me off, you can now have fun learning how to walk with 200 pounds each. Enjoy." Something rolled from Johnny and Yosaku and hit the back of his foot. Naruto reached down and picked it up, it looked like a compass/watch of some sort, "What the hell is this?"

Johnny finally pulled himself to his feet, "It looks like some kind of funky compass aniki. We took it because it looked cool."

Nojiko walked up to Naruto and took it from his hands before strapping it on her wrist, "You don't know what this is?" All of the men shook their heads forcing the girl to sigh, "You're all so stupid, I swear… It's a Log Pose. You need one just to navigate the Grand Line because regular compasses don't work." After getting blank looks from everyone on board she simply walked away below deck, "Nevermind, just go where I tell you to go when we get to the Grand Line." She disappeared, mumbling about stupid blade swinging morons and cute blonde ignoramuses.

XxX

Smoker finally got himself together and rushed toward the docks where Naruto had been heading, intent on pursuing either them or the Strawhats, whoever he caught up with first. One was too dangerous because Dragon found it in his best interest to intervene to protect him. What could that mean? The other was too dangerous because… well he just pissed Smoker off. He was also dangerous for real; who spits out tornadoes in the middle of a city?

"Captain Smoker!"

Smoker found his Master Chief Petty Officer running near him, "What are we going to do now?" She had dark-blue hair that went down to her neck, glasses, dark blue slacks, and a yellow shirt with pink flowers on it.

Smoker reformed as they arrived at the docks, "We're leaving to pursue them Tashigi. Both of them are going to the Grand Line, Monkey D. Luffy and Naruto Uzumaki."

A Marine ran off of the ship, "But sir, you were supposed to remain stationed here."

Smoker moved past him to board the ship, "I will show them not to order me around! Come on, we're leaving!"

The same man pushed his fingers together, "About that sir. There's something you should know."

Smoker stood on his ship with his mouth wide open in surprise, it was a wonder the cigars he had in there didn't fall out, "What the hell happened to my ship?"

In addition to the unconscious Marines strewn about, the helm was completely destroyed by cannon fire. And speaking of cannons… there weren't any.

The Marine that had tried to tell him came aboard, "Sir these two men came and attacked us when we were trying to take back a Marine ship that had been stolen and refurbished. The two men beat all of us and wrecked our ship before stealing everything of value onboard and dumping everyone on this ship. It just now left."

Smoker almost bit through his cigars, 'This is just not my day.' "Who? I want to know who did it."

"They were two odd looking guys with swords, but they kept screaming stuff about 'Naruto-aniki'. Apparently they call themselves the-."

XxX

"-Foxhound Pirates?" Naruto asked, looking at the rest of his crew strangely with squinted eyes, "What is it with stupid names revolving around me? For the second time today I reiterate; was that the best you had?"

"But it makes sense aniki!" Yosaku tried to reason, "Me and Johnny were bounty hunters that pursued our prey like hounds, and that's how loyal we are to you."

Johnyy pointed another point out, "Not to mention that you _are_ the captain, and with those whisker marks on your face and the facial expressions you give off regularly you kind of reminded me of a fox…" Naruto turned to look at him, still squinting, "You see? Just like that, how can you not see that?"

Nojiko grabbed a hold of Naruto's face, studying it for a moment before breaking into a smile, "Oh yeah! I totally see it now!"

Naruto grumbled under his breath childishly and walked up the mast to take a nap in the crow's nest, "Stupid stigmas… Stupid foxes existing everywhere in the entire world… Even after several lifetimes I can't escape!"

XxX

(One Week Later)

"What the fuck is that?" Naruto asked, looking out the window of the common area as they came to a massive landmass that stretched as far as the eye could see.

Nojiko held up a map, "That's the Red Line Naruto-kun. If you want to pass between the seas or head towards the Grand Line you have to get around it."

Naruto stroked his chin, "How do you get across? I mean, I could climb it, but that would leave the boat here as well as the rest of you."

Nojiko gave him a dry look, "You can climb it Naruto-kun? Seriously? It's 10,000 meters up and over. How would you manage that?"

Naruto returned her look with one of his own and proceeded to walk up the mast of the ship and back down, stopping in front of her, "Now picture that, just on that continent, and for way longer. Actually I would just run it so it might not be that long."

Nojiko gasped, "Naruto-kun do you know what that means? If you're serious you can reach Mariejois, the holy government land."

Naruto nodded, "Good to know in case I ever want to burn it to the ground." Ignoring Nojiko's stunned look at his words he took the map from her, "Now how do we get this boat onto the Grand Line?"

Nojiko shook off her bewildered look, "Um, we have to traverse Reverse Mountain. A place where all of the four ocean's waters meet and spill into the Grand Line."

Naruto scratched his head, "Man the world has some messed up geography. How does everyone travel like this? There can only be so many people that are capable of anything even remotely similar to what we're about to do. There has to be another way."

Nojiko frowned, "There is, but now that you have a bounty of 55 million it's even more obscenely dangerous than it was in the first place. You have to get through one of the three Gates of Justice of the Marines. Each one leads directly to heavily fortified areas of power for the Marines."

Naruto shrugged, "We have a Marine ship that apparently still looks enough like one to risk getting repossessed. I'm damn sure that there are some Marine uniforms on this tub, why not? It seems a hell of a lot easier than climbing a mountain. OR, and stay with me now because I know this will sound illogical, how about going south, which also seems like a much, much better way than CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN WITH A SHIP!"

Nojiko punched Naruto in the head, "Are you really this worldly stupid or are you just a reckless bastard? If we get caught, maybe _you_ could fight your way out, and I severely doubt that even you can, but the rest of us would be dead. Even if it did work, not only would it only work once, your bounty would have to triple because you made a damn fool of the Marines, getting past them like that. All ways are risky for different reasons, Reverse Mountain is the way everyone uses."

"Naruto-aniki!" Johnny ran inside, "The ship has stopped, it's like the wind died or something."

Nojiko scraped her nails on the table they were sitting by and ran outside, "No, no, no, no!"

Naruto and Johnny followed her outside to find her reasonably freaking out about something, "Noji-chan calm down and tell me, what's the matter? It can't be that bad."

Nojiko turned to him, "Calm? Calm is what the problem is in the first place! We're in the Calm Belt, the stretch of ocean surrounding the Grand Line!"

Naruto smiled, "See, I knew there was an easier way to get there than climbing a mountain."

Nojiko didn't calm herself, "No, this is different, it's not good at all! This place is the reason I didn't want to go south in the first place! The Calm Belt is swarming with Sea Kings!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow while Johnny paled, "Okay… What the hell is a Sea King and why do I care?"

Johnny started moving towards the mast, trying to stay away from the edges of the ship, "Sea Kings are gigantic monsters way bigger than anything you'll see anywhere. They attack anything that comes near them mercilessly."

Naruto shrugged, "So? I'll just kill it. It can't be any tougher than a rampaging demon of myth, right?"

Nojiko just stared at him, "I'm not even going to ask… But seriously, we need to get out of here!"

"Or…" Naruto started, "We just need to hustle to the Grand Line. Once we get there everything should be cool right?"

Johnny cupped his chin in his hand, "Well theoretically it should be. Right? I mean they do go other places, but for the most part they only stick around in the Calm Belt."

Nojiko had anime tears coming from her eyes at this point, "You're going to get us all killed! There's no wind here, there's no current, don't you remember? How do you think we're going to get anywhere without even any wind? We need to get this thing turned around and keep from heading south, we need to go north to Reverse Mountain, that's the way all pirates get to the Grand Line!"

Naruto picked at his ear, "Marines don't do it."

Nojiko blinked, "Huh? That's right… I've never heard of any Marine doing that to get to and from the Grand Line, or anywhere in general. Even though they have the Gates of Justice that can't account for everything can it? I mean, Impel Down is in the middle of the Calm Belt, how the hell do they get anyone on or off that place?"

Yosaku came on deck yawning, "Hey guys, what's up?"

Naruto turned towards Yosaku and gestured for him to come over, "We're trying to figure out how the hell the Marines can go everywhere in the entire world with all of the strange crap that act as natural barriers."

Yosaku's eyebrows raised, "Why are you worried about that? Are we being chased or something?"

Nojiko shook her head, "No, it's because we're… in the Calm Belt. Oh no, we're still in the Calm Belt!" She pointed at Naruto accusingly, "Stop distracting me by being so cute and inquisitive! We need to get out of here!"

Naruto raised his hands in defense. Yosaku just walked over to the training area and brandished his sword before beginning to go through his motions, "Oh that's it? We're fine."

Nojiko snapped at Yosaku, "How the hell are we fine? I may not be nearly as good at navigating as Nami is but I know that the Calm Belt is a death trap for most ships!"

Yosaku just kept practicing, "Yeah, _most_ ships. This is a Marine ship remember?" Yosaku made a face while he was moving about, "Hey Naruto-aniki can you increase my weights for me?"

Naruto nodded and did so, watching Yosaku buckle slightly before he continued to work out as Nojiko didn't understand what he was talking about, "What do you mean 'this is a Marine ship'? Duh! Who cares?"

Yosaku was starting to get irritated, "Because Marine ships have seastone lining the bottoms so that Sea Kings can't sense them in the ocean water. That's why Marine ships can go anywhere, why do you think they can get to Impel Down in one piece? That place is teeming with Sea Kings."

Everyone else just stood silently while Yosaku eventually got tired of everyone staring at him, "What?"

Johnny pointed at him, "How do you know that? You don't know anything."

Yosaku rolled his eyes, "Because when we stopped off to drop our bounties I didn't just stand there looking stupid while waiting in line, I actually listened to some of the stuff that the Marine guards would say. You'd be surprised how much that comes up, it's like every Marine worships seastone or something."

Naruto rubbed his hands together in excitement, "Alright! Now that that little issue is resolved we still need to get out of here, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto formed five clones that jumped off of the back of the ship and ran out a decent distance on the water, "Give us a boost boys!"

The clones saluted him and made hand-seals, "Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)! They caused a great gust of wind to fill the ship's sails and blow it along from its stationary position.

"Yatta! Grand Line here we come!" Naruto yelled into the distance at his waving clones, "Good going guys!"

The party of the Kage Bunshin was cut short when a massive pair of jaws emerged from the water, snatching them all up and devouring them. The entire crew, sans Naruto, watched with wide eyes as the creature dove back underneath the water. Naruto scratched his head, "So that's a Sea King huh? I can see why you were so concerned now." He said blankly, "Oh well, whatever. Let's go!"

He walked back to the helm, taking a shell-shocked Nojiko with him, "I really need to learn how to navigate… We're all going to die… Why was coming out here supposed to be a good idea?" She muttered to herself as Naruto led her away.

Johnny's sunglasses were falling slightly off of his face, "Yosaku."

Yosaku's eyes were still bulging, "Yes Johnny."

"We're going to die out here aren't we?"

Naruto's voice was heard, "Johnny! Since Yosaku took the initiative and asked for an increase in weights you're getting it too!"

A glow of bands ended with Johnny crashing to the ground. Yosaku nodded in answer to Johnny's question, "Yes… Yes we are. The only question is; whether the Grand Line will do it, or will Naruto-aniki do it himself."

* * *

**Chapter done. I know, not much action this time, but that's going to change next chapter. They're on the Grand Line and I think I swung that nicely did I not? Anyway, I've got stuff to do today, so I hope you enjoyed the read. I'm out of here, I've got people to spar with. Hopefully I don't get kicked in the face and can walk up three stories by the time I'm done. Any questions or thoughts, share them with the kid. This is my first crossover and I hope I'm doing good so far.**

**I still have class today, and I have to hit the gym, Kenchi out.**


	6. Famous For All the Wrong Reasons

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. And to everyone that thinks that this fact is utterly hilarious… Go fuck yourself.

***Credit goes to Agurra of the Darkness for a very important idea for this chapter. Will be elaborated on further at the bottom of the chapter.***

**Chapter 6: Famous For All the Wrong Reasons**

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Naruto looked over Nojiko's shoulder as she sat in the common area going over a map. He pointed at the Log Pose, "That thing isn't pointing north Noji-chan."

Nojiko rolled her eyes while keeping them on the map in front of her, "I know Naruto-kun. Normal compasses don't work on the Grand Line. Something about this place has messed up magnetic fields so your regular everyday compass is useless here, that's why the Log Pose is important."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "Okay, so if this is what we need to navigate then why the hell is it going all haywire like that? Because right now it's acting just like my regular compass. Is it broken?"

Nojiko frowned, "How were you planning on captaining this ship if you don't know this stuff Naruto-kun?" Naruto shrugged and she pulled him down to sit next to her, "Listen up. The Log Pose needs to lock on to a specific island's magnetic signature, from that point it won't reset until we reach that island and stay there for a while. It resets seven times and then always points at the final destination on the Grand Line, Raftel."

Naruto smirked, "Well it's a good thing that we can get on and off the Grand line whenever the hell we want isn't it? Man taking this ship was an awesome investment."

Nojiko smiled and nodded, "Yep, even though you did it by accident you've really gotten us a boon here Naruto-kun. We can do all kinds of things with this ship that other pirates can't do."

Naruto's smirk fell, "So you're calling us pirates now too? We haven't even done anything piratey. Yeah, Johnny and Yosaku did, but they're idiots. I don't even think they know that I've been increasing their weights slightly every other night."

Nojiko looked at him in shock, "You've been what?"

Naruto grinned, "Yep. Every other night I increase their weights by two pounds, even if I end up giving them a massive increase the next day. I can't believe they can't tell, but I guess being as tired and sore as they probably are all of the time they can't feel much difference when they wake up in the morning." He looked at the map, "So where are we anyway?"

Nojiko returned focus to the map and placed her finger on the blue line leading east to west through the middle of the map, "We're somewhere in here, fairly close to Reverse Mountain in the Paradise part of the Grand Line."

Naruto gave her a questioning look, "Paradise? You call a place with giant sea creatures capable of smashing our ship by accident Paradise?"

Nojiko thunked him lightly on the head, "Listen please. Paradise is what they call the part of the Grand Line that spans from the start point of Reverse Mountain to the Red Line on the adjacent side of the world. Once you pass that point it's the New World, the part that's barely mapped out at all. It's super dangerous."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "How the hell are we going to cross the Red Line once we get that far? I guess I could drag the ship up the side and over, we could cross it that way."

Nojiko panicked, "No! We need permission from Mariejois to do something like that."

Naruto scoffed, "Again with that Mariejois place. Fuck them. They can't tell me where to go or what to do. I'm not a citizen of the stupid World Government, I've told you once and I'll tell you again Noji-chan; I do what I want because I've yet to come face to face with anyone that can stop me. When I actually do meet someone that might be able to kill me I'll probably start watching my back, but until that point in time I will be reckless and immature."

Nojiko eyed him, "Why?"

Naruto smirked, "Because I'm bored. I thought we've been through this."

A sigh came from the girl's lips, "You know, sometimes you seem really smart, like the two times back on Commi Island and in Loguetown, and even the first time you started training Johnny and Yosaku, and then most of the time you're like this."

Naruto wrapped an arm around Nojiko's shoulder, "Do you know why?" Nojiko shook her head, fighting to keep a blush down, "Because being smart is boring. Being able to plan things out and seeing everything coming as it happens is boring as all hell. I used to hear people say that it's a virtue, not when you hate doing nothing. Do I realize that this was a bad idea to go to the Grand Line with no real crew and not a single idea as to what I'm doing here? Of course I do, but once again, I don't care."

Nojiko pulled his arm from around her, "I don't think I have to tell you that's a terrible way of thinking Naruto-kun."

Naruto stood up and shrugged, "Maybe so, but the thing is, I've lived a specific lifestyle since I was a kid, and that lifestyle revolved around combat and misadventures. My developmental years were spent training to fight, fighting, or going places… where I inevitably ended up getting into fights. Do you see my point now?"

"Yes I guess." Nojiko said, "So your nickname on the wanted poster isn't inappropriate at all. That's kind of sad come to think of it, so you grew up pretty much fighting?"

Naruto scratched his head, "Well I didn't really start fighting until I was twelve, but I had been training to do it for about half a dozen years before that." He looked at the table she was seated at and made to change the subject before he said too much, "So for someone that isn't very good at this navigating thing you're sure getting us where we need to go."

Nojiko looked down at the table. It was full of maps that she had joined together at their edges to make a bigger scene of things to work with. She smiled up at him, "Well I never said I was bad, if I was I never would have tried. I'm just not nearly as good as Nami. That girl can navigate using just one of these, sometimes none at all. All she really needed when she was stealing for Arlong was a compass and a general direction, sometimes she would come back with fully filled out maps that she made herself." Nojiko laughed to herself at the thought. She gestured to table filled edge to edge with all kinds of maps and estimations of potential stop points, she even accounted for them needing to get off of the Grand Line at certain points, "Me however, I need all of this here to get us anywhere."

Naruto grinned, "I'm going to get you some big, ornate piece of crap to place all of this on proper. You know, something that shows how absurdly important this all is."

Nojiko smiled at him and pulled on his cheek, "Just let me figure out where we're going first for now. I'll tell you when the Log Pose gives me our first destination, okay?"

Naruto gave her a playful salute, "Sure thing Noji-chan. I'll come back later so you don't get lonely." With that he left the common area and headed outside where Johnny and Yosaku were sparring.

The two were jumping all about the ship, clashing bokken against one another. Naruto had to admit, they had gotten far more agile than when he first placed the weights on them. Instead of fighting and retreating all the way up the steps as they would be prone to doing when they first started training on his watch they were now jumping between levels instead of running up the stairs. Naruto would have called them showoffs when he saw them both standing on the banister between the upper and lower level, but admittedly he probably would have done the same damn thing in their case.

On this day he had decreased their weights enough so that they could fight each other well enough to start working on skill instead of just fighting to move about. They were fast enough for the time being, it was best to let them get used to their top speed and how they would move without being weighed down.

He watched them gain their balance before attempting to charge one another, while standing on the railing. Not a particularly good idea since they both slipped and, ahem, smashed their grapes on the wood. Naruto had to hold on to something to keep from collapsing in laughter as he watched them both drop to the lower level on their heads holding their junk.

Johnny groaned in pain and kicked at Yosaku who was mirroring his actions, "Why did you convince me that doing that was a good idea?"

Yosaku kicked him back and pulled himself away while still holding on to himself, "Naruto-aniki does stuff that makes that look as easy as walking down the street. If he can do it then we can too! Excuse me for trying to make us better than we already are!"

Johnny pulled himself to his feet with the use of a wall, "Naruto-aniki also uses that chakra stuff. He can stick to stuff, meanwhile we are on a moving ship. That was a terrible idea, how the hell did I let you talk me into trying that?"

Naruto pulled himself up and wiped a tear from his eye, "That was absolutely classic. Hey, you guys shouldn't try to learn how to fight like me. Nobody fights like me, you should find your own way to do it, not just trying to copy someone."

They both looked at each other and then at Naruto, "How?" They both asked at the same time.

Naruto walked away, heading back inside the ship, "Figure it out. You two are both two halves of the same brain."

Johnny and Yosaku simply looked at each other with confused expressions as Naruto's footsteps sounded out across the wooden surface.

XxX

Nojiko sighed with her cheeks in her hands and glared at the Log Pose that was still going haywire on her wrist, "Point somewhere already…"

Her boredom was broken when she saw Naruto carrying a crate of stuff up from the hold. She saw him go back and forth three times, carrying more crates and then an arm-full of bundled items, "Naruto-kun what are you doing?"

Naruto looked over at her and blinked, "Are you busy?"

Nojiko shook her head, "There's not much I can do until I know where the Log Pose wants us to go first."

Naruto smiled, "Excellent." He formed a seal-less Kage Bunshin and handed the stuff off to it before grabbing Nojiko by her hand and pulling her outside, "Come on, let's get started while we have the chance."

Nojiko was confused, "Started with what? What are you doing Naruto-kun?"

He smirked back at her, "Well I've been racking my brain trying to come up with something for you to do, and I have to say, I'm a complete idiot."

Nojiko gave him a dry look, "I could have told you that myself from personal experience."

Naruto fake laughed, "Whatever. The problem was, I was trying to think of something out of left field for you to use. Some kind of absurd weapon that I had no idea how I was even going to get you in the first place, and then it hit me. There was no need to get so intricate and complicated with it, especially since the main goal of me getting you a weapon was simply defending yourself. And we have tons of the simplest/deadliest things here for you to use." He reached into the wrapped bundles and pulled out a flintlock pistol, placing it into her delicate hands.

She looked at it with wide eyes and then up to him, "A gun? You're going to give me a gun?"

Naruto shook his head, "Not _a_ gun Noji-chan." He pulled the cover off of the things he had brought up, "_Guns_." He walked over and pried open a crate, "Johnny and Yosaku did do something right by dragging all of this crap onto our ship. Do you think you stole enough ammunition though? Seriously, I could make 100 Kage Bunshin, arm them to the teeth, and have them get into a two day wasteful shootout with each other and still have enough here to teach Noji-chan how to shoot." The two swordsmen just grinned, "Now I'll never pick one of these damn things up, I like punching people in the face too much to use guns, but you, you can learn how to use these. I know enough from my time on a merchant ship that got me to the East Blue in the first place to teach you how to use them better."

Nojiko held the pistol in her hands, "Why a gun?"

Naruto shrugged, "You don't seem to be the type to pick up knife fighting so teaching you how to do that seemed out. Besides, the very first thing you did when we met was shove a pistol in my face, so you're not unfamiliar with them."

Nojiko kneeled down to look at what Naruto had on hand as far as firearms went, "Well in that case, the first thing _you_ did when we first met was stare at my chest. So what does that say about you?"

Naruto chuckled, "Well what I think it says about _you_, is that you have a nice rack… and that your tattoo attracts attention to them. Speaking of which, you bending down to check those guns like that is giving me prime view of your cleavage. As if you didn't want me to look… tease."

"Pervert!" Nojiko got a tick mark on her head and pointed the pistol at Naruto and pulled the trigger getting an empty click sound for her trouble.

Naruto smirked and revealed what was in the crate he opened. Cases of ammunition and powder, "Did you really think I would give you a loaded gun and then say something so stupid? I'm wiser than that Noji-chan." He finished with his eyes closed… right before getting cracked over the head with the butt of the pistol, "Ow! Shit!"

Johnny and Yosaku snickered from their place near the wheel, "Naruto-aniki just got clocked."

Nojiko held the gun by its muzzle, glaring at Naruto who was holding his head with tears in his eyes, "We didn't have many bullets for me to use because of Arlong's whole 'no stockpiling weapons' thing. I never fired it before."

Naruto rubbed the bump on his head and pointed at all of the things out on the tarp he brought up to the deck, "All of this stuff has uses. We have extras of most of them thanks to our friends with sticky fingers." He said while pointing up at a waving Johnny and Yosaku, "Flintlock pistol." He started to say as he positioned himself behind Nojiko, taking her hands into the proper firing position, "This is how you aim as a beginner. When you're good you'll only need one hand to hit stuff while in full movement, but for now you aim like this until it becomes clockwork for you to shoot the bullseye of a moving target."

Nojiko nodded, blushing the entire time as Naruto guided her movements from behind her. Thinking she had a shot she pulled the trigger just to get another click. She looked back at Naruto questioningly.

Naruto let go of her and moved over to one of the crates to grab a box of bullets and powder, "We didn't load it yet Noji-chan. I just wanted you to get used to the feeling of holding it and aiming it." He took the gun from her and dropped some powder into the gun before placing three bullets inside, "These aren't the super cheap ones like the one you tried to use on me. It can hold three shots each, then you need to reload. You also need to work on your reload time, I'll come up with a way for you to practice that without wasting stuff. You should always have at least two on you since reloading in the middle of a fight is a terrible idea, especially since you don't know how to do it right yet."

He handed the gun back to her, "Now hit the target over there. I usually use it to practice with kunai and shuriken, but I'm as good as I'm going to get with those, consider these bullseyes yours to practice on."

Nojiko nodded and took up the stance that Naruto first placed her in. Her first shot recoiled, making her stumble and she missed the target altogether, "Damn it!"

Naruto steadied her, "That's okay. Every gun has some kind of kick to it. And you'll be learning how to use all of these." He kneeled down and pointed to each one, "Rifle, for long range. It's extremely accurate, but you have to reload after every shot, so only use it when you are far enough to hit something without being left a sitting duck when or if you miss." He pointed at another, "Shotgun, for super close range. This requires a whole different kind of shot that I didn't bring up here. Use it when you're surrounded or about to fight multiple opponents at once, it has two shots and then you reload."

He looked up at her and tapped the pistol in her hand, "That should be your go to weapon at all times and the thing that you end up being best with since it's basically multipurpose and if you end up fighting, chances are the fight will start with whoever your opponent is too close for proper rifle work and too far for your shotgun to be effective."

Nojiko nodded and then pointed at some round things with fuses on the ends, "What are these then Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shrugged and picked one up, "I have no clue. No one ever went over these with me. I guess they're like some kind of Marine-only weapons. I wonder what they do." Naruto lit one and watched as the fuse slowly started burning down.

Johnny started sweating, "Um, Naruto-aniki, only cannons have wicks like that. I think you should get rid of that thing, now!"

Naruto's eyes widened, "Oh shit, Noji-chan get down!" Nojiko did as instructed while Naruto threw the ball as high and as hard as he could. One second after it left his hands it went up in a fiery explosion.

The entire crew watched the scene wide-eyed until a grin slowly spread across Nojiko's face as she picked up another one, "I think I like these." She fished in her pockets for a match before Naruto snatched it from her hands, "Naruto-kun!"

Naruto placed it back on the tarp with a sweatdrop on his head, "Okay… Now that we know what that does let's keep that far away from anyone with ideas to use anymore on my ship. I just stole-. I mean commandeered this thing, I'll be damned if I watch it get blown to bits by a mini-cannonball." He looked at the explosive orbs wearily, 'Kami, those things are like explosive tags.'

After taking a moment to get her over pouting about not being able to use the explosives, even after hearing Naruto say that they had a ton of them in storage, Naruto proceeded to teach Nojiko how to hold all of the guns and fire them. Soon thereafter she forgot she was supposed to be bored waiting for the Log Pose to lock onto something as she immersed herself into practicing with her new weapons. It brought a smile to Naruto's face seeing how interested she was in guns after just using them once.

XxX

(Five Days Later)

"What do you mean we have to stop?" Nojiko asked as she held her rifle at the ready while Naruto had a frisbee-like disk in his hand, motioning it as if he were to throw it. They were both at the back of the ship, standing on the back upper level, facing the ocean.

Naruto wound up repeatedly with the disk, waiting on Nojiko's cue, "Well I have to get the bonehead brothers decent swords. The crappy ones they have will break the second they fight anyone with an adequate piece of hardware. Zoro could cut right through them right now if they were to fight today, and if they want to be as good as he is one day they need something better."

"Pull." Nojiko said as Naruto let fly with the disk. She waited until it flew far enough for her to get a good challenge from shooting at it before pulling the trigger. With a crack of her rifle the plate broke in mid-air, bringing a smile to her lips, "I see your point, but the Log Pose still hasn't given us a reading yet."

Naruto scoffed, "And going to some random island to see if they have a good smithy or something is really going to stunt our already defective Log Pose? Besides, I need someone to make me more kunai and shuriken, as well as a few more other nasty little toys that you guys seemingly don't seem to sell outside of the Elemental Nations." He picked up another disk and held it at the ready, "You're getting good with that thing Noji-chan. How's it going with the pistol, you good enough for me to start teaching you how to fight on the move?"

Nojiko shook her head and put her eye back to the crosshairs, "No. How are you going to do that anyway? Pull."

Naruto tossed the disk, "Oh, well you're going to try to shoot me while I simultaneously throw sharp, pointy objects at you."

Nojiko flinched at the thought and pulled the trigger. Naruto smirked at her when she turned around to stare at him, "You missed Noji-chan."

Nojiko tried to stammer an argument at him about how that was a just a downright horrible idea all around, "W-W-Why would you do that? One of us could-. No, -will get very hurt."

"For two reasons. One, the second you hit me, anywhere, you're ready for just about anyone you might end up having to fight. Two, because you have to learn how to fire under pressure and while you're in pain in addition to learning how to simply dodge. Naruto just placed a hand on her shoulder before walking away, "You'll be a sniper in no time with what I'm going to make you do." He turned one more time and winked at her before leaving, "You really didn't think that I _wasn't_ going to have some kind of painfully absurd/effective training program for you too did you?"

Nojiko just drooped her shoulders pitifully and walked back inside the ship with her rifle in hand.

XxX

"Naruto-kun/-aniki!"

The sounds of his three crew members down below forced Naruto awake from his spot in the crow's nest. He pulled himself to the edge and looked down below, "What?" He yelled to them.

Nojiko pointed off in the direction the ship was going in. Naruto looked and smiled at the sight of an island, "Fantastic. We've finally got somewhere to stop for a bit."

"No!" Nojiko yelled up to him, holding binoculars in her hand, "Look closer!"

Naruto turned back towards the island and squinted, "Shit." Naruto saw a Marine ship docked in port.

He immediately jumped down from the crow's nest, landing in a crouch in front of everyone else, scaring them from the height of his fall. Nojiko pointed at him admonishingly, "Don't do that."

Naruto stood up straight as Johnny walked up to him, "So what are we going to do aniki? Avoid the island altogether?"

Naruto shook his head, "Like I'm going to let one Marine ship tell me what to do. Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Mass Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" Naruto made twenty clones, "All of you. Man the ship and keep it out of sight. When I need you to pull it around I'll make and dispel a clone, telling you to do so. You signal me by dispelling one of yourselves. We're going ashore."

Nojiko looked at him oddly, "How are going asho-!" Was the last thing she said before she, along with Johnny and Yosaku were picked up by the powerful blonde before he jumped over the side of the ship and sprinted atop the water towards the island.

Naruto jumped onto the pier and dropped them all before he noticed that the eyes of the roughly one dozen people were staring at him in awe. Naruto grinned widely and waved, "Howdy. Would anyone mind telling me where we are?"

One old man spoke up to answer him, "You're on Starter Island lad."

Naruto bowed thankfully to the old man, "Thanks a lot ojii-san. He looked down at his crew who were all disoriented from moving so fast across the water, "Come on you guys, get up. We need to get our stuff."

Nojiko stood up first and dusted herself off, "How exactly are we going to pay for anything while we're here? None of us have any real amount of money." Johnny and Yosaku pulled out their empty pockets, nodding in agreement.

Naruto pulled out a scroll, "Just because all of you are obscenely broke doesn't mean I am. I was with Nami when she last ripped someone off and she stole a massive amount. Enough for me to get a nice little slice for myself."

Nojiko moved closer to him with her eyes locked on his storage scroll, "How much money exactly are we talking about here Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shrugged, "Let's see, Nami-chan stole 5 million beli and I got a good chunk of all of the stuff she couldn't carry with her. Not to mention the stuff that she made Luffy carry when he left it with the people of Orange Town, I kept a sack of that for myself." He counted on his fingers, "I say I have at least 2 million beli worth of stuff. I know I have about 500,000 in greenbacks." He looked up from his hands to see Nojiko's eyes shining, "What?"

Nojiko placed a death grip on his arm, "We're going clothes shopping, now." She finished as if daring him to say no.

Naruto blinked at her before turning to Johnny and Yosaku, "Well guys, it looks like we're going clothes shopping." Nojiko dragged Naruto off in a trail of dust, "Don't do anything stupid and I'll find you guys when we're done!" Naruto yelled as his voice trailed off.

The two swordsmen looked at each other and shrugged before walking off to find something to do.

In the shadows of a building overlooking the pier a sharp canine grin cut through the darkness, "Well, well, well… What have we here? This is the biggest bounty to float through here in quite a while. The 'Seed of War' huh? Sounds interesting."

XxX

(With Naruto and Nojiko)

Naruto sat in a clothing store while Nojiko tried things on. They had been there for the last hour with Nojiko trying on pretty much everything she thought that Naruto could afford… which with 500,000 beli was a lot of stuff.

Naruto sat tapping his finger on the arm of a chair as Nojiko stood in her changing room, "You know Noji-chan, if you're going to make me sit here and give you opinions on stuff you could at least make it fun for me and maybe parade around here in some lingerie. That would be awesome."

Nojiko grumbled from behind the door, bringing a smirk to Naruto's face, "Left your guns on the ship didn't you?" Naruto chuckled to himself, "So do you need me to come in there and help you out? I have something of a magic touch in case you didn't know."

Instead of responding, Nojiko came from the changing room wearing tan shorts that came to her thighs and fit tightly. She had on a sleeveless blue v-cut shirt that was ruffled around the collar and very generous with the amount of chest shown it cut off around her stomach, "So what do you think Naruto-kun?"

Naruto nodded fervently, "Along with the majority of the stuff you try on, I like it. However, I still request the parading around in lingerie for Naruto's amusement suggestion from earlier. Something that we can all enjoy."

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

Johnny led Yosaku through the town as they waited for Naruto to return from whatever it was he was doing. Yosaku sighed, "Why does Naruto-aniki always go off with Nojiko whenever we stop somewhere? Do you think it's us?"

Johnny simply looked back at him with an incredulous look on his face. It would have been far clearer to tell if he wasn't wearing sunglasses, "You are so goddamn stupid it's absurd. If you don't get it then I'm not going to bother explaining it to you."

Yosaku stared at him in a lost fashion, "Yeah… what are you talking about here?"

Johnny shook his head, "Unlike you, Naruto-aniki isn't as close to his right hand as you are, hence why he hangs out with Nojiko, it's pretty simple. Do you understand that? Please tell me you do, because I truly fear to let you procreate if you don't. Future generations don't deserve the fate of having to deal with your ass-backwards offspring."

Yosaku stared at him blankly, "What?"

Johnny just sighed and patted Yosaku on the head, "Just stand there with your hand on your sword handle and look menacing, ok? Good boy."

"You guys are obviously the dumb muscle."

They both looked at the source of the voice speaking to them to see a man crouched on the rooftop right by them. A man wearing a sleeveless dark grey shirt, black pants and black shoes had a smirk on his face as he looked down at them. He was a rather young bald man with pointed ears. He had a light tan and an odd red tribal marking that spanned his entire left arm and went up his face as well, from there they were able to see that he had ears that were somewhat pointed.

Yosaku had his hand on his sword, "Who the hell are you?"

The man grinned and showed off sharpened canines, "Me? Well you can just call me Soren. Your friendly, neighborhood bounty hunter. And you two came into town with the biggest bounty I've seen come around here in a while."

Johnny now had his hand on his sword as well, "If you want Naruto-aniki you'll have to get to him over our dead bodies!"

The grin that appeared on Soren's face cleared the streets of everyone else around as they fled indoors, "Oh… you say that like it can't be easily arranged."

Johnny and Yosaku drew their swords and launched themselves at Soren from the ground, thanking Naruto mentally for keeping their weights low enough to move. They both slashed at the man who dodged, leaving them swinging at a chimney, cleaving it apart.

"You're pretty fast for entry level goons." Soren said from the position formerly occupied by the two swordsmen, "Better than most of the cronies I end up having to deal with, that's for sure."

Yosaku launched himself from the roof, "Stop talking!" He missed his falling slash and cut at Soren rapidly, "We are not goons! Naruto-aniki believes in us and we won't let an asshole like you kill him just because you want a payday!"

Soren smirked as he dodged the blade strikes, "He's got you brainwashed huh? I've seen your type before. You think you're important, but the way you fight I don't see it. You're cannon fodder as far as you boss is concerned. Trust me, you were better off just staying wherever he picked you up from."

Yosaku kept swinging away like a berserker. Just one hit, one hit would shut this guy up. Naruto believed in them, he knew he did. There was no other explanation for why he brought them along, he was strong enough on his own that he didn't need people to fight for him.

A swing got annoyingly close to Soren, getting a frown from him, "Yeah, I'm tired of that thing." He hocked a loogie that hit Yosaku's sword near its guard. The man watched in horror as the blade began to melt in front of his eyes right at the base. Yosaku dropped the sword, or what was left of it as the guard started melting down to the handle.

Soren smirked at the look on Yosaku's face, "You like that?" He had to divert his attention to Johnny who attempted an attack from the rear, "Ibi-Ibi no Tsume (Rot-Rot Claws)." A green glow lined Soren's fingernails and swung at Johnny, who attempted a slash. The two attacks clashed against one another with Soren pushing him back.

Johnny got his footing back but watched his sword break apart in front of his eyes, much like Yosaku's did. Before he could even speak a fist was buried deep into his body. Johnny gasped for air with the enemy fist driven into his sternum, "You know I'm trying to cut back on killing cronies, so why don't you just take a little nap for a while so I can get your captain out here for a fight."

Yosaku dropped to his knees as he saw Johnny crumple to the ground in a heap, "Why are you doing this? And why are you letting us live?"

Soren glanced back at him before walking way, "I want your boss's bounty. There's no need for me to kill you when I've already beaten you so easily. Take my advice; get out of the Grand Line now. Get out any way you can, you'll both only get killed if you go any further than this. You're lucky this is the first island in Paradise, damn lucky." With that he leapt back to the rooftops and disappeared.

Yosaku looked at his destroyed sword and his unconscious friend as he clinched his fists, "Even after all we've done… we're still so weak. Why does Naruto-aniki keep us around when all we do is require rescuing?"

XxX

(With Naruto and Nojiko)

Naruto walked out of a weapon's store with a smile on his face and two wrapped bundles in his arms, "These should be way better than those flimsy starter swords that they've been lugging around."

Nojiko had a smile on her face as she followed him down the street with bags of her own purchases in her arms, "You've spent a lot of money today Naruto-kun. First on me, now on the boys. Why so loose with your wallet today?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Do I need a reason to spoil you Noji-chan? A pretty girl like you should be used to getting gifts from guys like me."

Nojiko blushed and laughed slightly, "Ha ha. I was never that into fooling men with my feminine wiles like my sister, I'm afraid I'm somewhat out of practice on that front. Although as long as you're being so generous I guess I'll have to take advantage of that won't I?" She gave him a playful shove and winked at him.

"Yes, yes. I'm a regular philanthropist. And yes, I do know what that word means before you insult my intelligence again." Naruto said as he continued walking with Nojiko down the street, "What do you think the Marines are doing here anyway? You think we're near a base?"

"It's possible." She said, putting a cute look of contemplation on her face, "But I haven't even seen any in town since we got here. What could they be doing here? They haven't even acknowledged your presence yet."

Naruto shrugged, "I haven't done anything yet. They can't find me if I didn't even do anything to alert them to my presence in the first place. Whatever they're here for it's not my problem, thus by proxy it isn't your problem either, therefore there's no need to worry your pretty little head over it. Besides, escape is just a sprint across the water away."

Nojiko looked around the village for another place to stop at, "You take things way too lightly Naruto-kun. Doesn't anything ever make you get serious?"

Naruto gave her a humorless look, "You've already seen what makes me get serious. When I get serious, bad things happen to people and massive amounts of property damage ensue."

Nojiko remembered, "Like with Arlong."

Naruto nodded, "I wasn't even that serious with Arlong, because like I said, I could have killed him anytime I wanted. By the time he _actually_ gave me a good enough excuse to ignore you and Nami-chan telling me not to do it I had already run the scenario through my head about a dozen times. The worst combination of things possible is me being serious against someone that can actually fight back once I do." He then turned a 180 with his attitude, "Hopefully you never have to see that though."

Nojiko gave him an odd look, "Is it really that bad?"

Naruto didn't look at her this time, "You know how I made that tornado back in Loguetown to get rid of that Smoker guy?" She nodded, "That was me still messing around." Naruto's danger senses went off, warning him of impending aggression towards his person before he picked Nojiko up into his arms and jumped out of the way of green balls of liquid that came at him from nowhere.

Naruto turned around and kept his eyes peeled for a sign of his attacker, gritting his teeth at the realization that Nojiko was with him, "What a time to not bring any guns with you sweetheart." Naruto handed the things he had bought over to her, "Get somewhere out of sight until I handle this."

The blue-haired girl hid at the base of a nearby alleyway, keeping her eyes open for anything that might have launched the attack, "Well the guy has such a pretty girl travelling with him too? What a lucky man." Nojiko's eyes widened as the voice came from behind her. She whipped around only to stare into the empty alleyway.

"What are you looking at gorgeous?" Came the same voice from right behind her once more. She could feel the grin on the man's face. Naruto was right, she really needed to start carrying her guns with her when they went ashore.

"Bad idea."

Naruto dropped an axe kick where the man had once been standing, cracking the ground and leaving a heel-sized crater. This was a feint to get him away from Nojiko so he could keep her safe. The man sprang and flipped into the open street where Naruto could clearly see him now, "Who the hell are you?"

A grin from him showed off sharp canines, "Your other crewmates asked me that same thing before I kicked their asses earlier. I didn't kill them if you're worried about that, I'm here for the big fish Mr. 'Seed of War', or should I say Naruto Uzumaki." He gave Naruto a mocking bow, "My name is Soren, at your service."

Naruto placed himself in front of Nojiko protectively, "How wonderful for you. Now what the hell do you want with us?"

Soren pulled out a canteen and took a long drink, "With the lady? Nothing. I'm here for you and your obscenely high bounty. I've been hanging around this island for quite a few months now and I have to say, you're the biggest potential reward I've seen come through here ever."

"There's probably a good reason for that you know." Naruto said as he took in the man's appearance.

Soren chuckled, "Oh I'm sure of it actually. But like I said, I really don't have any issues with your honey behind you so you can just tell her to get out of here while the big boys settle up."

Naruto looked back at Nojiko and motioned his head, telling her to get out of there. She gave him pleading eyes to let her stay, but the stern look on his face told her that arguing would do no good in this case. With one last look at Soren, who actually waved goodbye to her, she took off away from the area.

Naruto kept his eyes on Nojiko to make sure she made it away with no shenanigans before moving his eyes back onto Soren, "And here I was expecting you to attack me while my eyes were off of you. You really let me down on that one. You didn't even go after Noji-chan and leave yourself a sitting duck. Not the usual bad guy type are you?"

Soren shook his head, "No, you dodged my first attack. You're the first one to do that in quite a while. It's a good thing for you that you did too." He said while pointing at the spot where he had hit with the balls of sickly green liquid. The ground had been eaten away at, as if by acid. Soren cracked his neck audibly and dropped into a tiger stance, "No, since you dodged it and blew my cover of surprise I figured I would just come on out and fight you myself. No need to prolong the game of cat and mouse that was already over. And about your girl, I said that I didn't have any problems with her. It's you that I'm here for."

Naruto set himself into a ready stance, "Well then come and get me Mr. Bounty Hunter."

Soren rushed Naruto with his fingernails glowing green once more and took a swing at him. Naruto drew a kunai and moved in to clash with him before he got a nasty surprise by way of Soren cutting right through his weapon. A wide eyed Naruto jumped backwards, avoiding Soren's follow-up, "Okay, that's not good at all."

"You don't even know the half of it." Soren said as he took a deep breath, "Ibi-Ibi no Kiri (Rot-Rot Fog)!" Soren exhaled and released a green mist that came at Naruto rapidly.

Seeing that nothing good would come from being caught in it, the blonde leapt to the rooftops, but not before hearing something hissing. As he looked down he saw his sage coat melting at the bottom. Naruto cursed audibly, "Goddamn it! Shima is going to beat my ass when I tell her I messed this thing up again."

"A stupid jacket is the least of your worries right now Uzumaki!" Soren yelled as he jumped from the acid mist onto the same rooftop with his glowing claws once more. Naruto began ducking out of the way of Soren's slashes after seeing what they could do to a metal blade.

In the midst of his evasive movements, Naruto flashed out a jab that caught Soren right in the face, disorienting him enough for Naruto to get away and make a few hand-seals, "Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" The wind attack wasn't aimed at Soren, but at the mist that was hanging in the streets, as he blew it away and jumped right back down there. Naruto noticed how the acid had eaten away at the buildings, chipped siding and crumbling brick surfaces.

Soren looked down from the rooftop on Naruto, dabbing at his nose which had some blood leaking from it, "That was a lucky shot Uzumaki. You're lucky that I wasn't ready for you to hit me back or you'd be pretty bad off right now."

Naruto looked around, "Who randomly shoots acid everywhere? You don't do things like that with powers so dangerous! What if you hit somebody or something?"

Soren rolled his eyes, "Uh, I was trying to hit you, duh. It's the Ibi-Ibi no Mi (Rot-Rot Fruit) dude. I would probably hurt you just from touching you."

Naruto pointed at him lamely, "I just punched you in the face and I'm fine."

Soren got a tick mark on his head, "I didn't have my defense active you ass!" He pulled out a random capsule of yellow liquid and quickly downed it before throwing it away, "I know better now."

Naruto pointed, "What was that?"

"What was what?" Soren asked, playing off the utterly random thing he just did.

Naruto motioned to the direction he threw the capsule in, "That. What the hell did you just drink? We're fighting and you're taking portable shots? That's not cool."

Soren frowned, "It's complicated okay. I don't see why you care so much, I'm about to kick your ass and get your bounty. You've got more important things to worry about right now." Soren grabbed his forearm as his entire hand started to glow green.

Naruto's eye twitched, "I don't like the way that looks."

"You're going to like the way it feels even less." Soren rushed down the side of the building to pick up more speed as he launched himself at Naruto faster than anyone else he had fought to date, "Ibi-Ibi no Deba (Rot-Rot Knife)!"

Naruto moved his head out of the way of Soren as he thrusted his hand straight out, sending it right through the wall that Naruto was standing by. Upon contact, the wall quickly corroded, starting from the point where Soren drove his hand through.

Naruto seeing a counter, shot out another punch that hit Soren in the face again, sending him flying down the road, although all wasn't well for him after he made contact. Naruto clutched his fist and started growling in pain as he saw his skin start to burn, "What just happened?"

Soren chuckled and stood up as he rubbed his orbital bone where Naruto had hit him, "Good shot, but I see you got a little taste of my eye acid."

Naruto went back and forth between staring at his fist where skin was starting to flake off and Soren, who had one teardrop going down his face, "Gah! Who squirts acid out of their eye!" He asked angrily and in pain.

Soren smirked, "It's my fruit's power. I can produce powerful acid from my body. Even my fluids, such as my saliva, sweat, or tears can be a corrosive acid as you can plainly see." Soren paused to pull a canteen from his waist to take a sip.

Naruto gritted his teeth as his healing factor was just as quick acting as Soren's acid, "Stop drinking stuff while we're fighting already!"

Soren snapped back, "You don't tell me what to do asshole!" He puffed out his cheeks, "Iba-Iba no Danmaku (Rot-Rot Barrage)!" He started shooting rapid-fire loogies at Naruto that looked like the first attacks that he dodged when the fight began.

Naruto jumped off of the ground and back on the roofs, "Fuck that! Enough with the acid already! Kami, I'm starting to really hate all of you guys with Akuma no Mi powers, they're like freaking Kekkei Genkai!"

Naruto started running back to the docks and made a single Kage Bunshin that immediately dispelled, "What the hell?" It finally hit him as he continued to feel his hand in agony, "Duh… They're taking the damage from the acid that I have as well. Well my clones should at least know to get their asses in gear and pull the ship around."

"Don't run from me Uzumaki, you can't get away." Soren ran along an adjacent rooftop, he then began launching acid bullets at Naruto across the street.

Naruto bared his teeth at Soren while dodging, "Don't make me have to kill you!"

XxX

Nojiko ran through town when she came across Yosaku with Johnny draped over his shoulder, "What happened to you guys?"

Johnny coughed, "Some guy named Soren beat the crap out of us. He melted our swords, it was completely embarrassing."

Nojiko gasped, "He melted your swords? How is that even possible?"

Yosaku cringed at the memory of how easily they were defeated, "He just cut Johnny's up with his hands and spit on mine. It was like they melted or something. We were so useless!"

Nojiko dropped the bundle that Naruto gave her to hold, "Naruto-kun is fighting the guy that you're talking about right now!"

Yosaku dropped Johnny as he saw Nojiko turn to run back the way she had just come from, "And what are you going to do to help him? Do you even have a gun on you?" He grabbed her to keep her from running, "Naruto-aniki will be fine. We just need to go back to the pier that we first came here by and wait for him."

Johnny stood up and limped over to the things that Nojiko dropped. He picked up her bags of clothes and then the bundle that she dropped, "What is this?" He asked as it felt rather weighty.

Nojiko tried to struggle out of Yosaku's grip, "Are you just going to leave him there?"

Yosaku let out a low rumbling from his throat, "Why don't you believe in Naruto-aniki?" That made her stop, "What is he going to have to do to make you believe in him? He beat Arlong right in front of your eyes, he saved your village, he can _walk on water_ and _walls_, he can make a tornado at will and make tidal waves with a stroke of his hands. What part of you thinks that he can't beat that guy?"

Johnny unwrapped the strange package and grinned widely, "Naruto-aniki…"

Nojiko sighed and gave Yosaku an apologetic look, "I'm sorry. You're right. Naruto-kun will be fine. He'll be way better off than if I was there. Let's go wait for him to show up.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Marine ship in the harbor)

"Captain Hina!" A random Marine yelled as he ran through the inside of the ship, "Soren has been sighted at last in town, he's currently in the middle of a fight with another of his bounties."

"Another bounty?" A woman with long pink hair said, as she walked towards the deck, "Which one is it to actually make Soren work so hard?"

Another man handed the first one a stack of flyers that he quickly began to peruse through before pulling out the right one, "This one here!" He handed it over to his captain.

A smile came to her red lips, "It looks like Hina will be having some fun today."

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto threw a handful of shuriken out at Soren who spit his acid bullets at them, melting them in mid-air, "Stop melting my damn shuriken! I haven't found anyone that can remake them yet!"

Soren scoffed, "Well stop throwing them stupid." His fingernails once again glowed green as he launched himself across the street onto Naruto's rooftop, taking a swipe at him, "Ibi-Ibi no Tsume (Rot-Rot Claws)!"

Naruto dodged and watched as he took a decent chunk out of the roof with that, "There's no way in hell you're hitting me with that, or anything, ever again. If you're still on me by the time I get to the docks I'm going to be forced to do something that can be construed as overkill."

"Like what?" Soren asked mockingly, "Yeah, you're fast. I'm certain you can go faster, and you don't seem to be concerned at all despite being on the defensive for the entire fight, but I don't see why you're not sweating your situation right now."

Naruto grinned at him, "Because I learned something about you Devil Fruit users that will make it so that you can't win."

Soren raised an eyebrow, "What?"

The ocean came into view and Naruto leapt from the rooftop, all the way over the street, all the way over the docks themselves to land on the surface of the water where he ran a decent distance out and turned to face Soren with a smirk on his face, "Na na! You can't chase me anymore motherfucker!"

"That's not fair! I can't get into the water!" Soren stopped yelling and blinked before he pointed at him, "How the fuck are you doing that?"

Naruto jumped and did a mid-air heel click, "Because I'm awesome!"

Soren opened his mouth to retort before a figure in a dark pink suit passed him swiftly, he then found himself in iron shackles, "Oh what now? Hey! I'm fighting here!"

Naruto looked over at a woman with long pink hair and lipstick. She wore a dark pink suit with a white blouse underneath, brown gloves and brown boots, "Hina's got you."

Naruto stared blankly at the woman that had just shown up and shackled Soren, "Who are you?"

She looked out at Naruto, "Hina is Hina."

Naruto nodded, "Understood, but who are _you_?"

She got a tick mark on her head and pointed at herself, "_Hina_ is _Hina_!"

Naruto's mouth formed an 'O', "Oh… Why the hell are you here? Can't you see that me and the bald kid have a gripe."

Soren agreed, "Yeah, get out of here and let me get my bounty lady. This isn't any issue of yours."

Hina shook her finger in a disputive manner, "But it is Hina's business. You two are fugitives of the World Government and the Marines, and it is Captain Hina's job to bring you in, dead or alive."

Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "Well, you're stronger than the first Marine I met so I'm getting a better opinion of their skills, but if your only power is putting shackles on somebody then you had better make tracks before you piss one of us off dear."

"Too late." Soren said in a low tone, "So you're a Marine are you? And a captain at that, how wonderful for me." Soren's body began to generate a hissing sound as the air around his immediate body began to sizzle. The shackles around him melted off of his body, "Let me show you what I think of Marines."

"Halt! Surrender now or we'll be forced to open fire!"

Soren grinned darkly as a group of Marines came upon the scene with their rifles pointed at him and Naruto, "How about no? Ibi-Ibi no Ame (Rot-Rot Rain)." Soren fired a large burst of acid into the air. It exploded over the heads over everyone. Naruto, being used to Soren melting every damn thing he ever tried an attack on, and Hina, not being stupid, took a hint and high-tailed it out of there as acid rain began to fall onto the heads of the hapless Marines.

They screamed in agony as their clothing and skin began being eaten through. Soren nodded in accomplishment with a smile on his face, "Ah, the sounds of justice. The only good Marine is a dead Marine. Dying is okay, dead is better!" Soren had his nails glowing green again as he began systematically ripping into the Marines who were still screaming in agony. All they could do was be cut down by the young man who was cutting through them like they were wheat.

Naruto watched from a distance atop another roof, "Man… How incredibly random. He's having a blast down there. I think he forgot all about me." He then jumped away just as Hina attempted to attack him from behind, "I wish you would have taken after his shining example and left me alone."

Hina frowned as the sounds of Soren destroying her men still rang out, "Soren is a monster as far as Hina is concerned. He's nothing but a killer."

Naruto motioned back towards him, "He seemed just fine and perfectly sane to me before you showed up. I mean yes, he did try to kill me and everything, but by now I'm conditioned to that response. No one just flips a switch and becomes a random psycho killer just like that. And anyway, why are you fighting me? I'm not down there turning your men into puddles."

Hina tugged on her gloves while staring Naruto down, "You still have a bounty and you are still a pirate. Soren will still be there after I'm done with you."

"Really?" Naruto questioned as he pointed behind Hina.

The pink-haired woman ducked a swipe from Soren intended for her head, "This is wonderful. Now Hina can capture you both at the same time and avoid having to chase one of you or the other. Awase Baori (Lined Kimono Feather Cage)!" She surrounded the area around Naruto and Soren with a fence-like cage of bars that came from her arms before restricting them.

Naruto jumped out to safety while Soren remained and allowed himself to be restrained again, "You just don't get it do you. You can't hold me with this! Iba-Iba no Hifu (Rot-Rot Skin)!" Soren melted the restraints with the acid that he generated from his sweat, "Now die for me! Iba-Iba no Danmaku (Rot-Rot Barrage)!" Soren released a massive amount of acid bullets from his mouth that Hina dodged for dear life.

"Alright, I'm sick of this." Naruto was standing on the street making hand-seals, "I can see my ship, and my hand hurts like a mo-fo. Time for me to go. Suiton: Suiryuudan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Dragon Jutsu)!" The two preoccupied combatants were caught off guard as a massive dragon, made of water as the name of the attack indicated, flew at them both. They dodged but ended up getting drenched in seawater, paralyzing them both.

XxX

(On Naruto's ship)

Nojiko looked over the ship's edge at Starter Island, nervously watching through binoculars, "Where is he? He had time for his clones to come ashore and find us. He should have beaten us back." Suddenly she gasped as a seaspray shrouded figure ripped through the waves, "Naruto-kun!"

The figure burst from the water and landed on deck, "Yo."

Johnny came up and slapped him hard on the back, "Yo yourself. What took so long?"

Naruto grinned, "I brought a souvenir!" Naruto held up an utterly drenched and unconscious Soren.

All three crew members back away from Soren, who was being held up by his collar by Naruto. Yosaku pointed at him, "What the hell are you thinking bringing him here?"

Naruto stroked his chin, "Well I figured that since I saved his ass he would owe me one. I mean I could have just left him there to keep fighting that Hina lady, but as they say; the enemy of my enemy is my friend… or is he my enemy?" Naruto shrugged, "Either way, dragging him with me seemed way more fun than just leaving him there."

Soren spit out a massive amount of seawater, "Dude, I'm going to kick your ass when I get dry."

Naruto smirked down at him, "Well then it's a good thing I have the perfect position for you on our ship, isn't it?"

XxX

"Naruto-kun!" Nojiko ran up to Naruto who was manning the helm, "Look." She held out her wrist, "The Log Pose finally locked on to an island! We can get started now!"

Naruto grinned at her, "Well that's good." Naruto walked towards the edge of the front of the ship and yelled down, "Hey Soren, we have a destination! Isn't that great?"

Soren was tied to the bow of the ship, his body half submerged in the water, "Go fuck yourself!"

Naruto and Nojiko shared a look of amusement, "Doesn't he just make the best figurehead? You see Noji-chan? And you were getting on me about decorating the ship."

* * *

Omake

Soren randomly pulled out a canteen and took a sip, "I'm here for you and your obscenely high bounty. I've been hanging around this island for a while and I have to say, you're the biggest potential reward I've even seen come through here."

Naruto watched Soren drink from his canteen and smacked his lips, "Hey I know we're most likely about to fight and everything, but can I get a sip of that?"

Soren raised his eyebrow and stared down at him, "Do you backwash?"

Naruto scoffed and rolled his eyes, "Everyone backwashes genius."

Soren twisted his face in thought, "Let me think about it. No! Go fuck yourself!"

Naruto whined, "Oh come on! Don't be such a little girl about this! I haven't had a sip of anything all day and you're just standing there, lording it over me. Give me a sip so we can kick each other's asses!"

Soren turned around, turning his back on Naruto before mockingly taking another sip. Naruto's eye twitched, "Fine, you big baby… I'll overhead then. How about that?" A grin came to his face as he caught the canteen, "Thank you."

* * *

**And that's that. Thanks goes to Agurra of the Darkness for his OC Soren. It kept me from having to actually work too hard thinking of stuff, which is good because I'm a lazy bastard by nature… never would have guessed huh? Anyway, Soren, and all of Soren's attacks are owned by him. He's probably the only OC I'm going to use so there's that.**

**Anyway, I have real work to do so review, and I'll catch you all on the flip. Any concerns or whatnot and I'll see if I can hit you back.**

**Kenchi out.**


	7. Can't Keep Meeting Like This

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I told the loan sharks that I did as a bluff… big mistake because they believed me and are now coming to collect. The good news; I'll have plenty of time to update my stories in the hospital when they break my legs. Lucky, lucky you.

**Chapter 7: Can't Keep Meeting Like This**

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"Again." Naruto said lazily as he had his hand/arm deep inside of one of the cannons, "And this time the loser has to go get Nojiko up. I swear I go way too easy on that girl…" He pulled his arm out with a groan and worked the kinks out of it, "Who lost this time?" He asked as he turned around.

Johnny pointed at Yosaku who glowered at his sunglasses-clad friend. Naruto nodded and sat on the deck between them a decent distance off, "Alright then, you know the rules. First blood wins. And begin."

Both men reached for their new swords from their scabbards. Yosaku had a massive 66-inch nodachi with the sheath placed across his back, 23 inches of it handle, 43 inches of it blade. The handle was purple with silver woven into it. The silver weaving had the appearance of waves, and the sheath was plain black with his name in kanji emblazoned on it.

Johnny had an uchigatana, curved for swift drawing. It was more closely resembling something that Zoro would use, however Naruto told him that this blade was more suited towards speed and accuracy, more so than Zoro's swords and definitely more so than Yosaku's sword. His handle was golden and the sheath was black with gold coming into it halfway down There was no particular pattern in it as there were simply silver grooves going horizontally all the way down.

Upon hearing Naruto instruct them to begin, Johnny immediately launched himself at Yosaku, drawing his blade in the blink of an eye and slashing at him straight from the draw. Yosaku barely had his sword out in time to block as he felt Yosaku pushing against him. With a growl he shoved hard and threw Johnny off of him, sending him hard against the mast. Yosaku tried to follow up, but as Johnny avoided the strike all he hit was the wood of the mast, cutting into it.

"Hey!" Naruto barked, "If you fuck up my ship I'll fuck you up in return!"

The two ignored him as Yosaku's attempts at striking Johnny didn't really come close to hitting him. Johnny saw many openings that just screamed for him to counter, but he knew that at this point Yosaku was weary enough of his speed attacks to be able to get his nodachi up in time to block, no matter how fast he was moving at this point, he just couldn't swing his own fast enough to hit Johnny.

The anger on Yosaku's face was steadily growing as he found himself unable to hit Johnny. He finally overextended on a thrust that left him wide open to Johnny, who wasted no time in lashing out in a counter that Yosaku couldn't recover from, taking a wound on his forearm.

"And that's match, and your arm. Yosaku you lose." Naruto said as he stood up, "You started off decently enough, but then you fell into old habits and Johnny is adjusting to his new sword faster than you. Therefore you lost your edge early."

Yosaku swung out his sword in anger, "You said first blood! That favors Johnny! He's faster with his sword than me."

Naruto simply stared at Yosaku blankly, "Alright Yosaku, I'll show you exactly when you could have won the fight." He summoned Samehada, covered in bandages over his shoulder and motioned to Johnny, "Johnny. Attack me the way you attacked Yosaku at the start of the fight."

Johnny nodded and resheathed his sword before attacking Naruto much the same way that he came at his swordsman partner. Naruto blocked the same way that Yosaku did and pushed Johnny against the mast just like Yosaku did, however instead of swinging Samehada at him like Yosaku swung his own sword, Naruto dropped the sword low, freeing one hand to pop Johnny in the mouth with a punch.

Johnny smashed the back of his head against the mast from the force of the hit and dropped to the ground. Naruto turned around and showed his hand with the blood of Johnny on it to Yosaku, "First blood doesn't mean you have to cut someone. First blood can be obtained any way. The point towards the exercise is to show that you had the clear cut advantage at the time of the stoppage. You were trying to fight like Johnny was. This is what I meant when I told you two to find your own style. You should have been bullying Johnny into positions where he couldn't move around, but you were simply trying to cut him the way he was trying to cut you, that would be next to impossible with your sword and speed the way you are."

Naruto picked Johnny up and steadied him, dusting him off apologetically, "Johnny, you are naturally faster than Yosaku. Yosaku is stronger. That's why I gave you the swords that I did, because they suit you." He turned to Yosaku, "Now go get Nojiko. And be ready to get more than a scratch, because she doesn't play first blood just so you know."

Yosaku slumped his shoulders and headed off inside to wake Nojiko as per the conditions of the match. Johnny meanwhile rubbed his mouth and sat down, "So how long are you going to keep that guy tied to the front of the ship?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders as he walked over to another cannon and stuffed his arm inside it, "I don't know, until he stops acting an ass and threatening me maybe. I fed him this morning and the bastard cursed me out. You'd think that he would be friendlier to the guy that controls whether or not he stops being dunked in the water like a teabag. I can't wait until I take him out though, he's probably going to have the skin of an old man after being submerged for so long." Naruto ran over to the front of the boat, "Hey, how you doing Soren?"

Soren didn't even bother trying to look up as he could tell his blonde tormentor was grinning, "Oh I'm just fine Uzumaki. Trust me, this is nothing, I can stay here for as long as I have to."

Naruto frowned as he leaned on the railing and Johnny walked over to join him, "I don't see why you're still so hostile towards me. I mean, how were you even going to collect my bounty anyway as long as you have your own? Wouldn't the Marines try to bust you when you turned in your proof of victory? And besides, I'm offering you a place on my ship. Why would you hunt for bounties when I'm giving you the chance to live and hang with us?"

Johnny shook his head, "I still don't know why you're doing that Naruto-aniki. He did just try to kill you a few days ago."

Naruto spared Johnny a glance before looking back out at the ocean, "A lot of people have tried to kill me before. A lot of them end up being pretty close to me afterwards too."

Soren scoffed from his place in the water, "I don't go after bounties because I need the money. I do it so that I can test myself you idiot." Sometimes he really cursed his Devil Fruit powers… and the fact that he spent an absurd amount of time around its clear and blatant weakness, "If I can keep beating pirates like you with ever increasing bounties then one day I know I'll be ready for the one man I really need to fight and kill."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "And that would be?"

Soren smirked, "You really don't need to know that. Because once I'm out of here, if you're lucky, I'll simply be on my way and you'll never see me again." He then turned his head directly up to look at Naruto, "And if you're not lucky… well I'll have to turn you into a puddle before I go about my way."

Naruto grinned down at him, "Fun. But if I'm going to be your measuring stick for whoever it is you're going to fight then you've got the wrong guy to measure your own growth against… Because you can't beat me. You're about fifty years too late to challenge me at the level you're at."

"What level do you think I'm at?" Soren asked in an amused fashion, 'I'm dying to know."

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know. You would have destroyed that Hina lady if I had let you keep fighting her, but then again so would I, and I would have been cooler about it. Speaking of cool and our little run-in with the Marines, you went kind of nuts back there. Anything you would like to share with your new crew?"

Soren chuckled, "My 'crew' huh? Well then if you're my crew, let me up out of the water."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope, I'm not going to do that. I can't have you flip out when you get free and melt my ship. I haven't even named it yet you see."

Soren looked around him, "Yes, I kind of noticed that you stole a Marine ship and repainted it. That takes you up a notch in my book, putting you at notch one." He sighed to himself, "You're really not going to let me up are you?"

Naruto gave a thoughtful look, "Well you're kind of a loose cannon from what I've seen. I need to know you won't flip out on my ship for no reason. Your Akuma no Mi powers make that possibility very dangerous seeing as you can melt the whole thing in just a few seconds."

Soren sighed, "I'm not going to melt your damn ship. That would place me directly in the water which would flat out drown me and kill me. Ocean bad, takes away all of Soren's powers. Remember?"

"Tell me your deal with the Marines and maybe I'll let you up." Naruto gave him a serious look, "However if it's an asinine reason you can stay down there and keep enjoying your saltwater bath."

"Fine…" Soren grumbled, "I hate Marines because when I was a kid there was a particular group of them that got their kicks out of tormenting the weird looking kid. And I was the weird looking kid in case you were wondering." He said, looking up with a deadpan expression.

Naruto rolled his eyes, "No, really? Go on."

Soren mumbled about impatient blonde assholes, "Well this continued on for years until I was finally able to get enough strength to fight back thanks to the Ibi-Ibi no Mi. So now I do what I have to, and if Marines get in my way may God have mercy on their souls, because I will not. That's all you're getting out of me damn it."

Naruto frowned, "Not all Marines are bad, corrupt people."

"Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely." Soren said with the utmost seriousness, "Marines have and enforce the power in this world. You might find a few out of how many Marines all over the world that are actually worth a damn, but a few bright spots can't make up for a cancer like that. Tell me you haven't seen a Marine or two that just needed to die in order to make the world a better place."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "Well you've got me on that one. You sound like some kind of revolutionary or something with the way you're talking."

Soren simply looked back out at the ocean, "Call me what you want to. I don't really care. The only people worse than those _dogs_ of the World Government are those _mutts_ of the World Government. One of them in particular…" He growled.

Naruto was about to question who he was talking about until his danger senses told him to look out, and it was a good thing he did too, because a gunshot intended for his backside was fired at him. Naruto made a 'yipe' noise as the shot hit him in the intended area before he burst into smoke and a log took his place.

Nojiko stood with a smoking flintlock pistol and an upset look on her face while Yosaku stood behind her with a somewhat busted up mug, "Got Nojiko-aneue up Naruto-aniki."

Nojiko looked around for Naruto who had disappeared after her shot had missed. She worked hard, trying to keep this ship of idiots going in the proper direction, and the freaky weather of the Grand Line wasn't really helping much at all. There was a hailstorm yesterday, honestly hail? Here? Getting awoken by one of the idiots that would be lost and probably dead without her keeping them on track was the last thing that she wanted to have happen today, and hearing that it was all 'Naruto-aniki's idea' made her want to find one particular blonde and cause physical bodily harm to him.

"Where is that idiot so I can shoot him and feel better?" She asked testily, "And where the hell did he get the log from? We're on a ship."

"Shooting me in the back without warning Noji-chan?" Naruto said as he suddenly appeared at her side, wrapped around her shoulder, "I'm starting to rub off on you I see. And you were too close, I felt you coming before you fired. Try to find the perfect range to hit me off-guard at." He was then cracked over the head with the butt of the pistol, "Like that." He said, rubbing his head.

"Stupid…" Nojiko said as she looked at the Log Pose strapped to her wrist, "Are you keeping us on track?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Of course I am, I haven't touched the wheel since you put us towards the right direction." This earned him another shot from the pistol that he dodged by jumping over the side of the ship, "What? What the hell did I do now?"

Nojiko stomped up to the wheel and began to turn it the right way according to the Log Pose, "You don't just let the wheel sit you dumbass, it will turn on its own that way and we don't want that. You have to make sure that we're not being taken off course by the flow of the ocean, the wind, all kind of things. What kind of captain are you?"

Naruto grinned at her while hanging from the banister, "A sexy captain. Do you want to feel sexy with the captain too Noji-chan?" Once again he was forced to dodge another shot by dropping down and sticking to the side of the ship with chakra, "I'm starting to think that giving her guns wasn't such a good idea."

"Having some trouble with the pretty lady Uzumaki?" Soren said, grinning at Naruto's current predicament with Nojiko.

"Nah." Naruto assured him, "This is just how we play." Naruto dodged another gunshot as Nojiko leaned over the side to shoot at him, "As you can clearly see she likes to play a little rough, but I'm okay with that!"

"Get up here and let me yell at you for being stupid! How I even thought that going with you out here was a good idea is beyond me at this point! I swear, you're going to get us all killed! Here I am, trying to set our route, and you keep getting us lost! How are we going to get anywhere around here?" Nojiko griped from up top, shaking her pistol at him.

Naruto sighed contently as he stayed stuck to the side of the ship, "Yep… She's absolutely crazy about me."

Soren sweatdropped, "Yeah… I'm sure. I can just feel the love from here."

XxX

As the sun began basking them in its warm setting glow, the ship trudged along in a cove. "Where the hell are we now Noji-chan?" Naruto said irritably from the front of the ship, looking as they pulled into an area with weird looking mountains, "Why the hell do these mountains look like cactuses?"

Soren yelled up from his place tied to the front of the ship, "We're at Cactus Island!" A smirk was firmly planted on his face, "You guys are going to love it here, I'm sure." He said somewhat forebodingly.

Nojiko ran from inside up to where Naruto was standing, "I hope so, since we have to stay until the Log Pose resets."

Naruto walked up to her and watched as she marked down their path that had been taken on her map, "So how long do you think that would take?"

Nojiko shrugged, "I'm not sure, you know how long it took for us to get a reading in the first place, remember. It could be hours or days. Either way we need to go ashore for a bit."

"Alright then." Naruto said, not having any real problems with that, "Can you help me out and go tell the guys to get ready to go back on land?"

Nojiko raised a questioning brow, "You really aren't afraid of getting off this ship and going anywhere in the Grand Line are you?" Getting a grin from Naruto as her clear-cut response on the matter.

"Hey!" Soren yelled indignantly, "What about me you bastard? I've been down here for five goddamn days already! Let me up!"

Naruto stroked his chin in thought, "Hmm… no. You're still on punishment for having psychotic tendencies."

"Oh come on!" Soren said indignantly, "There aren't even any Marines here! I promise I won't fly off the handle and go on a killing spree okay! Just let me out of here already, I'm totally waterlogged and these ropes are chafing!"

Naruto turned to Nojiko, "Should I let him up? I mean he has been a good boy lately, and I'm trying to be a benevolent captain, and I don't think drifting into town with some random guy strapped to the front of the ship would go over too well with the locals."

Nojiko looked over the ship at Soren who was looking up at her with his version of puppy-dog eyes before turning back to Naruto, "Can you beat him again if he does decide to lose his sense and do something stupid while we're here? Coming in on our ship does make him our responsibility you know?"

Naruto picked at his ear, "Oh hell yes. Not a damn thing has changed since the first time we fought except that I've had him soaked in seawater for most of the week thus making him far weaker than he would be otherwise." Naruto looked over the edge at Soren, "Besides… Mr. Acid Pants will behave won't he? Otherwise I'll have to uncork the assbeating of a lifetime on him."

Soren's eye twitched, "You are so lucky that threatening your life right now would leave me tied to the front of your stupid ship."

Naruto cupped his ear at Soren, "What was that? I can't hear you over the sounds of the waves crashing against the ship. Did you say, 'Please leave me down here Uzumaki-sama, I love tasting nothing but saltwater for five days and five nights?' Well if you insist…"

Soren paled, "Okay! Alright! I'll be civil, just let me up damn it."

Naruto smirked and looked at Nojiko who simply went off to get her things for the landing, "Yeah sure, okay, go ahead and let him up Naruto-kun. I'm going to get some guns and ammo in case you attract some more trouble while we're here."

As he went over the side of the ship to untie Soren, he responded to the girl, "I don't attract anything Noji-chan! Trouble _gravitates_ towards me. There's a difference."

"What possible difference could there be?" Her voice sounded out from topside.

Naruto started undoing Soren's ropes, "If I attracted trouble I would be hooked into doing things without having any control over the situation. When things gravitate towards me I can choose whether or not to get involved or just let it pass on by. It just so happens that more often than not I choose to get involved."

"Because you're retarded." Soren said as Naruto finished freeing him.

Naruto gave him a short glare, "I can still just let go of you and watch you sink to the bottom of the sea like a rock you know." At that point Naruto looked ahead to where the ship was heading in order to stay put for them all to go ashore, "Oh no way…"

XxX

"Naruto-aniki, what the hell is going on?" Yosaku asked as the entire crew, plus Soren, walked through the throngs of people waiting for them and celebrating them as they got off of the ship and got onto dry land.

Naruto scratched his head, "I honestly haven't the faintest idea. I'm not exactly well versed on how people normally do things." He saw banners and signs and heard people cheering pirates, "Don't people usually hate and fear pirates? And how the hell do they know that about us? We don't even have a Jolly Roger."

Nojiko nudged his arm, "I thought you said you weren't a pirate."

Naruto shrugged, "There are far worse things to be called in this world than a pirate. And the more I've denied it the more I've been called out for being one, thus I have decided that going with the flow on this one would be the best course of action, and it seems to be working out just swimmingly so far."

Soon enough they were greeted by a large man with a strange colonial wig look for his hair who was for some reason holding a saxophone, "I am Igarappoi, the mayor of this village. Welcome to Whiskey Peak, the town of music and liquor. You're the second pirate crew to arrive here today, and we'd like to ask you to join the same festivities that we plan to throw for them."

Naruto deadpanned, "Is the first crew comprised of a guy with three swords, a guy with blonde hair and weird eyebrows, a guy with a long nose, a hot girl with orange hair, and a spaz kid with a scar under his eye and a straw hat?"

Igarappoi blinked at Naruto, "Um… Yes. How did you know that?"

Everyone else stared at Naruto who pointed out in the water where the Going Merry was situated, "How many other ships have that damn sheep thing as its figurehead?" He moved past the mayor, "Okay then, let's go pop in and say hey to everybody."

Naruto led everyone to a tavern that sounded very lively and kicked the front door open, attracting all eyes to them, "Where are my lovable Strawhat idiots?"

Soren tapped Yosaku on his shoulder, "Who are his lovable Strawhat idiots?"

Johnny and Yosaku turned around. The sunglasses wearing member of the duo grinned, "We'll introduce you right after we get a few drinks in us. It's party time!"

Nojiko looked around the tavern with her eyes stopping on her target, "Nami! W-What are you doing drinking like that?" She immediately made her way over to her sister who was engaged in a contest of the alcoholic variety, her opponent just falling out as she reached her side.

Nami lowered her mug and stared in disbelief, "Nojiko? What are you doing here? Why are you on the Grand Line?"

Nojiko pointed back at Naruto who was currently amusing himself poking an expanded Luffy who was gorging himself on plates and plates of food brought out by the chefs, "I left Commi Island with Naruto-kun and he decided that he wanted to see all of the weird stuff that he kept hearing was out here so now here we are. We almost ran into you at Loguetown by the way."

Nami blinked at her, "You went through Reverse Mountain?"

Nojiko glowered, "No… Naruto-kun distracted me and let us get off course enough that we ended up in the Calm Belt, and we got through that way."

"You went through the Calm Belt and you're alive?" Nami shouted at her blue haired sister, "How did you pull that off?"

Nojiko grinned, "Naruto-kun took a discarded Marine ship when he left the island. Apparently they're equipped to handle the Sea Kings that are all over the place, he can make his own wind current too."

Nodding at the story, Nami turned back to where Naruto was fighting with Luffy over a plate of meat, "Naruto-kun! My guess is 24!"

Naruto was distracted by this, allowing Luffy to snatch the plate away and shovel the food down his throat, "No. Try again Nami-chan!"

Nami smiled and threw an arm around her shoulder, "Well my older sister is following me into the Grand Line! That's something to celebrate!" As she said this, two mugs were placed in front of them both, "Drink up!"

Nojiko looked at the beverage nervously, "Um… I don't know."

Nami gestured around her, "Come on Nojiko! It's a celebration! Everything will be fine."

Nojiko grabbed the mug tentatively, "Well okay…"

XxX

(Four Hours Later)

Johnny and Yosaku were currently attempting to match Zoro in his liquorfied contests against other patrons of the tavern and were failing miserably to do so. Usopp was telling lies about how he braved the Calm Belt and killed a Sea King. And Sanji was surrounded by a massive amount of women that were fawning over him. Soren walked over to Sanji in the midst of his heaven on earth, "Hey man, how's that itching you were telling me about? It still isn't raw and everything down there right? I said you should go to doctor but you never listen to me."

Upon hearing this, the women scooted away from Sanji with a wary look. Sanji sputtered in disbelief before turning to glare at Soren, "I hate you."

Soren was grinning widely with his sharp canines, "I'm Soren."

Naruto was still sitting next to Luffy, marveling about how much he could eat. There was only one thing that Naruto was willing to gorge on that much… speaking of which. Naruto summoned one of the chefs that were feeding Luffy, "Hey, do you guys think you could stop throwing things down into the bottomless pit here and get me a few bowls of ramen?"

The chef stared at him, "Ramen? I'm sorry sir, I don't think I've ever heard of this 'ramen' before."

Naruto slammed his forehead into the table hard enough to crack it and pulled it up with tears streaming down his face, "Damn this place! Damn the open seas to hell! What kind of miserable, Kami-forsaken, blasphemous, heathenous barbarians are the lot of you? Where the hell can I get some ramen in this world? It stopped being funny three months ago!"

He was interrupted from his rant and potential destruction of the entire building when an inebriated Nojiko sidled up to him with a blush on her face and an empty mug in her hand, "You want to know something Naruto-kun?" She slurred to him.

Naruto looked at her, noticing how out of her gourd she was at the moment before he looked at Nami, who was still drinking grown men under the table, 'Geez, I can see they're not blood related based off of pure alcohol tolerance alone… Kami woman.' He noticed Nojiko getting closer and closer to him, "Enlighten me Noji-chan."

"You're really stupid." She said, poking him in the chest.

"So I've been told explicitly and repeatedly for years and years and years." Naruto said with an amused look on his face.

"Naruto-kun! 17!"

Naruto looked over at Nami, "No Nami-chan, keep trying!" He then felt Nojiko place her head on his chest, "Are you okay Nojiko?"

"No…" Nojiko said. He could have figured that, though the fact that she stayed conscious after four hours of drinking was still remarkable for a normal woman. But she continued to speak, "The whole entire reason I came on this trip in the first place is starting to look like some kind of impossible delusion or something."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Hey, why did you come with me in the first place? You were never clear on the reason. Johnny and Yosaku came because they want to get strong, Soren's here because I tied him to the ship and made him go with us, I'm here because I'm bored with life. Why are you here?" If this was some big secret, hopefully she was smashed enough to be loose lipped on the reason. Alcohol; the safecracker for all of your mental secrets.

She lifted her head off of his chest and looked him in his eyes with a half-lidded gaze, "You... you big dummy."

"Me?" Naruto asked, "You're here because of me?"

"Yes." Nojiko said, sighing as she snuggled back into the warmth of Naruto's chest while ignoring the still going sounds of the Whiskey Peak partygoers, "You are an incredibly strange man. You sometimes seem to have the power to end all existence at naught but a whim, and yet you seem so out of character for someone like that. You treat Johnny and Yosaku as if you weren't superior to them. You have a sense of morality that you do a bad job of trying to hide, even back when you said it's because it was more fun to be a good guy than a bad guy… liar. But you have an attracting quality to you that I couldn't ignore, and that I wouldn't just let leave my home never to return. We all know that if I hadn't come with you, you would have never come back to Cocoyashi Village again."

Naruto looked at her apologetically, "It's kind of better that way Noji-chan. There are a lot of things about me that you don't know. Some of which you would never believe, some of which you would never understand. You have no idea… none of you do."

"So tell me then." She asked, stroking his whisker marks. He could tell where this was going, and every moral fiber in his being was telling him to stop her, that it wasn't right to have this happen while she was like this, but he simply couldn't bring himself to do it, "Talk to me. I came to get to know you better. You're interesting Naruto-kun, I want to be close to you."

"We are close." Naruto tried to reason. What the hell was wrong with him? There was a hot girl, currently crushing on him, that had just made to sit in his lap and was apparently dying to make out with him, and he was trying to talk her out of it. If Jiraiya was alive he would have backhanded him with a studded leather glove on for that, "You are one of my precious people Nojiko, I would do pretty much anything for you."

Nojiko smiled, "I want to be closer. Can you do that for me?" She moved her face closer to his.

"Maybe…" He said, doing absolutely nothing to stop her. Hey, she was a big girl. If she wanted to mack with him in the middle of a tavern then who was he to question her adult decision? After all, this feeling didn't just come from nowhere. At least some part of her wanted it, right? Alcohol just pushed that feeling to the forefront.

Nojiko traced his jawline with kisses as she moved towards his mouth. Once more Naruto did nothing to bring the proceedings to a close, allowing her to finally meet her lips with his. Quickly letting Nojiko take control of the situation as she was pushing to do anyway he allowed her tongue entry to his mouth, and noted that her tasting of alcohol did absolutely nothing to make this seem any less pleasant.

Naruto decided to break them apart to make a smart remark about the situation but noticed that Nojiko had passed out right after they broke away. He smiled down at her and stood up to find somewhere to put her for the night, "Even if she doesn't remember this tomorrow she's going to have one hell of a headache."

As Naruto came back into the main area after putting Nojiko in a bed upstairs he sweatdropped at seeing Luffy, Sanji, Usopp, Johnny and Yosaku unconscious on the ground and by themselves. He idly wondered where Zoro and Nami were, but decided that wherever they were was better than passed out on the floor. At that time he decided to only deal with the people he had the responsibility of watching over.

"Wake up." Naruto said, kicking at the two swordsmen on the ground, "I swear, I gave Noji-chan the benefit of the doubt when it came to blacking out because she never drinks, ever. But you two, get your asses up. Don't sleep like that when you're hammered. You'll die choking on puke." Naruto looked around as the two grumbled and sat up, "Where did all the villagers go?"

Johnnny and Yosaku blinked and looked at each other, "We don't know. But where's Zoro-aniki?"

Naruto shrugged before a voice came from behind the bar, "Zoro's out dealing with our little problem at the moment."

Naruto walked over and saw Soren sitting down behind the bar with a bottle in his hand, "What the hell are you doing back here? And what problem are you talking about?"

Soren shrugged and took a swig of what was in his hand, "I'm back here because I didn't feel like fake passing out like the fake-samurai or the orange-haired tart in order to get everyone to go away so I just slipped back here and decided to get smashed while I waited for you to stop inspecting Nojiko's tonsils. And the problem I'm talking about is the ton of bounty hunters that have knocked out most of the Strawhats with food and drink and are planning to turn everyone in for their bounties."

"What?" Was Naruto's intelligent reply.

Soren stood up wobbily with a groan, "Whiskey Peak is kind of famous with experienced bounty hunters on the Grand Line. The place that captures pirates starting on their way and turns them in. That's what they're going to do to you Mr. 55 million."

"They can try." Naruto scoffed, "And anyway, why the hell didn't you tell us this when you told us where we were baldy?"

Soren grinned and steadied himself on the bar, "It may have had something to do with me having saltwater soaked into my brain for the better part of a week. Or maybe it just slipped my mind. Anyway I'm totally useless right now. I'm completely and utterly buggered, I got too sauced trying to increase the amount of fluids in my system the fun way while waiting so even if we do end up fighting all I'll be able to do is watch the room spin and puke… though the puke would probably end up eating through whatever it landed on as if it were made of toilet paper."

Naruto sighed, "Just… go get the boat ready so we can get out of here before things get any worse. Johnny, Yosaku, go help Zoro. I'm going to get Noji-chan and maybe find Nami-chan if I can."

"What about them?" Yosaku asked, gesturing towards the unconscious other members of the Strawhat crew.

Naruto started walking away, heading upstairs, "They're fine…"

XxX

Johnny and Yosaku came upon Zoro having the time of his life as he climbed up the side of a building with a huge grin on his face after knocking out a kid with a gun and a nun that tried to use a corrosive gas on his eyes. Apparently facing down a town full of bounty hunters was his idea of a good time.

As the bounty hunters climbed up the ladder he used after him, Zoro tipped it over in delight, sending them all falling back to the ground.

Johnny and Yosaku looked at each other with Yosaku's hand creeping towards the sword on his back, "Should we jump in?"

Johnny's hand moved towards his own blade down by his waist, "Well Naruto-aniki did tell us to go help Zoro-aniki."

With a grin the two men jumped directly into the fray of bounty hunters who were shooting at Zoro as he hopped between buildings. Zoro was still making a mockery of everyone he was coming across until he ended up being pinned down by a large dark skinned woman that had on brass knuckles. The following punch was enough to crack the ground beneath him and send blood pouring down his face. Upon seeing this, the bounty hunters smirked, thinking that Zoro was finally defeated.

Johnny and Yosaku shrugged and continued cutting through the sidetracked enemies. Igarappoi was confused by the pair's nonchalant attitude at seeing one of their own taken down, "Why are you two still fighting? There are still way more of us than you and one of your most powerful fighters was just taken down."

"That wasn't enough to beat Zoro-aniki you idiot!" Johnny snapped as he dodged gunfire before cutting down three of the shooters, "That wouldn't have even beaten one of us." A shout of pain attracted attention to where Zoro had the large woman's face palmed in his hand, "See?"

Zoro held her up with one hand in a claw hold, "What happened to all of that strength of yours? You got enough of punching me in the face?" He released the woman's face, revealing that the pressure of the squeeze had rendered her unconscious.

"Miss Monday loses!"

"What is this, some kind of joke?"

Zoro licked away the blood falling from his face, "Are we going to keep going 'Baroque Works'? I'm kind of tired of playing with you lightweights."

"That info from the Marines must be wrong. This has to be the guy that's worth all that money, there's no way that stupid kid in the hat could be stronger than this."

"Think we should jump in again Yosaku?" Johnny asked as they disposed of the last of the no names.

"Nah." Yosaku responded as he leaned against a building, "Zoro-aniki's got this."

"Yo Zoro." Naruto said as he walked through the crowd of the remaining members; Mr. 8, or Igarappoi the mayor of the town, Mr. 9, a man with orange hair, facial markings and a king's crown, and Miss Wednesday, a woman with blue hair pulled back in a pony-tail. Eventually he turned around standing by Zoro's side, "Having fun?"

Zoro smirked, "Not really. Other than getting to test out the swords I bought in Loguetown this hasn't really done much for me. You?"

Naruto grinned, "I got to make out with Nojiko. Who cares if she doesn't remember it in the morning? I will, and that's all that matters. Now who the hell are these clowns?"

"Baroque Works." Zoro started, "They're after the 20 million beli bounty."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Why would they want that one? I'm worth 55 million. Shouldn't they be trying to slip a knife into my ribs instead? And why are they fighting you? Luffy's blacked out in the tavern, he ain't getting up any time soon."

Zoro grinned, "They think it's a typo and I'm the captain."

"Fun." Naruto said in reply.

"Enough!" Miss Wednesday said as she sat atop a giant duck, "Let's show these guys their place!" The duck quacked in response, "Who told you to sit down?" She yelled when it did just as she stated and sat down.

Naruto and Zoro sweatdropped at the display, "Is this for real?" Zoro asked.

"I'm not sure, but I'll be damned if it's not mildly entertaining." Naruto said with his arms crossed across his chest.

"Paying attention to others will get you killed!" Yelled Mr. 9 as he jumped off of a rooftop, smashing a steel bat into Zoro's sword who lifted it in defense, "You might break your swords blocking like that. These things are made of steel you know."

Zoro sighed and put up only one sword as Mr. 9 swung away at him, "Is that all you can do?" He blocked one more strike and swung his arm away, sending the man flying, "That was way too easy."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I thought people were supposed to be strong on the Grand Line. If this is the best they've got I might as well have stayed in the East Blue, running amok there for all this trip has been worth so far."

Zoro nodded in agreement, "Isn't there anyone that takes this seriously?"

"I do, get ready to die boys!" Called Miss Wednesday standing atop the duck, "Look at my body carefully."

Naruto grinned, "No problems there."

"Miwaku no Memaii Dance (Captivating Dizziness Dance)" Vivi danced, trying to disorient the two with the spirals on her dress.

"I so wish I had a camera right now…" Naruto said, not particularly focusing on her clothing at the time as he was making a valiant attempt to burn this vision into the back of his mind for life. He saw Zoro fall to his knees and turned his attention to him, "What are you gay? Get up and stare at this woman dance right now damn you!"

Taking their distraction as an opportunity she placed a sharpened jewel on a wire around her finger and spun it rapidly, "Let's finish this Carue! Peacock Slasher!" The duck let out a quack as it charged Naruto and Zoro, however it missed them both by a mile and charged right past, "Where are you going?" She yelled at her duck as it ran off into the distance, "I'm going to fall off!"

Naruto let out anime tears at seeing her run off, "No… Hot, bad guy lady girl run away… Come back."

Zoro shook his head in pity, "For some reason I'm really mad at myself for bothering to fight with these people."

"Igarappappa!"

Naruto and Zoro scattered as a burst of gunfire ricocheted where they once stood. The mayor had guns hide themselves once more in his curls, "I'll show you all our real abilities."

Zoro growled from behind the cover of a building, "That gun of his is really going to be troublesome to get to."

Naruto appeared, standing on the wall right above him, "Noji-chan is a better shot than he is."

Mr. 8 all of a sudden burst from a pile of rubble, "Flying bat!" The top of his bat flew off attached to a rope and wrapped around Zoro's arm, "Got you!"

Naruto pointed lamely from his spot on the wall, "Um Zoro… You've got a little something there."

Zoro looked up at Naruto with a glare, "I noticed." He tugged on the rope and frowned, "Steel rope."

Mr. 9 laughed loudly, "You can't get free now, get him Mr. 8!"

"That's right." Miss Wednesday said, "If you move, your sleeping friend here will just have to die." She had a dagger pointed at a sleeping Luffy, still bloated from his meal earlier.

Naruto looked over at Luffy dryly, "And you follow this guy because…"

Zoro palmed his forehead, "It was a vow on my honor…"

"Prepare to fire!" Mr. 8 shouted as he readied his guns from his curls, firing them at Zoro.

"Good luck with that!" Naruto said as he shunshined away from the line of fire.

"Thanks a lot you rat bastard!" Zoro took action and pulled hard on the rope on his arm, dragging Mr. 9 right into the path, taking the hit for him as he slung the crowned man at Miss Wednesday, knocking her and her duck Carue flat.

"What?" Mr. 8 said in disbelief as he watched the results of his attempted attack.

"I think we call that a victory where I come from." Mr. 8 turned around to see Naruto with his fist cocked back before all he saw from that point forward were stars, "Now where did my two half-witted apprentices go?"

XxX

Johnny and Yosaku finished off the rest of the nameless bounty hunters with matching grins on their faces, "Well at least we know we're better than a bunch of these guys." Yosaku said as he sheathed his sword.

Johnny nodded in agreement as a disinterested voice rang out, "Another boring assignment… Taking care of the weaklings here shouldn't be our job at all."

Johnny placed his hand back on his blade as he and Yosaku turned to face them, "Who are you two?"

"Mr. 5." Said a dark skinned man with wild black hair, a brown trenchcoat with a pink scarf, a pair of sunglasses, and the number 5 on the left chest of his coat.

"Miss Valentine." Was the response from a woman with short blonde hair and bright green eyes. She had on a yellow hat that was rimmed with orange, and a yellow dress with a lemon pattern, lemon earrings, and white high-heeled shoes. Over her shoulder was a green umbrella with blue stripes.

XxX

Naruto sighed and looked down as Zoro was drinking a random bottle of liquor, taking in the night scenery, "Did you have to knock out the hot girl Zoro? I wanted her to dance some more…" He said, almost pouting at the situation.

Soren came up from behind in the shadows, "Wow. You guys sure had some fun here didn't you?" He asked after seeing the amount of bodies strewn about the area.

Naruto walked over to Soren, "The ship is ready to roll at any time?"

Soren nodded, "Yeah. Turned the right way and everything. Do you know how hard it was to move that damn thing by myself? Drunk? Next time send the other two."

Naruto shook his head, "No way in hell. They're drunk too, and even if they were sober they would have sunken the damn thing just trying to unfurl the main sail." Naruto noticed that Mr. 8 and Miss Wednesday were waking up, "Man they can take a hit."

"Naruto-aniki!" Johnny and Yosaku yelled as they jumped up and appeared at his side in a blur.

"What you guys?" Naruto asked. They both pointed off where they found two people walking up.

Mr. 8 noticed immediately who they were, "Mr. 5! Miss Valentine!"

Naruto smirked, "Miss Valentine? Another hot woman, I must be some kind of lucky tonight or something."

Mr. 5 looked down on Mr. 8 and Miss Wednesday, "You two should be ashamed of yourselves. Losing like that."

Miss Valentine let out a laugh, "That's the difference between weaklings like you and us."

Mr. 8 grit his teeth, "You came here to laugh at us did you?"

"Not quite." Mr 5 responded, "We came here because it's our duty. You shouldn't ask us that."

Mr. 8 smirked, "That's fantastic. With your abilities those swordsmen and that blonde boy can be defeated!"

Mr. 5 sneered down at his fallen form, "What the hell are you babbling about now? You think we came all the way to the Grand Line just to help you here? It's supposed to be a punishment so the boss sent us. The boss said that, 'Someone knows my secret, and I don't know how much this person knows. But our company's principle is that everything must remain a secret. No one must know about each other's past or even an identity.' The person that knows the boss's identity shouldn't be allowed to live."

Miss Valentine took over, "After we investigated the case we found out that there is someone in Baroque Works from a particular country sneaking into our little group."

Mr. 8 was sweating bullets at this point, 'So they finally know the truth.'

Naruto looked down as he took the bottle from Zoro and took a swig for himself, "Oh man, this is some quality random bad guy theatre."

Zoro nodded as he took the bottle back, "I need to get Luffy out of there somehow."

Mr. 5 smirked, "The traitors are people that mysteriously disappeared from Alabasta."

At that point, Mr. 8 snapped and jumped up, activating his gun curls, firing at Mr. 5. Miss Wednesday cried out in alarm, "Igaram!"

He turned back frantically, "Please get away now!"

"That's not going to work!" Miss Valentine giggled before smashing Miss Wednesday in the head with a kick, breaking the piece holding her hair in its ponytail before pulling out her umbrella and floating back up into the air, laughing the entire time.

As Miss Wednesday looked up angrily, Igaram was thrown at her feet, smoking. Mr. 5 came walking closer as Miss Valentine landed at his side, "The traitors are Igaram, the leader of the Royal Guard of Alabasta, and the Princess of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi."

Mr. 8 bowed down, "Miss Wednesday is a princess?"

"Stop doing stupid things!" She barked at him. Zoro took advantage of the confusion and pulled Luffy out of the crossfire quickly.

Mr. 5 picked his nose, "Boss ordered us to get rid of you both."

As Vivi readied herself to fight, Mr. 9 took a stance in front of her with both of his bats at the ready, "I don't really know what's going on here, but for as long as we've been partners and friends I have to help you. Please hurry and get out of here." He then tumbled towards Mr. 5 with his bats drawn back to strike, "Double Ultimate Bat!"

"The mission is the most important thing." Mr. 5 stated before he pulled a booger from his nose, "Friendship is a stupid thing that gets you killed as you're about to find out." He flicked his booger at the charging Mr. 9, blowing the man sky high as it detonated upon contact.

Naruto and Zoro stared at the scene, "That's one dangerous booger." Zoro remarked absently. A firm grasp was latched on his leg, "Hey what are you doing?"

Igaram looked up at him weakly, "You are all very strong people, and due to that I have a request to ask of you. I need you to protect the princess! I cannot myself due to the enemy's power from the Akuma no Mi."

"Alright." Naruto said before Zoro could answer for himself.

"What?" Zoro nearly yelled, "Why are you going to get involved in this?"

Naruto picked at his ear, "Because I'm bored, and you stole all of the fights." He then turned to where Vivi was riding off on Carue, "And besides… She danced for me." He narrowed his eyes as he saw Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine preparing to take off after her.

"Please!" Igaram pleaded, "Protect the princess! If you can get her to the kingdom of Alabasta we will reward you handsomely!"

"A great prize? Is that really true?" Nami said, appearing suddenly between them, utterly shocking the hell out of Zoro and even Naruto, "That's pretty interesting, how about 1 billion beli?"

Igaram freaked out at Nami's negotiating. Naruto pointed at her in shock, "Are you a ninja? Because nobody ever gets the drop on me like that."

Zoro looked at her, "Didn't you get drunk and black out?"

Nami smiled at him, "There's no way I'm going to sleep in a town that throws random parties for pirates. I faked it the entire time."

Naruto grinned, "Nojiko sure didn't." Nami and he shared a laugh at that for the moment.

Nami turned her attention back to Igaram, "So are you going to pay me that 1 billion beli? If we don't help your princess will be dead for sure."

Naruto's grin dropped as he started walking off in the direction of Vivi's retreat, "She's not going to die whether he pays you or not."

Nami turned towards him in surprise, "Naruto-kun what are you doing?"

He didn't even turn back as he walked along with his hands in his pockets, "I'm not just going to sit here when I feel something bad going on and I actually have the power to stop it. To just lay back and watch horrible things happen just because they don't concern me… I don't want to turn into some kind of despicable guy that would do something like that."

Nami watched as he walked off, "Naruto-kun!" She yelled to him, "34?"

"Nope. Three strikes and you're out. Try again next time Nami-chan." He said before disappearing in a swirl of leaves.

Nami sat staring before turning around, "Well go and help him Zoro! We can negotiate with the princess after he saves her!"

"Why the hell do I have to do?" Zoro snapped back, "If you want to do that why don't you go by yourself? Why do I have to help you get the money?"

While Zoro and Nami were arguing about the situation, Luffy woke up needing to head to the bathroom. Nami turned around confidently, "Have you forgotten that you still owe me 200,000 beli that you have to pay back with three times the interest?"

Zoro started sweating, "I don't actually have to pay that back right?"

Nami looked at him sadly, "You can't even keep one promise?" Hitting Zoro right in a nerve, "If you do this consider this a wash on the debt."

Zoro gnashed his teeth and stomped off after Naruto's shunshin, grumbling curses at Nami the entire way. She looked down at the fallen Igaram reassuringly, "Don't worry about it. Both of those guys are really strong."

XxX

Mr. 5 had just disposed of Miss Monday with an exploding lariat, "I can turn any part of my body into an explosive. You won't get away Nefertari Vivi." He flicked another booger at her that was split in half by a shuriken that sent it to both sides around Vivi before it exploded, keeping her safe.

"Man, I've still got it." Naruto said as he appeared in front of the girl in a puff of smoke.

"Mr. Whiskers…" Vivi said in surprise at seeing him, forcing Naruto to face-fault.

Naruto stood up and turned around angrily, giving her a look with his eyes closed, "Whiskers? Mr. Whiskers? Not Red-Coat Guy, not Spiky, not Sexy Captain Man, hell not even Blondie, but Mr. Whiskers. I'm not a goddamn cat woman!"

Vivi put on an angry face, "Why do you have to show up right now?" She pulled out her Peacock Slasher and made to attack Naruto but let it stop spinning when he started radiating killing intent that made her choke slightly.

He turned back to the two members of Baroque Works with a serious look, "Calm down, I'm here to keep you safe."

Mr. 5 crossed his arms as he looked at the blonde man standing in front of him, "So you're the one that destroyed this town."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope, that was all Zoro and my boys. I was going to scold them for not fighting you, but after seeing what you can do with a damn booger I have to say, it's probably better that they didn't try. I would like to see how they would do against someone like you, but don't need to piece them back together yet either."

"Why would you want to protect the princess of a country that isn't yours?" Mr. 5 asked.

Naruto shrugged, "She danced for me." He finished with a smile.

Mr. 5 smirked, "It doesn't matter, you don't seem all that strong to me. You're just another worthless obstacle just like all the rest."

Miss Valentine pulled off her hat, smiling widely at Naruto, "That's right. You're a cute obstacle, but an obstacle nonetheless. And you'll be crushed on the ground by my power."

BOOM

"What the hell was that?" Naruto asked as he turned around to see what the ruckus was before sweatdropping, "Oi! What the hell is this?"

Naruto saw Zoro and Luffy fighting and messing up even more property for no forseeable reason. Naruto rolled his eyes and returned his attention back to Mr. 5 and Miss Valentine, "Okay, while those two are doing that, I'll be kicking your asses, that is if you don't just leave right now."

Miss Valentine laughed at his tone, "Feel free to try-." She said before Naruto appeared between both of them and thrust out both of his arms, smashing them into adjacent buildings.

Naruto had his head lowered with a dark expression, "Well since you asked me so nicely I guess I'm obligated to actually follow through on that little threat of mine. Too bad for you, but could you at least stay alive long enough to make me work? It is two on one after all."

Mr. 5 pulled himself out of the rubble of the destroyed wall that Naruto sent him into, "You're really in a hurry to die aren't you?"

Naruto's grin turned on him, "You're not going to quit? That makes this so much better!" He saw Miss Valentine do the same before jumping in the air. Naruto squinted and smirked as he looked up, "Nice view!"

Miss Valentine blushed and looked down angrily, "Now it's really time for you to die! With the power of Kilo-Kilo no Mi (Kilo-Kilo Fruit) I'll crush you like an ant under the weight of 10000 kilograms (22046.23 lbs.)

"That's a lot of weight." Naruto said vacantly, "You're going to want to move princess."

CRASH

"Stop fighting you idiots! You could wake the dead with that crap!" Naruto yelled over at Luffy and Zoro who were still duking it out. The shadow of Miss Valentine appeared over him, "Oh yeah, I'm about to get squished…"

"We're going to die!" Vivi shouted as she covered her head.

Naruto scoffed and pulled Vivi to his side as he ran through one handed hand-seals just as Miss Valentine collided with the ground, kicking up a huge amount of dust and making a massive crater. She floated off of her point of impact to reveal two smashed logs in place of Naruto and Vivi, "What? Where did they go?"

"Yo. Is this your shit?" Miss Valentine turned around to see Naruto clutching Mr. 5's collar in his hand. His sunglasses were broken and he was missing a few teeth along with his broken nose and swollen jaw. Naruto tossed his lifeless body down at her side and dusted off his hands.

Vivi stood behind him, watching Naruto handle the Baroque Works member with his bare hands after seemingly teleporting them out of harm's way in the blink of an eye.

"What did you do to him?" Miss Valentine asked warily. She wasn't much for fighting on her own. While Mr. 5 would keep opponents off guard with his bomb attacks she would float over the battlefield waiting for an opening to finish. Fighting alone was not necessarily her forte. However she wasn't going to give up without a fight and jumped into the air once more.

Naruto rolled his eyes and jumped into the air once he saw her at the apex of her jump just as she was beginning to fall. Naruto air-hiked off of her face, taking advantage of her near weightlessness and tilting her backwards just as she put her weight back on, "10000 kilograms falling on your head. I wonder what that would feel like." He said as he latched around her body for a piledriver, holding her in place as they both fell back down to the ground with a tremendous crash.

Naruto let go of her, noticing that she was still breathing, but was out cold, "You lowered your weight when I first latched onto you, but my collective weight and yours was still good enough to take you out." Naruto's eyes darted behind him and he picked Miss Valentine up before the area he was standing at was rocked with an explosion.

"What the hell was that supposed to be? Your partner was right there." Naruto growled out, forcing the reawakened Mr. 5 to turn back to where Vivi was. He set Miss Valentine down and turned back to Mr. 5 with an angry face, "When I dodged she was going to take the hit instead. That would have killed her, she's defenseless."

Mr. 5 spit blood on the ground, "So what? She knows that the mission is more important than her life. You act as if I should be concerned for her, if she could move that would be great, but if she died from the attack I'd get a replacement partner."

Naruto cracked his knuckles, "How about I replace you?"

Mr. 5 chuckled, "You got two lucky shots in. Touch me again and see how well that goes for you."

Naruto grinned ferally, "Challenge accepted. Kaze no Yaiba (Blade of Wind)." The air around Naruto's hand began to shimmer as he ran towards Mr. 5 far slower than usual, making a show out of his forthcoming attack.

Mr. 5 prepared himself to counter, 'The second his hand makes contact with me, I'll blow whatever he touches to kingdom come. He won't get up from that.' His entire plan was to detonate himself the moment Naruto touched him, since the explosion wouldn't harm him. As Naruto drew closer he prepared himself, but before Naruto was anywhere near punching range he swung his hand out. Mr. 5 thought he was nearsighted or something, until a warm feeling ran down his torso. He looked down and saw a deep gash in his chest bleeding profusely, "But- But how?"

Naruto smirked as he let the wind jutsu around his hand die, "With that attack I don't need to touch you to kill you. Five feet is more than enough room for me to kill you with it. I cut you clean through. Goodbye."

Mr. 5 crumpled to the ground dead before exploding, leaving no trace of himself behind.

Naruto turned back around to Vivi with a grin, "How about that?"

CRASH

"Damn it you two! I am coming over there right now! I'm tired of this crap. The only one that can wreck large amounts of public and private property is me, and that's because I don't pay taxes!" Naruto yelled as he saw Luffy and Zoro continuing their scrum across the town.

* * *

**Bam. Done. Nothing to say. Tired. Need relaxation. **

**Kenchi out.**

**P.S. …Awful Waffle. That is all.  
**


	8. Go Your Own Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. If possession of these things could change hands from challenges to duels then I would be flying to Japan as we speak to issue Oda and Kishimoto written formal challenges to hand-to-hand duels to the death. I would have to make sure I was ready though, since we all know that manga writers are master martial artists with the power to crush walnuts with their pinky fingers and who use their extensive knowledge of combat to write their masterpieces.

**Chapter 8: Go Your Own Way**

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* * *

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"Man Nami-chan." Naruto said as he stood over Zoro and Luffy's fallen forms, poking at them with his foot, "You sure aren't very creative when you want someone to stop are you? Kami, I could have thought of that myself…"

Nami simply wiped off her knuckles, "Then why didn't you?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, because part of me thought that watching them slug it out was hilarious. I have to say, watching other people destroy random pieces of property is entertaining. Not as much fun as doing it myself, but it did the job."

Nami picked both Luffy and Zoro up off of the ground by their collars, "Don't you two idiots realize that if Naruto-kun wasn't here I might have ended up losing 1 billion beli?"

Vivi looked over at them all in confusion, "What are you talking about and why are you helping me?"

"Oh that's right." Nami said as she held Zoro and Luffy back from fighting even more as they woke up, "We have to talk about this, how about some negotiations?" She eventually got a tick mark on her head and slammed Zoro and Luffy into the ground, "Stop fighting you morons!"

Naruto scratched his head, "Right, well while you two do that, I'm going to make sure my people are ready to clear out of here on cue. I'm going to get Noji-chan from the tavern." With that, Naruto grabbed the unconscious Miss Valentine and shunshined away.

XxX

"What's up mon capitan?" Soren asked, leaning against the mast as Naruto appeared in a swirl of leaves aboard the ship carrying Nojiko and Miss Valentine, "You done blowing up half of the town yet or do you want to turn the other side to rubble too?"

Naruto grinned cheekily at Soren, "Are you even sober yet?"

Soren looked away, "Yes."

"Then let go of the mast then and take this chick off of my hands." Naruto started before he saw Soren somewhat sway against his point of balance, "Nevermind…" He stated with a sweatdrop, "You would probably drop her over the edge and we don't really need to lose a prisoner right now."

A shrug from the bald bounty hunter was his response, "Fair enough. Is she one of those Baroque Works people?" A nod was his response, "You really seem to like making a habit of capturing people that you beat."

Naruto walked inside with a smile on his face, "Hey I killed the other guy, what can I say? Tourists like me enjoy souvenirs."

Soren let out a sigh as he lay down on the deck, "Whatever. Take them inside and cop another feel on Nojiko like I know you're going to do. I'll be here drifting in and out of consciousness. If I really do black out though, flip me over when you come back up."

"Will do." Naruto said as he left Soren alone on deck. "What the fuck?" Naruto said after a moment of silence throughout the boat. Soren grunted loudly to let him know he was listening, "Soren what is with all of the barrels in the storeroom? I did not put this crap in here." He said as he stomped back up to the acid-spitting man.

Soren groaned as Naruto's footsteps thudded off of the wood, "Please stop stepping so hard. My head is killing me. The barrels are for me. Apparently the chefs on this island keep massive stockpiles of lemon juice and who am I to not take advantage of such a hoard?"

Naruto looked at him oddly, "Why in the blue hell would you need thirty-five barrels of lemon juice?" He then stopped thinking for a second, "Wait, did they have ramen?"

Soren raised an eyebrow, "What is ramen?"

Naruto sighed and ran his hand through his hair, "Nevermind… But why did you need that much lemon juice? As a matter of fact why do you need lemon juice, period?"

Soren sat up, "I use lemon juice to keep up the acidity of my attacks. If I don't have any acid in my bodily liquids then my Devil Fruit powers are not as strong, bordering on ineffective. To keep up with the amount of acids I use I need to have a lot of fluids in my system as well as a high acid ratio. Keeping me in that water for as long as you did made me basically useless for the time being."

These powers obtained from the Akuma no Mi sometimes seemed to be more trouble than they were worth. Most of the powers that Naruto had seen up to this point had glaring weaknesses and even when there weren't weaknesses, as long as Naruto had a body of water handy he could deal with pretty much anything that could be thrown at him.

At that moment he saw a boat floating away from the cove, but something about it was off, "Hold that thought for a moment Soren." Naruto then shunshined off of the boat, leaving Soren there alone.

Confused as to what Naruto's problem was at first, he shrugged and closed his eyes to go back to sleep before a massive explosion rocked the nearby area. Soren jumped up and looked over the side of the boat where he saw the flaming wreckage of the ship Naruto had been staring at, "What the fuck?"

XxX

"Using a substitute princess… what a stupid idea." Were the words that came from a woman watching from a concealed rocky area overlooking the shore. She had shoulder length black hair, and brown eyes. She wore a purple top that showed much of her cleavage, with a mini-skirt to match. Over the top of that she had an open white fur lined coat and a white cowboy hat on the top of her head.

"I don't know… It seemed like a pretty good idea to me." She turned to see Naruto holding an Igaram dressed in drag to resemble Vivi, "Although the execution was horrifically flawed. If they wanted a decoy they should have just asked me." Naruto dropped Igaram and transformed into an exact copy of Vivi before turning back to himself in a puff of smoke, "Yep, after your little firework show they should be hustling to get out of here as we speak. It's a shame, she would have been safer with me. Oh well, Luffy's crew is good enough to get her to Alabasta." He then leered at the mysterious woman with a smirk, "Since that's obviously where they're going, you wouldn't be a dear and tell me where that would be would you?"

The woman returned his smirk, "No I can't say that I can. Are you sure that you should be making an enemy out of Baroque Works? That doesn't seem like the best idea to me."

"I'm not really the idea kind of guy. I'm the kick your ass and eat you out of house and home before smiling about it kind of guy." Naruto said in response, "Besides, now I'm interested in this whole thing. I haven't taken down an entire criminal organization in ages, and I'm an old hand at it you see. May I get the name of the beautiful lady that I may very well soon be locked in mortal combat with?"

"I shouldn't tell you, but I don't really care. My name is Nico Robin." She said, turning to leave, "You're quite the charmer aren't you? You do know that I'm at least seven years your senior, don't you?"

Naruto chuckled, "I seriously doubt that. Trust me, if there's anyone robbing the cradle here, it's definitely me." He picked Igaram back up and tossed him over his shoulder, "Well it was nice meeting you Robin-chan. Give the Strawhats my best, tell them I'll be seeing them when they get to Alabasta, and tell your boss that I'm coming for his ass, and he'll assuredly know when, because right around the time I show up, everything will start to go to hell for him. Hopefully a pretty thing like you won't get caught in the crossfire of my anarchy."

Before Naruto could make the hand-seals to utilize Shunshin no Jutsu, he felt a hand from the nearby cliff wall grab his shoulder, "Well that's interesting."

Robin simply smiled at him, "If I'm going to warn my boss I should at least know the name of the man that's going to be *ahem* 'coming for his ass' as you so bluntly put it."

Naruto turned around fully, "Uzumaki Naruto. I would ask you for your boss's name in return, but I neither care nor think that it will be important for me to know in the first place because I truly doubt he's a hot girl like you, and if he isn't then I don't really care since I'll probably be breaking my foot off in his ass very soon." Naruto removed the hand from his shoulder, "Until next time Miss Nico Robin. Do you have a code name like all of the others I've met so far?"

Robin giggled, "Miss All Sunday."

"I see." Naruto said, "Well. I will see you in Alabasta chances are Miss All Sunday." With that he disappeared in a whirlwind of leaves.

XxX

"Yeah!" Soren yelled as Johnny and Yosaku came back aboard the ship carrying two more barrels each, "Just set those down in the storeroom with the rest. Wait!" He said, before running up to Yosaku and relieving him of one of the barrels, "I'll take that one myself. I'm thirsty."

Johnny glared at Soren, "And you're sure Naruto-aniki said that he needed all of these on board?"

"Yeah sure, let's go with that." Soren shrugged as he sunk a glowing finger into the top of the barrel before turning it up and drinking it on the spot.

The return of their captain was signified with the sudden swirling leaves and wind. Naruto looked at Soren chugging down an entire barrel with a twitching eyebrow, "I don't even know what to say about that, so I'm not going to even comment on it."

Soren finished drinking his fill and set the barrel down at his side, "Hey is that the Mr. 8 guy? Come on Uzumaki! At least the last one you caught was a hot girl! What the fuck do we need him for? And he's in drag! That just screams wrong signals on all fronts!"

Naruto had a tick mark on his head, "Because we don't know how to get to Alabasta psychopath. This guy is from there, and that's where the Baroque Works are, therefore we need him to get there for the time being."

Yosaku and Johnny came from inside of the ship, "Naruto-aniki." Johnny said, "That girl in the yellow is waking up, what do we do?"

Naruto turned to Soren, "Make sure everything is ready to go, we aren't staying here any longer than we have to."

Soren nodded, "What about this guy?"

Naruto rolled his neck as he walked inside, "Who cares? He'll wake up when he wakes up. Don't come into the storeroom until I say so okay?" He got unanimous nods from all of the men on board.

"I wonder what he's going to go do in the storeroom." Yosaku asked.

Soren rolled his eyes, "Your buddy just said the girl was waking up and that's where he placed her. What do you think he's going to go and do?"

XxX

Miss Valentine opened her eyes, unable to see straight right away due to being dropped on her head not too long ago.

"Man, Soren just had to go overboard with the fucking lemon juice didn't he? Although if I were him and it was ramen I probably would have done the same thing. *sniff* Ramen, you and I will be reunited one day soon, I swear it, no matter where I have to search." She focused her vision to see the same man that had beaten her sitting on a barrel, looking right at her, "You woke up fast. I guess you have some reason to call yourself elite in your little group."

Miss Valentine glared at him from her position tied up on the ground. Naruto shook his head, "You can try to use your Devil Fruit power to break out, but I have no clue what the hell it will actually do for you except sink my ship, and you have no way out if that does happen. So it looks to me that you're stuck with me for the time being."

She looked down, "What do you want with me?"

Naruto got off of the barrel and sat cross-legged in front of her, "That's the easy thing. I want every little thing that you can tell me about Baroque Works. I want to help you, and I don't really want to hurt you, because I really dislike hurting women, but I'm going to need a reason not to do so. Please." He sighed as she turned her head away, "Listen up, I don't know about Soren, but I am fully capable of making you completely and utterly miserable without causing you true physical harm, so I won't really be hurting you, but you'll feel like you're dying by the time I'm done. I can stay down here and torture you for as long as I need to in order to get something out of you. I don't want to but I can."

Miss Valentine looked at him, "What kind of monster are you? You beat us without even breaking a sweat."

Naruto frowned, "You'd be surprised if I told you that I'm actually somewhat used to being called that, but you're simply not on my level. You don't have the experience or the raw power necessary to defeat me. At this rate I'm wondering if anyone ever will, but I'm not one to look a gift horse like this in the mouth. So let's start with something simple, what's your name?"

Miss Valentine locked eyes with him somewhat defiantly, "Miss Valentine."

Naruto smiled and chuckled at that, "Cute. I meant your real name, but if you don't want to tell me your real name that's okay with me. Your real name actually has nothing to do with me or what I really want to know if that's how you want to do it."

Miss Valentine smirked, "You're really bad at this interrogation thing, you know that?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Maybe." He then started leaking killing intent as he sharpened his eyes on her, "But I'm not bad at the torture part I can assure you of that." He then eased off of the malice as he saw her start to shake somewhat, "Do you know your own partner almost killed you during the fight after I knocked you out? When I put you on your back to rest easier he tried to blow me up with you right there."

She was well aware how Mr. 5 usually approached his work, without much care for the collateral damage he caused, that was one of the major reasons she used her parasol to hover above the battlefield during their fights, so that she wouldn't be caught in any crossfire.

"He said that as long as he completed his mission, your life was expendable." Naruto tilted her chin up to look at him, "Why work for people like that? Why would you protect them when one of the lower guys said that your life was inconsequential? I can only imagine what your boss is like."

Naruto sighed and stood up, "I can't let you go. Not now like this, but I will let you walk about." He formed two Kage Bunshin and set them to the process of untying her.

"Why?" She asked, "Why would you let me go around by myself on your ship, what if I sabotage things here?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Because anything these guys see will go back to me. If you do something I'll know immediately, and if the other remaining one isn't enough to stop you, I'm pretty sure that I can." He then proceeded to leave.

"Wait." She yelled before he could get out.

Naruto poked his head back in, "Yes?"

Miss Valentine rubbed her wrists while the Kage Bunshin guards stood around her, "What happened to Mr. 5?"

Naruto blinked, "Oh, he's dead. I killed him after he tried killing you. Trying to kill me is one thing, I'm used to it. But killing your comrades, or not caring for their well-being? Well I guess I'm old school like that in the way that I can't stand people like that. It's a pet peeve of mine."

Miss Valentine watched Naruto leave and looked between his Kage Bunshin that he had left with her, 'How can a guy move between killer and clown so fast? Who is this man?'

XxX

(The Next Day – Open Seas)

Soren stared at Naruto manning the helm with a tick mark on his head, "So I have to comment on something. That girl isn't tied to the front of the ship in the water like I was when you put me on this ship."

"Nope." Naruto mentioned. He really needed to know which way Alabasta was, or at least needed Nojiko to wake up so that he could get a general direction. His eye twitched when Soren jumped and landed standing on top of the wheel, "Yes Soren?"

Soren looked down from where he was standing with a manic grin on his face, "So what's the difference between me and her? We both tried to kill you, you ended up saving us both anyway, and now we're on your ship without ever agreeing to it."

Naruto looked up at him with a smirk, "Yeah, but she's hot. You my friend are not of the female species, thus I do not feel the need to treat you well. You're a tough guy aren't you?"

"You're an ass." Soren grumbled as he jumped off of the wheel and ran up the side of the mast to get in the crow's nest.

"Hey!" Naruto yelled up at him, "How the hell did you do that? I'm the only guy around here that does stuff like that!"

Soren grinned down at him, "I can do a lot of things like this! I wasn't a bounty hunter I just fought the bounties, I was actually a thief to make my living. I've got tons of moves like that!"

Naruto kept yelling up at him, "Get your ass down here and get to work you lazy motherfucker! You are not going to sleep up there, that's my job, and if I'm down here you are sure as hell not getting out of working!"

"Go fuck yourself!" Soren yelled as he sat down, "I'm not on your fucking crew. As far as I'm concerned I'm a hostage! And who are you calling me lazy? This is the most captainy I've seen you act since I've been here!"

"Listen up you acid spitting S.O.B.! If you want me to keep your goddamn lemon juice you're going to-."

POW

Naruto ducked a gunshot that was aimed at his head, "Damn it Noji-chan I'm chewing Soren out! That almost took my head off!"

"Well then you would know how I feel right now…" She said as she ambled out onto the deck holding her head, "Ugh, what did I drink last night? I feel like the walking dead right now."

Naruto came up to her, "You were so smashed last night Noji-chan, it was amazing. I see why you don't like the idea of drinking if that's how you get. Do you remember anything from last night?"

Nojiko groaned and leaned against Naruto holding her head, "Don't make me remember stuff Naruto-kun… Let's see. Nami got me started, then I kept going and going. Then I think I sat in your lap or something and then we-." He eyes widened as she looked up at Naruto's smiling face.

"Yep." Naruto said once he saw the look on her face, "So you do remember. I actually thought you would forget it, and I was going to let you. But apparently you have some kind of drunk recollection ability or something." He put a finger over her lips when she opened her mouth to speak, "You don't have to say anything about it right now. Let it settle in your _sober_ mind what you said and we can talk about it later, okay? Go lay back down."

Naruto smiled at her as he watched her stumble once and turn back to look at him with a blush before going back inside. He then turned to Johnny and Yosaku, "What are you two doing right now?"

Johnny stood in his quickdraw stance, simply standing there, "Everybody with a sword has their own moves. We're trying to come up with our own now that we have these awesome swords Naruto-aniki. Speaking of training, hit me."

Naruto made a half-tiger seal and added more weight to Johnny's bands, "Well there's nothing wrong with that. Just don't forget to keep sparring to get your own style down better. Basics can kill you know." He looked over at Yosaku who was watching Johnny, "So what about Mr. Curly?"

Yosaku turned to Naruto, "We dropped him inside and just let him be aniki. Why did you bring him?"

Naruto shrugged, "It was too late to catch the Strawhats and dump him with them, and when we get to Alabasta he should be a good help to get us to where we need to go."

"And where do we need to go?" Soren yelled down from the crow's nest.

Naruto grinned up at him, "To destroy Baroque Works. Come on, it should be pretty fun."

Johnny and Yosaku looked at one another before looking back to Naruto when Johnny spoke, "Are we really going to go and do this Naruto-aniki? This is a major deal, taking on these people is going to be a big deal. Are you sure we can do it?"

Naruto looked at them and grinned, "Well now that you mention it, I'm not sure how you two are going to do. So just in case…" Naruto made another half-tiger seal as Johnny and Yosaku's weights glowed again before slamming them hard onto the ground, "Enjoy learning how to walk again."

"Damn it Naruto-aniki!"

At the sound of that shout, Naruto's grin turned absolutely maniacal, "I can always bring out Samehada and we can make you run before you can walk so to speak, and by run I mean stab/cut/slash/all of the above sword-like actions."

Johnny and Yosaku shakily pulled themselves to their feet and began stomping around the deck lest Naruto turn that monstrous sword of his on them when they can't even fight back. As this happened there was a frantic series of steps coming from inside before a crack noise as Nojiko walked outside, still holding her head, but looking back inside in a confused manner with her flintlock pistol in hand, "Why is the guy from Whiskey Peak running around the common area like a chicken with its head cut off? Why is he here? Why did I have to pistol-whip him to get him to shut the hell up about some princess or something?"

Naruto proceeded to answer all of her questions in order, "He's here because I brought him here, he was about to be blown to bits and I saved him, and he's worried about the princess of his home country of Alabasta who is currently with your sister's crew as they were both double agents in a criminal organization that tried to kill us while you were passed out last night. I don't know why you pistol-whipped him though, but for some reason the thought of you pistol-whipping anyone is sexy." He looked over at Johnny and Yosaku, "I am a depraved human being aren't I?"

Nojiko stared at Naruto, momentarily taking in all of the information he had just given before she sighed and rubbed her temple, "Okay then. Well he's inside unconscious again and bleeding on the floor. I'm not cleaning that by the way."

Naruto waved it off, "Clean? _We_ don't clean shit around here Noji-chan. That's what these clowns are for. Johnny, Yosaku! Go clean the goddamn common room! I want to see that floor motherfucking sparkle! Hop to it!"

The aforementioned men shakily stomped their way inside to get to work as Miss Valentine with her Kage Bunshin escorts came outside, her characteristic smile not in place since she had awoken on the ship, "I have two questions. One, why is Mr. 8, err, Igaram, bleeding on the floor inside dressed in drag. Two that I never got to ask from last night, what's with all of the lemon juice in the storeroom?"

Nojiko looked at the blonde woman that had just emerged, flanked by two of Naruto's copies, "I might have missed this in passing, but who is this and why is she here?"

Naruto pointed at her, "This is Miss Valentine, one of the people that tried to kill us while you were inebriated last night. And to answer your question dear, Noji-chan here cracked him on his curly dome with her pistol because he was acting the ass."

Nojiko looked between Naruto and Miss Valentine, "If she attacked you then why isn't she dead?"

Naruto scoffed, "I don't kill people just for attacking me, that's counter-productive. When you see a child try to play with matches you don't let them keep doing it, you smack their hand and tell them fire will kill them and destroy everything around them."

"Well then why is she out and about and not tied to the front of the ship like Soren was?" Nojiko asked.

"I know! That's what I said!" Soren yelled down from the crow's nest.

Naruto smirked, "I don't like tormenting women too much. It's not really my thing." He turned to his Kage Bunshin, "Has she been acting shifty or anything since I let her go?"

One of his clones shook his head, "No boss. She hasn't even been looking around. Probably because she would think that we would think she was looking for a weak spot on the ship or somehing. She's actually been going out of her way to _not_ provoke one of us to dispel and come get you."

"Princess Vivi!"

Igaram ran from inside to the deck with blood caking the side of his face before seeing Naruto and grabbing the collar of his sage jacket, "Where is the princess? Where am I? What have you done with her?"

Naruto proceeded to free himself and backhand slap Igaram, knocking him to ground, "I can see why you pistol-whipped him Noji-chan… you'd think the first thing he'd do after waking up would be to find some guy clothes."

Nojiko pouted, "He almost ruined my shirt, grabbing me like that… It could have ripped."

Naruto walked over and comfortingly put an arm around her shoulder, "There, there. He didn't know that I'm the only one that can rip your clothes off Noji-chan." He then dodged a point-blank gunshot from said girl, "Wow, your aim sucks when you're hungover. I'm right here."

Nojiko glared as Naruto walked over to Igaram and kicked him in the side, "Get up so I can explain what's happening."

Igaram immediately shot to his feet, only refraining from grabbing Naruto again when the blonde gave him a glare promising pain if he tried to do so. Naruto nodded in satisfaction, "Okay, Luffy's crew has the princess and they left before us. Now we plan on heading to Alabasta ourselves, but we don't really know how to get there, so what do you say we do?"

Igaram narrowed his eyes at Naruto, "Why do you care about what's going on in Alabasta?"

Naruto turned and walked towards the helm, motioning for Nojiko to follow with the Log Pose, "Honestly I kind of don't, but there are two reasons that I'm going to get involved. Neither of which you are going to be hearing about from me any time soon. You can either help us, and I can assist the Strawhats in getting your princess to where she needs to go when we cross up again or you can not tell me, and I can go about my merry way and drop you at the next island we stop at. Either way I get to move on to doing something interesting so it really doesn't matter to me. Luffy and his people should be more than enough to deal with it anyway, but shouldn't you want to be there with the most powerful allies you can find to fight with you?"

Igaram watched his back as Naruto manned the helm and starting speaking with Nojiko about where the Log Pose was saying to head to next. "Excuse me." He called out, getting Nojiko to turn around to face him.

Naruto did as well, only much slower and with a grin on his face, "Yes?" He drawled out.

Igaram sighed, "As much as I've hated having to deal with ruffians like yourselves for as long as I have, it seems I still have a need for a man such as yourself."

"That's what she said!"

Naruto smirked, "Thank you Soren. And the fact that he's dressed in drag makes that extra creepy as well."

Igaram glared at the gleeful blonde, "Be that as it may, you have proven yourself to be quite capable of easily dispatching Crocodile's elites." He then paled along with Miss Valentine after realizing what he had said.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "So is that the guy running the whole show's name? Crocodile?"

"Holy shit!" Soren yelled down from the crow's nest with an excited grin on his face, "Crocodile? We're going to go kick Crocodile's ass? That's awesome!"

Miss Valentine looked at Igaram rather fearfully, "You aren't supposed to say his name, ever. No one is supposed to know anyone else's name! I don't care if you're marked for death, don't drag me down with you!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "You were going to kill him anyway, are you telling me you're still going to do it? There's no way I'm letting you do that after I went through all of the trouble of thwarting the attempt to blow up his boat."

"What?" Miss Valentine asked, "Who tried to blow his boat up, I thought you killed Mr. 5?"

"I did." Naruto admitted, "But there was this lady that could make her hands and stuff come out of any surface. She tried to blow up his boat and I got him out beforehand before I confronted her."

Miss Valentine's eyes widened, "Miss All Sunday."

Naruto snapped his fingers and pointed at her, "There you go. That was her codename, but she told me her real name was Nico Robin because she didn't care about keeping it from me for some reason. Attractive lady too."

"What?" Soren yelled down from the higher position. "No way! You mean we're going to go fight Sir Crocodile of the Shichibukai _and _'Devil Child' Nico Robin? Being on this ship is awesome! That's a combined bounty of 160 million beli! I know they're tough for that kind of bounty!"

Naruto looked up at the bald young man, "Why do you want to fight these people so much anyway? You seem way too happy to be heading into battle."

Soren chuckled, "Are you kidding me? If I can beat Crocodile that will just put me one step closer to knowing I'm ready to take out my true target. That and those damn Shichibukai in general really piss me off. The concept is complete bullshit."

Miss Valentine recoiled, "Don't tell me her name! She told you because she was going to mark you for death anyway after what you did, and now you've marked me too! I not only failed my mission, but even if I somehow carried it up from here with you watching me like a hawk you told me the top two members of Baroque Works' real names!"

Nojiko looked at the distraught woman strangely, "How in the hell would they know that those things even happened? It's not like anyone here is actually going to tell them that you failed, or that you even know the things that you shouldn't."

Miss Valentine sighed and collapsed against the mast, sliding down to the deck, "They'll find out. They always find out everything. You don't understand, I wouldn't be surprised if they know right now."

"Uzumaki!" Soren yelled from the crow's nest, "Look over there!" He pointed up in the sky at something hovering around the ship.

Naruto squinted and shielded his eyes with his hand so he could look up, "What the fuck is that? Is that a vulture? What the hell is a vulture doing in the middle of the ocean?"

Miss Valentine and Igaram looked up with horrified looks on their faces, "No! Stop them now!"

"Stop who?" Nojiko asked, "The vulture?"

Igaram ran up to Naruto, "That's not just a vulture that's Miss Friday and Mr. 13, the Unluckies."

Naruto nodded, "Okay so they work for Crocodile. What do they do? Because I fail to see how a vulture can do anything to me whatsoever."

Miss Valentine looked up in fear, "They have our faces and are going to take them back to Crocodile. I really am dead now…"

Naruto 'hmm'ed in thought, "Nojiko-chan, go get your rifle. Let's see how good you're getting."

Nojiko looked up and back towards Naruto before shrugging and going inside to get her gun. Naruto leaned against the mast next to Miss Valentine, tapping her on the shoulder to get her to look at him, "If I can guarantee your safety you're going to help us against Crocodile, understood? Or I can just give you the same ultimatum I gave Igaram and can drop you at the next island to let you fend for yourself."

Miss Valentine wasn't sure. Naruto was strong, way stronger than her and Mr. 5 apparently and he seemingly had no problems with facing down Crocodile, but everyone else around him did not exactly inspire confidence and she wasn't sure that one man, no matter how strong, could do it all himself.

Nojiko came back out with her rifle in hand, "Okay Naruto-kun, what do you need me to do?"

Naruto pointed up at the vulture in the sky, "I have given our new friend Mr. Crocodile enough liberties already by telling his second in command that I'm coming for him. He doesn't really need to know anymore about us, or that I didn't kill Miss Valentine, so I need you to shoot that vulture and whatever is riding on the back of it down."

Nojiko loaded the rifle and took aim through the crosshairs before lowering the gun, "So cute! It's an otter with sunglasses riding on the vulture!"

Naruto face-faulted and jumped back up, "Noji-chan that thing is the enemy! Shoot them down already!"

Nojiko held out the rifle to Naruto, "Naruto-kun I'm not shooting that poor little otter or that vulture down. That's just animal cruelty."

Johnny and Yosaku came back outside carrying a bucket and a mop and looked up along with everyone else. Yosaku dumped the bucket out over the side while Johnny looked at Mr. 13 and Miss Friday, his sunglasses allowing him a better look than everyone else could get, "Why is that otter biting my sunglasses style, and why does a vulture have machine guns strapped to its back?"

"Of course it does…" Naruto sweatdropped before pulling Miss Valentine and Igaram up along with Soren jumping down to get everyone else, grabbing everyone to drag them inside while the deck was riddled with gunfire. Naruto looked outside after the first pass to see that they were still circling above, "Okay here's the plan. Noji-chan is going to go out there and shoot them, and the rest of us are going to stay here and watch her do it."

Nojiko snapped at Naruto, "Why the hell do I have to do it?"

Naruto gave her a dry look, "They have guns, you have guns, and if you had just shot them when I told you to we wouldn't even be having this conversation right now. Now go kick their asses and get it over with."

Nojiko pointed outside, "They have machine guns! How the hell am I going to beat that?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "You have all of that cover on deck between the mast and the training dummies set up all over the place, and I've been throwing deadly objects at you for going on two weeks now and you're still alive with no permanent scarring. I think you can beat a damn vulture and an otter in a fight."

Nojiko looked at the rifle in her hand and sighed before strapping it onto her back as she walked off deeper into the ship, "I'm getting more pistols and ammo…"

Naruto grinned, "Atta girl! Go kick their asses!" Naruto noticed everyone else looking at him strangely, "What? Everyone else on the ship has fought to this point except her. I need to know if she can handle herself. She'll be fine, I'll step in if she looks like she's going to lose."

Igaram yelled at him, "Then why don't you go out there and fight them yourself!"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Who am I, your parents? No. At some point I'm not going to always be around, I'm not a superhero. They need to be able to fight and win on their own. Noji-chan is in the same boat as Johnny and Yosaku at this point. She needs to show me that she's actually learning how to fight. The other two are coming along nicely, and I believe Soren's good enough to beat just about anyone we run into…" Soren beamed with pride, "Except for me of course." He visibly deflated at that.

"Aniki why _are_ you so good?" Yosaku asked, "We never see you train, ever, and yet you stomp mudholes in everybody you fight."

Naruto looked over at his swordsman crewmate, "Just because you don't see me train doesn't mean that I don't. You've seen my attacks, do you really think I can train the way I need to with the moves I use? Everything I use I've already mastered, and if I haven't I have my own way of training that doesn't put all of your very existences in mortal peril."

Nojiko returned to the common room with her rifle on her back and a belt around her waist with four pistols, "Do I really have to do this Naruto-kun? I still can't hit you yet, are you sure I'm ready to fight anyone?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes Noji-chan. You're going to do just fine, I know it. Remember, shoot to kill. Incapacitation is nice, but it is not a priority when you use guns. Now show me what you've got."

Nojiko sighed before steeling her features and heading outside, her eyes locked up above at Miss Friday circling overhead once more. Nojiko pulled the rifle from her back and took aim. Before she could get a lock however, Miss Friday saw her with the gun and took evasive action while Mr. 13 prepared the guns on her back to fire. Nojiko heard the guns readying themselves and whimpered before taking cover behind the mast as the deck was assaulted with bullets from above.

Nojiko placed her rifle back on her back and drew a pistol, "I'm going to kick Naruto-kun's ass when I get out of this."

XxX

"Man." Naruto said as he watched from inside, "Noji-chan's going to kick my ass when she gets out of this."

Miss Valentine watched from over his shoulder, "You should get her back in here and come up with an actual plan for this."

Naruto scoffed, "It's a vulture and an otter. Could I knock them out of the sky with my eyes closed? Yes, but if I did that then no one else here would ever learn anything. Nojiko can beat a pair of animals. She's a much better shot than she thinks she is and she's the only one of us that has never fought before."

Igaram wasn't convinced, "I know I could never hit them with my own attack. Are you sure she can?"

Naruto gave him a dry look, "You shoot guns from your hair and from a trumpet and try to overwhelm people up close with firepower. Noji-chan actually aims. And she's actually really good at anticipating targets. She hasn't hit me yet because I'm awesome, she can hit any of you I guarantee it because I move a little faster than Johnny and Yosaku when we train and I'm way more agile. The second that those things give her an opening the fight is over. Johnny, Yosaku, you've seen the bullseyes haven't you? The free-swinging ones I set up for her?"

Yosaku nodded, "I've seen them when they're not in use on the ground. I only see a few holes around the bullseye, not much anywhere else. Are you sure she's good?"

Naruto grinned, "That's because all she hits these days is the bullseye. I have to keep replacing them or else they would have gaping holes in the middle."

XxX

"Um, vulture and otter?" Nojiko asked as she dashed across the deck before jumping behind one of Naruto's set up human shaped targets, "Could you stop shooting at me and go away? I don't want to have to shoot you. What Naruto-kun doesn't know won't hurt him."

"I heard that Nojiko! Shoot them down, because if I have to come out there you don't want to know what I'll do to them! I could always just send Soren out there to melt them too you know?"

Nojiko sweatdropped, "Nevermind then. This seems like the lesser of two, or in this case three, evils. Sorry about this, but a gunshot wound would have to be considerably better than being melted or whatever horrible thing Naruto-kun would do to you to prove his point. I'll try not to kill you."

Nojiko set all of her pistols out on the ground before she finally popped up from the target she had been hiding behind with her rifle set on top of it to help her take aim. Mr. 13 saw the rifle in her hands and sent Miss Friday down again for another attack, forcing Nojiko to take cover again, "Okay, this is starting to get annoying." She looked around as every time she put her head up the Unluckies were all over her with gunfire. As she looked about for her aerial targets before they could open fire on her again she saw that the sail was furled up for some reason, "Naruto-kun you idiot!"

XxX

"Naruto-kun you idiot!"

Naruto turned around to see everyone staring at him, "What? I don't know. I have no idea what I did to piss her off this time, honestly."

XxX

Nojiko grumbled as Mr. 13 and Miss Friday kept making passes at her from above, "Stupid cute blonde moron. Who the hell keeps the sail up in open water?" She shrugged to herself as she sighed and prepared to pop back up, "Might as well kill two birds with one stone… err, so to speak." Nojiko took aim with her rifle once more and shot at the metal piece keeping the sail held up top and let it drop down, just in time for Miss Friday to attempt another head on attack at her that ended up with her bouncing off of it and falling into the water.

Nojiko giggled, "Well now, that was easy enough wasn't it?"

"Noji-chan!" Naruto yelled as everyone came from inside, "That was certainly unconventional. Well done."

Nojiko smiled as she saw him coming over, "Naruto-kun." Before she cracked over the head with one of her pistols, "Why was the sail rolled up you idiot?"

Naruto held his head, "We didn't know where we were supposed to be going remember? Why would I have us aimlessly set off in one direction just to end up with us turning around when we got our bearings?"

Nojiko placed her hands on her hips, "We could have just stayed in Whiskey Peak for the time being until I woke up."

Johnny pointed his thumb at Miss Valentine, "With what we ended up doing while you were asleep that really wasn't the best idea. Are those things dead?" He finished trying to look back over the boat at Mr. 13 and Miss Friday, who they were moving away from pretty quickly.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't care. Noji-chan beat them and that's all that matters right now. You don't always have to win straight up and in the most straightforward way. A win is a win and that's all that really matters in a fight." Naruto then turned to Igaram, "Does that prove my point?"

Igaram nodded, "I guess it proves that you keep company good enough to at the very least support you. Very well. I wish to enlist your services as privateers for the Kingdom of Alabasta."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "How much money are we talking here?"

Igaram sighed, "You may discuss that with the king when we arrive." He didn't really want to be the one to barter with Naruto, especially after Nami tried to hit him up for 1 billion beli the other day.

Naruto made an understanding gesture, "Fair enough I guess. And Miss Valentine, what about you?"

Miss Valentine looked between everyone on board before finally speaking, "Alright, it's either go with you and hope you can beat Crocodile before he kills all of you and me, or go on my own and have Crocodile send people to hunt me down and kill me. I guess I'm going with you then." She finished, actually getting enough spark back in her to laugh a little bit at the end.

Naruto clapped his hands together, "Well that's settled! Now Noji-chan, Log Pose. Hopefully we can get bearings on Alabasta quickly."

"That won't be necessary." Igaram cut in, reaching into his pocket in order to pull something out, "I have an Eternal Pose set for Alabasta. It has coordinates that can take us straight there instead of gallivanting from island to island."

Naruto took it from his hands, "Well isn't that absurdly convenient? But dude, we're going to beat the Strawhats there by a ton if we just head straight there. Are you planning on heading in to fix the situation yourself or are you going to wait for Princess Vivi? Think on it."

Nojiko held the Eternal Pose against her Log Pose, "Well they're facing the same general direction anyway, so I think we'll end up hitting the next island that we locked on to before we end up in Alabasta anyway."

Naruto grinned, "Sweet! Now let's get to where we're going so I can ask that super-hot princess to dance for me again!"

Nojiko glared at Naruto, "What was that Naruto-kun?"

Naruto turned to look at her, "If you want to dance for me Noji-chan feel free, you've got an audience in me."

BANG!

"Love you too Noji-chan."

* * *

**Staph infection sucks… I'm F'n dying! Not really, but this has been the most painful, anger inducing, energy sapping, isolatingy, most BORING four days ever. And I still have another five to go before I even start feeling better. I'm going to sleep now, or at least going to attempt to, I just woke up from a 12-hour ultra nap two hours ago and am now a nocturnal creature by virtue of thus.**

**Hope you enjoy, it's shorter than most and is mostly a set-up chapter, but I'm sicker than a raggedy motherfucker. Kenchi out…**


	9. The Scenic Route

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I hereby challenge Oda and Kishimoto to a Taipei death match for the rights to their respective mangas. Don't duck me anymore! I'm coming for both of you, the gauntlet has been thrown!

**Chapter 9: The Scenic Route**

"Why are we not following my Eternal Pose to Alabasta?" Igaram asked angrily as Naruto did his best to keep the irritation off of his face, "We need to protect the princess!"

Naruto let out a sigh from his seat in the common room, "And I'm telling you that she'll be fine with the Strawhats. Besides, they're not getting there directly either, they have to do it the hard way and island hop. Aside from the fact that we can go straight there anytime we want our ship is faster than theirs."

Igaram didn't know what his point was, "Then why don't we go straight there?"

Naruto gave him an exasperated look, "Because I don't want to. I'll be damned if I'm just going to be waiting around for them to show up, and we have to go to where Noji-chan's Log Pose is telling us to go at some point eventually, so why not kill some time and get this island logged? We'll still beat them to Alabasta since we're still traveling in the same general direction."

The sound of doors slamming in the kitchen got Naruto's attention, forcing him to get up to see what the matter was. Naruto walked in to find Miss Valentine frowning as she checked through the cabinets, "Miss Valentine. What's the matter, are you alright?"

She looked at Naruto, pausing from her search through the kitchen, "Actually there's something wrong here. What the hell do you all eat on this ship? The majority of what I've found are canned rations, mostly of the meat variety, and instant food. Blech. The most edible thing I've found are a box of crackers that I'm certain are eaten in conjunction with the canned meat."

Naruto shrugged, "None of us can really cook, and my favorite food apparently doesn't exist anywhere otherwise this place would be full of it." He finished in a dark voice before lightening back up, "Do you really have that much of a problem with that?"

Miss Valentine placed her hands on her hips, "I do. How have you been living for so long off of this crap you have? And you have a woman on board as well? How has she been eating this the entire time? And she hasn't complained once about it?"

Naruto blinked, "She was the one that brought it onboard. Come to think of it, Noji-chan never eats with us, ever. But she does eat, I know she does, otherwise I would have noticed it and she would have been dead by now. I never really put much thought into it because as long as what I'm eating isn't ramen or anything equally as great I don't care about the things around me when I eat."

On cue, Nojiko walked into the room, "What's everyone doing in here?"

Miss Valentine walked up to her and looked her over, "You seem to be very well fed."

Naruto got a shiver down his back and backed away as Nojiko got a tick mark on her head, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

Miss Valentine noticed the way her words could have been taken and laughed for a moment, "No, not like that. I mean, you don't seriously eat the stuff that I found in the cabinets do you?"

Nojiko scoffed, "Of course I don't. That stuff would kill me. The only ones that can stomach that crap are the blonde juggernaut here and the cast-iron stomach brothers asleep in their room. The only reason Soren never complained is because before this he was strapped to the front of the ship for almost a week. I'm sure any food he ended up getting in that situation was a welcome reprieve."

Naruto gave her a dry look, "I didn't buy this stuff Noji-chan you did. So what, pray tell, have you been eating all of this time, since all of the stuff in the cabinets apparently grosses you out."

Nojiko covered her mouth, "Um, actually just ignore all of that stuff about what I just said. I'm just a slightly picky eater."

Miss Valentine smiled and held up a small tin of unmarked food, "If this was what I had to choose from to eat on this ship then I would be picky too." She walked over to Nojiko and wrapped an arm around her shoulders, "Why don't you just show me how exactly you've been surviving for all of this time while the men have all been eating like prisoners?" The two walked off deeper into the ship, probably to Nojiko's quarters.

Naruto's stared in disbelief where Nojiko had been standing, "Son of a bitch… Noji-chan's been holding out on me." A grin slowly crossed his face, "I knew I was rubbing off on her. I'm so proud."

Igaram took note of something, "If you're in here as is everyone else, then who is keeping the ship on course?"

Naruto shrugged, "My Kage Bunshin of course. It's like I'm working without even having to work, it's beautiful. Whoever said being a captain was hard obviously never had fully competent copies of themselves at the ready."

Igaram frowned visibly at the remark about his Kage Bunshin, "What manner of Akuma no Mi is that? I've never heard of a Devil Fruit that gave one the power of replication."

Naruto sat back down in the common room, "That's because it's not a power from any Devil Fruit. That's all me, I'm just special like that. You don't need a Devil Fruit to be strong, trust me. The only person on my crew that even has any Devil Fruit powers is Soren. Nojiko, Yosaku, and Johnny are a work in progress, but they're definitely getting there as far as I'm concerned."

This brought about more questions from Igaram about just who he had enlisted to assist him, 'What kind of monster can do the things he is capable of without any assistance from the fruits?'

Naruto leaned back and tried to get some shut eye only to be grabbed by the back collar of his sage coat by Miss Valentine, "Why so forceful? And man, you're kind of strong aren't you? That's deceptive."

She had a smile on her face as she turned him around like a dog grabbed by the scruff of its neck, "When we stop at the next island you're giving me money to go get real food for this tub. Nojiko already gave me the okay to tell you to do it. She told me how much you have on you as well, I'm sparing no expense for real food."

Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "And why can't you just swipe food from the stash that Nojiko obviously has in her room? Personally I can eat this shit until the sun freezes over and the sky falls down, and nobody else here is complaining."

Nojiko walked in behind Miss Valentine with a stern look on her face, "Mostly it's because I don't really have enough for the two of us to last for much longer. But she brought up a pretty interesting point."

Miss Valentine dropped Naruto back in his seat and walked around, "You guys aren't getting any nutrition at all from the stuff you're eating. I'm surprised none of you have rickets or something yet."

Naruto made an uncaring noise, "I can't get sick and I can't catch diseases. I'm too awesome to fall ill to anything. But I see your point though. I need my pack mules- err… Johnny and Yosaku in top condition so that I don't have to do the menial chores around here, one of them already caught scurvy once. And they're too stupid to see that the shit they eat is not going to help them keep from catching it again."

Naruto looked out at the two women standing in front of him, "Fine. Buy some stuff that's actually edible for those with more than a handful of brain cells. But still, none of us can cook, so I don't know what you could possibly get that we can make."

Miss Valentine laughed, "Well then you're lucky I'm here."

Nojiko looked at her strangely, "You can actually cook?"

Miss Valentine posed proudly, "Well I specialize in making chocolate things, but I'm not too bad at making other things too."

Naruto pointed at her, "That's way more than anyone else can say, that's for damn sure. If you're sure you want to give it a shot then go for it. It obviously can't be any worse than the crap everyone's been eating."

Nojiko shook her head at Naruto, "You said that you didn't notice that the food was bad."

"No I didn't." Naruto denied, "I said I didn't care. I knew what I was eating was one step above garbage but I didn't _care_, it didn't bother me."

Igaram held up an open can of potted meat and smelled it before gagging and tossing it placing it aside, "You are the most insane man on the face of the planet."

Naruto shrugged, "I prefer 'unpredictable' personally. Now if no one has anything that they need from me, I'm going to go do some more stuff that would make you all question the physical boundaries of things… You would call it training." Naruto proceeded to head outside the ship and jump onto the surface of the water before running off into the distance.

Igaram and Miss Valentine were out on deck as they watched him run off atop the surface of the water, "Who the hell is this guy?" Miss Valentine yelled.

Nojiko smiled, "He's complicated."

XxX

"Naruto-aniki!" Johnny and Yosaku yelled simultaneously, fleeing across the deck, "Call Samehada off!" Following at their heels was the scaly sentient sword, now seemingly way more massive than usual and completely uncovered by its normal bandages, growling at them with teeth bared at them from the top the entire way.

Naruto put on a pondering look, "Hmm… No. You both looked like you were getting stagnant with your training and this way you can stay on your toes. I might have given Samehada a little too much chakra though. If you keep complaining about it I'll increase your weights and see how you do then."

BANG

Naruto leaned to the side to avoid a shot before throwing a fist full of shuriken behind him. Nojiko shrieked and rolled out of the way of the sharp weapons before firing at Naruto again, "Hold still so I can hit you, and stop throwing those stupid bladed stars at me!"

Naruto grinned, "Now if I did that, how would you ever learn how to hit me. I can assure you that I'll probably be the hardest thing you ever shoot at. If you can hit me, you can hit anything. Now back to dodging Noji-chan!" Naruto yelled as he chucked more shuriken at her, "Oh you're so lucky I can't afford to use the real thing and have to throw the blunted training ones at you."

Miss Valentine stood near the wheel of the ship watching in amusement, "I've heard of multitasking but never like this."

"Yo Uzumaki!" Soren yelled from the crow's nest, "We're coming up on some land here!"

Naruto looked up at the acid-spitter and nodded. He placed his fingers to his mouth and whistled, "Samehada! Come here, you can stop tormenting Johnny and Yosaku now."

Samehada was currently locked in a clash with the two men who were marveling at how strong an unwielded sword could be. It disengaged and returned to Naruto's hand, purring as he gave it some chakra before rewrapping it to return it to normal size and sealing it back up.

BANG

Nojiko attempted one final shot at Naruto before he burst into smoke and ended up replacing himself with one of the bullseyes strewn about on deck. Nojiko suddenly ducked and rolled just as Naruto appeared behind her and made to wrap his arms around her with a kunai in one of his hands.

Naruto blinked in surprise, "How did you know that was coming? There was no way in hell you actually felt my presence just now, I made sure of it."

From her place on the ground from where she rolled to Nojiko shrugged, "I don't know. Something just told me you were going to do something like that so I rolled out of the way. The same thing happened the other day when we did this and you ended up cutting that wire that had all of those weapons hidden in a trap. I stayed away from that place for the entire fight, and then when we were done you went over and took the trap apart."

Naruto looked at her strangely, "And you didn't tell me this because? The entire time I figured you just didn't feel like using the entire ship to run away from me that day. You wouldn't go over there no matter how hard I tried to corral you."

Nojiko couldn't really answer him, "It was like I knew what you were going to do."

Naruto stared at her for a few moments before grabbing her chin and tilting it up to examine her eyes, "Hmm. No, no spinning evil red eyes. Good, because that would have been a little too much for me to handle right now."

The way Naruto had been intently looking into her eyes put a blush on Nojiko's face, "Naruto-kun what are you doing?"

Naruto grinned down at her, "What? You can make out with me in a tavern but I can't even touch your face Noji-chan? That's not fair at all."

Nojiko pouted and turned away with the blush still on her face, "Damn you Nami…" Nojiko mumbled, "I was drunk. You can't hold that against me."

Naruto chuckled, "I won't. But I did hold _you_ against _me_ when we were kissing. Anyway, I just got hit with some déjà vu and was looking for something in your eyes that might have told me just how you did that just now. I would say that you sensed me, but you and I both know that you didn't because you seemed surprised yourself that you pulled it off." Naruto pulled her to her feet and walked over to the wheel to pull them into port.

Miss Valentine walked down to where Nojiko was standing with a smile on her face, "You like him huh?"

Nojiko averted her gaze, "I think I somewhat confessed to him and kissed him at Whiskey Peak. He seems to be waiting on me to go any further though, he said something about me getting to know him better, but he's so secretive. You wouldn't think he was by talking to him, but we actually know next to nothing about him."

XxX

Naruto stretched out his legs as he, Johnny, Yosaku, Nojiko, Soren, and Miss Valentine found themselves on dry land, "Alright, Igaram is watching the ship along with a mess of Kage Bunshin. Just head back to the ship when you're done with whatever it is you're doing while we're here."

"Ahem." Miss Valentine held her hand out in an expectant gesture, "The money for the food?" She said somewhat impatiently.

Naruto gave her a perturbed look, "You're getting awfully frisky now that you know I won't flat out kill you aren't you? You're lucky that you're so hot or else I'd give you the Soren treatment just out of principle." He then proceeded to hand her a wad of bills, "Noji-chan, go with her please and make sure everything stays on the up and up."

"Sure thing Naruto-kun." Nojiko said offhandedly before disappearing into the village with Miss Valentine.

Naruto then turned to Johnny and Yosaku, "You two-."

Yosaku cut him off with a roll of the eyes, "We know aniki. Don't do anything stupid, and find you the second that things don't seem right."

"And?" Naruto asked impatiently.

Johnny sighed, "If we do wind up getting in a fight and we lose, prepare to get our asses kicked upon our return to the ship."

Naruto gave him a steely look, "Because?"

Both men sighed and answered simultaneously, "It's all tough love."

"Good men." Naruto said, satisfied with their answers, "Now get out of here." As the two swordsmen went their own way he turned to Soren, "And that means that you're with me."

Soren grinned cheekily, "What? You still don't trust me?"

Naruto shook his head, "It's not necessarily that. It's just if you flip out again at the sight of some Marines I'm going to have to drag you out of there before you get us all busted. You understand, I need to keep my crew and our guests safe."

Soren sighed, "You don't understand man, but I'll just wait. I won't do anything in case we come across any Marines here, you have my word, but one of these days you're going to see what I see when I see one of those uniforms, especially since you have a bounty on you."

"Shouldn't you have one too?" Naruto asked as they both made their way into the village, "Now that I mention it, that Hina lady knew who you were when she first saw us, and I think they were stationed there to come after you in the first place because they weren't even on me until we started fighting."

Soren averted his gaze from Naruto's direction, "Your point is?"

Naruto's eye twitched, "What the hell did you do to them Soren? If you're stuck being my responsibility I need to know what kind of backwater crap you were getting into before you met me."

"Oh not much really…" Soren started, "Training, stealing, fighting guys with bounties for sport, killing a vice admiral…" He said in a small voice.

"What?" Naruto asked indignantly.

"What 'what'?" Soren asked in return.

"That last thing you said." Naruto tried to pry, giving Soren a scrutinizing glance, "What was that?"

Soren played dumb, "Fighting guys with bounties for sport?"

"Soren!" Naruto yelled, "Seriously, what was that last part? Repeat that for me please, I need to hear it again to make sure I'm not insane."

He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well you see, I kind of killed a vice-admiral a few months ago. But I swear it was completely legit! He totally had it coming, he was a complete and total douchebag!"

Naruto's eye twitched, "So when I found you…"

Soren nodded, "Yep, I was pretty much on the run, hiding on that island. I'm insulted though, all they sent after me was a captain? I'm worth at least a commodore coming after me, even if it was just a feeler." He looked over at Naruto tentatively, "So what does this mean?"

Naruto shrugged, "Nothing. I just needed to know what you did. A vice-admiral… really? Was he strong?"

Soren moved his hand in a wishy-washy fashion, "He was in the Giants Squad. All he really had on me was size… and strength… and girth, and maybe durability. Look, the point is I beat him, killed him, and now I've got a bounty. And it's probably bigger than yours."

"Maybe." Naruto said, "If I got 55 million for killing a punk-ass captain and his unit then I can only imagine what you got for killing a vice-admiral that was a giant."

"The vice-admiral, and a shitload of his men, but that charge is complete bullshit because he killed them his damn self when he was trying to hit me. They just used me as a scapegoat. The Giants Squad is pissed off at me though."

Naruto grinned, "You've got enemies huh? I like that. It keeps things interesting."

Soren returned his grin with one of his own, "What about you Uzumaki? Have you got any enemies?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nah. All of my real enemies died a long time ago. I'll probably be making some more while I'm helping you all achieve your goals, so don't worry about that."

"My goals?" Soren asked, "Are you considering me a part of your crew?"

Naruto's grin turned wry, "Are you saying that you really don't consider yourself one of the crew at this point? The other day you pretty much said you were going to fight Crocodile with us, which means that you're fighting someone I directed you to fight."

Soren scoffed, "I'm not amped for fighting Crocodile because you told me to. I'm excited to do it because if I can beat him that means that I'm all the closer to being ready to kill the Shichibukai that I really want to destroy."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "And that would be…"

Soren smirked at him darkly, "You'll know because when I see him I'll be tearing his head off."

XxX

Igaram noticed Yosaku and Johnny reboarding the ship not too long after disembarking, "Did you finish your business that quickly?"

Johnny and Yosaku looked at one another before Yosaku spoke up, "We didn't really have anything to do. We were just killing time and stretching our legs out."

Johnny nodded, "Yeah, we just wanted a little break from training. But we thought we should come back and help hold down the ship until Naruto-aniki and everyone else make it back."

"Why would that be?" Igaram asked genuinely.

"Because." Yosaku started, "We aren't sure, but we saw a ship that was like ours not far from here. That means that it's a Marine ship. It looked personalized though, like Naruto-aniki's ship, but without the orange."

Igaram stroked his chin in concern, "So the Marines are after you all."

Johnny cut in, "Don't be so quick to jump to conclusions. I didn't see any Marine markings on it. Maybe someone took a Marine ship like the way Naruto-aniki did. It could just be another pirate you know."

XxX

"Are you done yet?" Naruto whined, "I want to go already and the Log Pose already readjusted. Let's go."

Nojiko glared at him, "Shut up Naruto-kun. Just because you can stomach the crap on the ship doesn't mean I can. Miss Valentine is taking care to make sure that we have fresh foods and ingredients." Naruto and Soren had linked up with Nojiko and Miss Valentine in the marketplace where the women were still shopping.

Naruto whined, "But I'm bored! Let's go already! I want to see what makes the Grand Line so scary. Other than the Sea King, the huge continent, and the super-hot princess dancing for my aesthetic pleasure I haven't seen jack on this trip."

"I'm almost done." Miss Valentine claimed, "Now make some of your copies to grab the bags full of stuff. " She lifted her arms to show them covered in full bags that were soon cleared off by the requested Kage Bunshin that set off to drop them at the ship, "I just need to get us some fruits and vegetables and then we'll be good for quite a while."

"I already have tons of lemon juice on board." Soren suggested, "What about that?"

Miss Valentine laughed at him, shaking her head, "You are all so lucky. I'm not going to say anything more than that. Just know that you're all extremely lucky."

Soren opened his mouth to respond when a flyer hit him in the face. Naruto pulled the piece of paper off and read it, his eyes widening the entire way, "You're kidding me right?" He flipped it over to show a poster of Soren's wanted picture, "200 million beli. You've got to be fucking with me."

Soren laughed nervously, "I told you I've killed a lot of Marines. _A lot_ of Marines. Like a ridiculous, exorbitant, ludicrous amount of Marines. I'm like the boogeyman of the Marines at this point."

"Listen to the man." Came a stern, calm voice, getting the attention of amassed people, "For the last three years, Soren has been evading and killing Marines set out to detain him. Including Vice-Admiral Declan of the Giant Squad."

Soren chuckled at the sound of the voice, "Drake…" The man in question was somewhat muscular. He had reddish-brown hair and lengthy sideburns, and had on a white-plumed cocked hat, with a domino mask on his face. On his chin was the marking of an X. He wore knee-high boots and gloves that came to his elbows, leather pants, and an open leather shirt, revealing another X mark on his chest. His belt held in a saber as well as a four-bladed axe.

Soren grinned as he looked at the man, "X. Drake. You've sure come far from rear admiral haven't you? And that scar on your chin didn't heal too well did it? You shouldn't have gotten in my and Declan's way."

"Yes…" Drake said, "You and Vice-Admiral Declan."

_(Flashback – 11 months prior)_

_A giant stood in front of an entire village of people with long black hair, a Marines cap, and a closed Marine coat. He stood between the villagers and their village with his amassed underling Marines standing around him, "By order of the Marines, we have discovered that Soren of the Plague has been identified as taking refuge in this village. Therefore a thorough search is ordered to be conducted for his whereabouts."_

_The sight of the massive man unnerved many of the villagers, but upon hearing that all that was to take place was a simple search, they visibly calmed down. They were calm, right until he leapt into the air and crushed a building before kicking another. As the villagers panicked once more he let out a deep laugh, "What more thorough way to search an area of suspicion than to flat out destroy it?"_

_He continued to kick over and destroy more and more buildings, reducing the village to rubble, laughing the entire time as the Marines kept the people from doing anything, even if any were a match for a true giant._

"_Oi!" A voice called from one of the destroyed buildings, "What the hell?" Rubble was tossed aside to reveal a rather scuffed up Soren rubbing his head. He noticed the destruction that had been wrought around him, "Hey, what happened here? This was actually a nice place?"_

"_So this is Soren." The giant called out, "I thought you would be bigger."_

_Soren looked up at the figure towering over him, "I don't think you really have an impartial opinion on that front."_

"_I am Vice-Admiral Declan." The giant turned back towards the villagers, "So you were aiding and abetting a fugitive of the World Government were you? You should all know the penalty for treason." Before he could continue he yelled in pain at a burning sensation on his leg around his ankle. He looked down to see his pants eaten away and his flesh visibly burning._

_A misty haze flew from Soren's body, "They had nothing to do with me being here. None of them knew, I stole everything I ate and drank and none of them were aware of my presence. There was no reason to destroy this place just to smoke me out."_

_Declan stood up straight as he ignored the burning in his leg, "As long as you are eventually brought down the destruction of this village is an acceptable price."_

_Soren frowned, "So you're one of those kinds of people aren't you? Fine, that means that I won't have to feel bad about cutting you down to size big boy."_

_Declan laughed uproariously, "Do you have any idea what you've gotten yourself into boy? Killing so much has gotten you the worst kind of attention. You're fighting the best of the best now, and I don't leave scum like you alive to even give you the opportunity of rotting in Impel Down." He kicked debris directly at Soren in an effort to crush him._

_Soren jumped high into the air to dodge and began running across the ruined landscape to close the distance between the hulking existence of the giant and himself. Declan slapped his massive hand across the ground and kicked up dust and debris directly in the path of the charging Soren. As the diminutive Soren was caught in the smoke, Declan leapt into the air and belly splashed directly where he had kicked up the smokescreen._

_Grinning to himself he chuckled as he figured that he had crushed Soren underneath him._

"_Man that would have sucked if that had actually worked."_

_Declan looked onto his back to see Soren standing there, "What? How did you survive that?"_

_Soren sweatdropped, "I moved. You didn't seriously think I was going to stand in a cloud of dust and wait for it to clear did you?"_

_Declan growled to himself, "I would have seen you move if you had left the dust cloud. No one is that fast without using Soru."_

_Soren grinned, "Well I don't really know what that is. And you probably should have rolled over or something because you gave me the chance to do this; __Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws)__." Soren dug his nails into Declan's back, getting a good hold of him due to his acid powers giving him a good grip. As Declan cried in pain, Soren placed his body flat against his back, "I'm not done yet, __Ibi Ibi no Hifu (Rot Rot Skin)__."_

_With a loud sizzling noise, Soren slowly melted into Declan's back. The giant rolled along the ground, screaming in pain as Soren dissolved through Declan's back muscles. Declan rolled over many of the Marines positioned around the outside of the destroyed village as his innards were liquefied. The villagers broke into a panic and scattered away from the scene while the Marines tried in vain to calm their Vice-Admiral down, some paying for it with their lives. _

_Eventually he came to a stop, laying on his back with one final death rattle as Soren emerged from the bubbling mass that used to be his chest with a frown on his face, "That guy was really a Vice-Admiral? He must've been fast tracked or something."_

(End Flashback)

Soren nodded a wiped a tear of joyous reminiscence from his eye, "Yeah… good times. And don't blame me for that scar on your chin. I didn't tell you to try and stop the idiot from rolling around like he was on fire."

Naruto gave him a dry look while the women looked at Soren apprehensively, "You melted him from the back to the chest…"

"Quite." Drake said, "I have never understood your animosity towards the Marines."

Soren shrugged, "That's because you aren't me. You're just lucky that you quit, otherwise I'd be kicking your ass right now for even trying to hold a civil conversation with me. As a matter of fact I'm still getting kind of pissed off by talking to you."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "How do you just quit? I figured that if the Marines were anything like my military you couldn't just quit." Naruto stared at Drake for a moment before pointing, "You went rogue didn't you?"

"Yep." Soren chirped, "And that's why I mildly respect this bastard. Because he didn't buy into all of that absolute justice bullshit I hear the Marines spouting all the time and decided to go his own way. You do know that they're going to come for your ass right? You knew way too much to just leave Mr. Rear Admiral."

Drake let an almost unnoticeable smile cross his face, "My bounty is higher than yours, 222 million to be exact. Dr. Vegapunk really doesn't want me walking around privy to some of the things I know about the Marines."

Naruto sweatdropped, "You know, I'm starting to think that the size of your bounty is more about politics than being a bad motherfucker like I originally thought if you two have bounties bigger than me."

Soren growled, "I'm not weak Uzumaki. You got me off guard the first time. I didn't know you could control water."

Naruto smirked, "There are still a lot of things about me that you don't know."

Drake grew tired of the conversation, "Well I have nothing more to really say. I will leave you with this however. Beware the Pacifista, and stay away from Kaidou, he's mine." With that he turned and headed off his own way.

Naruto waved and yelled off at the retreating Drake, "I don't even know who or what any of the last three things you talked about are! And I'm not entirely sure that I care!" Naruto pointed his thumb at Drake, "He seemed nice."

Soren chuckled, "You haven't fought him before. Are we done here? The blast from the recent past was fun and everything, but staying here doesn't seem like such a good idea if Drake is here. The Marines really are more than likely on his ass, and I fight Marines on my own terms."

"I'm not sure." Naruto turned to the women, "Are you all ready or what?"

Nojiko looked at Soren, "Y-Yeah. I guess we're all ready." She got a wordless nod from Miss Valentine.

XxX

(Two Days Later)

"Stop being afraid of Soren Noji-chan." Naruto said, sighing as he sat in a meditative stance on the deck of the ship, "Are you a Marine?"

Nojiko, now dressed in white fur-lined parka with the hood pulled up and black mittens as it had gotten snappishly cold all of a sudden, shook her head, "No."

"Are you… whoever it is that Soren wants to kill and drink fruit punch from his skull?"

"No." Nojiko said again before cringing, "I seriously hope not."

"Well then." Naruto said brightly, "Stop being so skittish around him, he's not going to hurt you. Sheesh, you would think that after spending time with me you would be used to hanging out with crazy people."

Nojiko twirled her pistol on her finger, "You aren't 'go off and kill me' crazy. You're 'aww he's so dumb and cute, he can't possibly take care of himself' crazy." She winked at him, "That's the good crazy, it's why I'm here."

Naruto sniffed, "Uh huh… And here I thought that you were here because I'm sexy." He smirked, "That's why Miss Valentine is here."

"Yeah right." He heard from inside, "You knocked me out and captured me remember? The only reason I'm still here is because it was either die alone when Crocodile comes for me, or go out with a fighting chance and die with you and yours. The second option seemed better at the time." Miss Valentine finished, laughing from inside.

"Aww." Naruto drawled, "You say that now, but pretty soon you're gonna love me. I just know it." Naruto shunshined from his spot to directly behind Nojiko, "Noji-chan lo-." The sound of a gun cocking and the pistol being placed under his chin made him stop, "Seriously, how are you doing that? It's creepy."

Nojiko shrugged, "I don't know, but I like it. I can tell when you're going to do this stuff Naruto-kun. I don't think it works on anyone else but you though." Nojiko put the gun down and giggled when Naruto wrapped his arms around her.

Soren yelled down from the crow's nest, "Why is it so fucking cold!" Soren sniffed up a nose drip, "I fucking hate the Grand Line! Wasn't it like spring a few days ago?"

Naruto yelled up to him, "Either get a coat from the shit the Marines left on this ship, or get a girl to snuggle with like me." Naruto accentuated this by giving Nojiko a squeeze, "Either way I want you to shut the hell up about it being cold out here. You don't hear Johnny, Yosaku, Miss Valentine, or Igaram complaining about it. They were smart enough to change into winter clothes."

"No!" Soren yelled down, "I'm not wearing a goddamned Marine coat!"

"Then freeze your balls off for all I care you dumbass! They don't even have the Marine insignia on them!" Naruto yelled at him as he escorted Nojiko inside.

Soren got a tick mark on his head, "Oh go fuck Nojiko you bastard!"

"Fine!" Naruto yelled back, "I will!"

BANG

"Oh come on Noji-chan, that was basically a dare!"

BANG

"Whatever. You know you want me to."

BANG

"Ha! That's three shots, you're out! Whatcha gonna do now Noji-chan?"

CRACK

"Ow…"

XxX

(One Day Later)

"Well, well, well." Naruto spoke from his position at the wheel, "See Igaram?" Naruto gestured to the ship out ahead of them to the familiar ram-headed ship, "It looks like we caught them again. I told you our ship was faster than theirs."

Igaram got restless as he realized that Vivi was extremely close once more, "Well hurry up and take me ashore so that I can find the princess."

Naruto shook his head pitifully, "Slow down guard dog." Naruto made a Kage Bunshin to pull the boat somewhere near the Going Merry while he cupped his hands by his mouth, "Johnny, Yosaku, you're with me. We're going with Igaram to find the Strawhats."

"Hai Naruto-aniki!" Both men ran up to Naruto, decked out in winter gear, and stood at attention.

Naruto sweatdropped at how fast they had made it over to him, 'Kami… Do they adjust to the new weights I keep giving them in just one day? How is that even possible?' "Right. Well get ready to disembark." He turned to Soren who was still in the crow's nest, "You're in charge, don't sink my ship, and keep the girls safe."

Soren, covered in blankets, stood up and looked down, "What the hell could possibly happen?" He took a moment to think before sighing, "Okay yeah nevermind, you've got it."

"Good." Naruto then grabbed everyone and shunshined to shore while his Kage Bunshin continued to maneuver the ship.

After trudging through the snow of the unidentified island they eventually came upon a town buried in what appeared to be an avalanche, with villagers attempting to dig it out. Naruto walked up to the closest person, "Hey, sorry to bother you in the middle of what you guys are doing, but I have a question. I know it sounds somewhat odd, but have you seen a guy with a long nose, a guy with three swords, or a guy with a straw hat?"

One of the villagers spoke up, "A few of those people sound like the ones that Dalton and all of the others took up the mountain by the ropeway."

Naruto frowned, "Any telling when this ropeway will come back down so I can take my people up there? They're friends of ours." He looked around vacantly, "Where are we anyway?"

"You're on Drum Island." One of the villagers helpfully supplied, "And we don't know. The only trolley that leads up there has already been taken."

Naruto sighed and pinched the space between his eyes, "Of course it has… Well thanks. I'll get up there somehow."

With that, Naruto got directions and took off with Igaram, Yosaku, and Johnny towards the indicated mountain. As they neared the foot of the mountain Naruto looked at the mountain disdainfully, "I'm only taking one of you up this thing, the other two are climbing. Feel free to divvy up the responsibility of who does what amongst yourselves."

Johnny and Yosaku argued amongst themselves for a moment before coming to a decision that Johnny spoke up with, "We'll climb if you let us take our weights off."

Naruto shrugged, "Fair enough." With a hand-sign and a glow of the bands on their wrists and ankles the two sighed in relief and began getting reacquainted with not being weighed down, "Now get going."

Igaram watched skeptically, 'Like relinquishing a few pounds of weight would really make a difference when they actually start climbing.' In a burst of snow, Johnny and Yosaku ran and began climbing the face of the cliff with their bare hands, dropping Igaram's jaw in disbelief.

Naruto wiped a fake tear in pride, "I'm so proud of them! They better not die of hypothermia on the way up though…" He then turned to Igaram with a disdainful look on his face, "Let's get this over with…"

"You can't honestly say." Igaram started, "That you're going to climb this mountain while carrying me are you."

Naruto groaned, "Trust me. I hate the idea just as much as you do, but if I didn't do it you would just bitch about not being able to see the princess, and I really doubt that you're capable of climbing this thing yourself. Hell, Johnny and Yosaku might not be able to do it, that was why I had them take their weights off so that they had a fighting chance of pulling it off. Consider it training."

He still didn't feel comfortable with doing it, "How would you even accomplish it?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I'm going to throw you on my back and run up the wall until we reach the top. I don't have to run, but I want this nightmare to be over as soon as I can and running up a sheer cliff wall is the fastest way to make that happen. Now shut up and get on, and we never speak of this to anyone by pain of your horrible, horrible death." Naruto threatened as he lowered himself to the ground to allow Igaram to climb on his back.

After getting the large man situated on his back, Naruto bounced on his toes a few times before jerking his neck to the sides, cracking it to warm up. He then set out in a reasonable sprint up the wall, ignoring Igaram yelling by his head as the gravity started taking hold.

XxX

(Two Hours Later)

Igaram continued screaming as Naruto blasted past the edge of the mountaintop and landed on his feet at the peak. Naruto got a tick mark on his head and dumped the man in the snow, "Shut the hell up! I should have dropped you the second you started wailing in my damn ear! You're so lucky that killing you would have probably gotten the princess upset at me!" He blinked for a moment, "Actually come to think of it she doesn't know you're still alive, so I can just drop you over the edge for my trouble."

Igaram backed away in fear, "What about your two crewmates? They haven't arrived yet from where you passed them."

Naruto stopped his murderous thoughts, "Huh, yeah. But they aren't as fast as me. I'm sure they're fine though."

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

Both men stood against a cliff wall, "Hey Johnny." Yosaku asked, his hand slowly pulling his sword from the scabbard on his back.

"Yeah Yosaku?" Johnny responded, his fingers trailing the hilt of the sword at his waist.

"Should we try to kill Naruto-aniki when we get out of this? I mean I know we would lose and everything, but this is a justifiable reason if I ever had one to do so." Yosaku stated with a twitching eyebrow, "I could deal with the daily asskickings and increasing our weights just for kicks. I could handle doing all of the useless chores that he has us do because he's a lazy-ass. I could even deal with him siccing a living sword on us, but passing us after jumping off one of these things heads and leaving us to our own fate is unforgivable!"

Johnny sighed, "I think we should just shut up and fight. And then if we survive this we can worry about climbing the rest of the mountain. And then if we're still alive after _that_ we can think about _maybe_ trying to beat up Naruto-aniki. I'm sure he'll tap dance on the back of our heads if we just ask him to later."

Standing in front of them were about two dozen massive snow rabbits with claws and sharp teeth bared at them.

Yosaku rolled his shoulders as he held his massive nodachi out in front of him, "We could always just turn around and try to climb before they attempt to tear chunks out of our asses."

Johnny stroked his chin with his free hand in thought, "Possibly…" He then got a feral smirk on his face, "But that's not what Naruto-aniki would do in this case."

Yosaku rolled his eyes, "Kick their asses?"

Johnny nodded, "The one who gets the least has to take all of the chores until Alabasta. No arguments, no negotiations, and the loser also has to sharpen the winner's sword on command with their own whetstone."

Yosaku shrugged, "You're on." He ducked down and picked up a snowball, "Bring it on you furry bastards!" He then pelted one of the massive carnivorous rabbits with it, setting off a chain reaction of the snarling beasts rushing at the madly grinning swordsmen.

XxX

(With Naruto and Igaram)

Naruto sniffed and nodded confidently, "Yeah, they're fine, and if they aren't then I'll just go down and get them a little bit later." He looked ahead of them, "Get up and look alive curly."

Igaram looked up where Naruto was looking to see a massive castle with tons of people outside of it. The two made their way through the crowd to find Usopp and Vivi at the head of the people. Naruto walked up behind them, looking at the open door of the castle, "So what's going on?"

Usopp kept his eyes forward and answered, "Luffy beat up the king here and now everybody else is inside."

Naruto nodded, "I would ask what the hell you all ended up getting into to cause Luffy to beat up a king, but I have a feeling that any explanation you could give me would make me call him an idiot at least once and laugh uproariously at least twice."

Usopp turned around at the sound of the familiar voice only to yell in surprise, "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

Vivi looked at Naruto, equally surprised that she saw him again, "Mr. Whiskers?"

"Hey." Naruto frowned, "Now that's not nice. I told Miss All Sunday to tell you all I said I'll see you soon, and after I came all this way to give the princess here something special." Naruto reached into the crowd and dragged Igaram out by his shoulder, "I believe you were missing this."

Vivi looked at Igaram in shock before launching herself at him in a hug, "I thought you were killed when you tried to sail away Igaram!"

Igaram patted her back consolingly, "It's alright princess. This man saved me from the explosion and offered his services to help me meet up with you and take me to Alabasta to assist us. He has been most surprising thus far."

"Yeah, I'm awesome." Naruto said dismissively, "Now what the hell is going on around here?"

XxX

(Two Hours Later)

Naruto sat in Nami's room, provided for her in her sickness, with a dry look on his face, "So you're basically telling me you ended up pulling off a glorified coup de tat and you weren't even trying the entire time?" Getting a nod from Luffy who was sitting crosslegged on the floor a grin slowly started making its way across his face, "That… Is… Awesome!"

Luffy's grin matched Naruto's own, "I know right?" Luffy then blinked in confusion, "But what are you doing here?"

Naruto pointed a thumb at Igaram who was doting over Vivi; asking her questions about how she had been and how the Strawhats had treated her, "Because this guy was obsessive and wanted us to head straight to Alabasta. We were going to just keep island hopping since our ship is faster than yours and we figured we would beat you there or catch you anyway. Looks like we caught you."

Zoro looked around, "Didn't you have more people with you last time? Where's the bald guy? And where is Nami's sister?"

Naruto waved off his concern, "They're on the ship. I only took Igaram, Johnny, and Yosaku ashore."

Zoro kept looking around, "Where are they, outside?"

Naruto looked away sheepishly, "Uh… yeah. Sure let's go with that. It's technically accurate."

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

"17!" Johnny yelled as he straight slashed through one of the massive rabbits before jumping away from the pounce of another.

"17 my ass!" Yosaku yelled as he held off one of them with his blade, "We took out like half of them with tandem moves! They don't count!"

Johnny resheathed his sword as he found himself surrounded by three of his foes, "Yeah they do. I beat them so they count towards my score! Yosen Ikssen (Primary Flash)!" In the blink of an eye, Johnny drew his uchigatana in a circle around his body with a spin, only the shining tip of his blade was visible, "20…" He said as the rabbits dropped around him.

Yosaku grinned, "Well in that case then…" the red headgear wearing man tensed his muscles and dug his feet deep into the snow before lifting the still struggling rabbit in the air with his sword before bringing it down in one mighty downward swing forward, "Inryoku Tsukamidasu (Gravity Grabber)!" As he slammed the rabbit into the ground, a shockwave ripped out from where he hit the ground, carrying forward and sweeping up five more rabbits into its wake, throwing them off the mountainside.

Yosaku turned to Johnny with his nodachi sitting on his shoulder and a shit-eating grin on his face, "28."

Johnny had a tick mark on his head as more rabbits came bounding up towards them both, "Smug bastard… we're not done yet."

XxX

(The Next Day – Back out at Sea)

Naruto decided to travel the last leg of the trip to Alabasta alongside the Strawhats as the two ships proceeded to sail closely next to one another. It didn't take much to rid the other crew of their suspicions about Miss Valentine once Naruto had explained the entire situation, how he caught her, how assassins came for her, and how she was actually pretty helpful.

He was currently amusing himself alongside Soren on the Going Merry at the expense of one blue-nosed reindeer who had decided to leave Drum Island with Luffy and his crew. The two were sitting out near the figurehead of the ship, chuckling to themselves as the humanoid reindeer tried concealing himself behind the mast. 'Trying' is the keyword here since he was only hiding half of his face, the rest of his body was sticking out in clear view.

Naruto looked at the little reindeer with a massive smile on his face, "This is so amazing… I don't even think I have to say anything."

Soren snickered, "Do you think the rubber guy would hand him over to us to join our crew? I wonder if he could fly a sleigh if I hooked him up to one."

Nami's fists crashed down on the top of both men's heads, "Stop teasing poor Chopper!"

Soren sat back up with a growling expression, "Orange chick I will melt-."

Naruto got behind Soren and slapped a hand over his mouth, "We weren't teasing him Nami-chan, honestly. A talking reindeer is actually badass, I kind of wish I had him on my crew." Naruto held his hand over an increasingly agitated Soren's mouth as he attempted to flirt with Nami, "So tell me how much you've been missing me while I've been gone Nami-chan. Has it been lonely at night without a blonde teddy bear to hold onto?"

"Hey!" Sanji yelled as he stormed up to Naruto, "Who are you to say such thing like that to Nami-chan? If anyone here is her blonde teddy bear it's me!"

Naruto opened his mouth to begin an argument but stopped short as he felt his hand burning. He let go of Soren's mouth as a mist of acid came out, actually spraying Sanji in the face, putting a smirk on his face.

Naruto and Sanji both hopped around the deck, one holding his hand, the other holding his face, "Damn it Soren! Could you just ask me to let go of you like a normal person?"

Sanji ran around aimlessly, "Gah! My eyes! This won't mess my face up will it?"

Soren laughed loudly, "No, just jump into the ocean to neutralize the Devil Fruit power, you'll both be fine. Stop crying you wimps."

Both did as instructed and upon entering the water yelled out in pain once more as they vaulted into the air, landing back on the ship glaring at Soren who decided to jump the short distance between the two ships to return to Naruto's. They were currently sailing close to a hotspot when he had directed them to jump in the water. Naruto watched Soren leave and put a hand on Sanji's shoulder, "I'll tie him to the front of my ship later in his sleep." That actually put a smile on Sanji's face.

No one else was really paying attention while they were passing through the steam produced by the underwater volcano as Luffy and Usopp were fishing, Zoro was sleeping over on Naruto's ship as it was markedly quieter, and Nami had gone over to Chopper and Vivi who had been talking with Nojiko who had come over to visit with her sister. However one cry of alarm from Luffy, Usopp, and even Vivi's duck Carue alerted everyone else, "AAAHHHHH! WE CAUGHT AN OKAMA!"

"A what?" Was the intelligent reply from Naruto.

**Nothing much to say. I've got stuff to do in the morning. Hope your weekend doesn't suck. Stay out of jail, I know I'll be trying to. Next chapter should be fairly destructive to my own estimation, so later.**

**Kenchi out.**


	10. Greetings From Alabasta

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. This is completely off topic, but I'm looking for a catchphrase… and when I come up with it, it will be spectacular. Rest assured, it will be spectacular, and no it isn't going to be fucking dattebayo! Fuck everyone that had that thought run through their heads just now, and don't bullshit me either. I know you did, I could sense it!

**Chapter 10: Greetings From Alabasta**

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Naruto stared at the person hanging off of Carue, who just so happened to be the bait that the others were fishing with, "How do you catch an okama? Actually nevermind, I guess it's just one of those mysteries that I'm better off not knowing."

The okama in question was hanging on tightly to Carue, "How did I get stuck on this weird giant duck?" Was the cry of alarm from the mystery person before he fell back into the water, seemingly unable to swim. After a short panic to get the person out of the water they all sat on the deck of the ship as the cross-dressing man bowed to them.

"Thank you all you wonderful people. I was saved by a group of pirates that I don't even know. I am in your debt… might I trouble you for a warm cup of soup?"

"NOO!" Was the unanimous cry of everyone else, "We're hungry too!" Naruto, Soren, and Nojiko didn't add in on that last part because they weren't hungry, but they shut up whenever the topic of food came up for good reason. After knowing how much Luffy could eat single handedly it was for the best that he didn't know that they had a basically fully stocked pantry on their ship, so it was best to act as if they were depleted of provisions as well.

The man was relatively tall with short black hair and makeup on and wore blue, flamboyant ballerina clothes underneath a pink overcoat with a strange two-headed swan figure on his back. He turned his attention to Vivi who was standing on a balcony above everyone else, "Ooh, well aren't you cute? I'd like to gobble you right up."

Vivi cringed, 'Ugh, what a weirdo…'

Luffy chuckled, "So you can't swim either, just like me."

Yes." The man responded, "I ate a Devil Fruit."

Usopp looked at the man in interest, "Really? What kind did you eat?"

The man looked around, 'Well I have to wait for my ship to come back anyway so I might as well put on a show.' He stood up and spoke in an empowered voice, "Right! This is my power!" He ran out and palmed Luffy's face, sending him flying backwards. Luffy's crew cried out in surprise and Zoro made to grab his swords until the mystery man spoke up to get them to stop, "Wait, wait, wait! I told you this was my power!"

Zoro stopped moving to attack out of sheer surprise, "What? Your face? What are you?"

"This is my show!" The man now had Luffy's face instead of his own. "Are you surprised?"

"They look identical!" Nami and Usopp called out.

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "I can do that too."

Soren rolled his eyes, "Of course you can. What can't you do damn it?"

Naruto grinned, "I don't know yet. I've yet to find out. You'll know when I do."

"If you touch my left hand I go back to normal." The man said, turning his face back to normal after doing so, "That's the power of my Mane Mane no Mi." He walked down a line and touched everyone's face, "I don't have to punch you to do it" That little aspect somewhat pissed Luffy off, "But if I just touch your face with my right hand I can imitate anyone just like this" He turned into Zoro, Usopp, Chopper, and Nami

"The voice and even the physique are the same." Nami noticed.

"I can copy your bodies too." He said in Nami's form as he opened his clothing to show off her body.

All of the men stared in shock until Nami punched the man in the face angrily, turning him back to normal "That's enough of that!"

Soren had a massive grin on his face, "That was so awesome."

Naruto's face mirrored his own, "You're telling me." Ignoring the glare he was getting from Nojiko he blinked in realization, "Wait… that was technically a guy. Which means that technically we were just flashed by a dude… and we liked it." Naruto and Soren looked at one another with wide, horrified eyes before running towards the edge of the ship to puke over it.

The new arrival on the ship recovered from Nami's punch quickly, "I'm sorry but that's all I can show you right now."

Ignoring the two vomiting men at the edge of the ship being watched by Nojiko with a sweatdrop on her head, Chopper, Luffy, and Usopp beckoned him to continue which he gleefully agreed to, "I've got a perfect memory! I remember every single face I've ever touched!" He said while shifting through faces. Although when he stopped on the face of a middle age bearded man, it got a reaction of shock out of Vivi.

The show and tell regressed into Luffy, Usopp, and Chopper dancing with the man. Nami watched while palming her face, "Someone kill them…"

Naruto had finished throwing up and walked over to her, "Do you have enough money to pay for it?" He quipped before turning out towards the ocean and seeing a ship coming their way, "Hey, whose ship is that?"

"Is it that time already? That's too bad." The man asked as he jumped up onto the balcony railing of the Going Merry, "Don't be sad my babies! Separation is inevitable! Just never forget me!" He then gave everyone a thumbs up and a shining smile that gave Naruto a flashback, "Time means nothing to true friendship!"

He then jumped onto his own ship, "Let's go my lovelies!"

"Yes sir Mr. 2 Bon Clay-sama!"

"Mr. Who Bon What now?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow.

Luffy seemed to ignore that little part of the farewell as he bid Bon Clay a fond farewell. Until the ship got out of sight and then it hit everyone else just what had happened, "Mr. 2?"

Vivi elaborated, "That was Mr. 2 Bon Clay!"

Luffy looked over at her, "Vivi, didn't you recognize his face?"

She looked down in a dejected fashion, "No… I've never met Mr. 2 or the Mr. 1 pair. I didn't know that he had any powers either. I did hear rumors though about how he was a huge okama, talked like an okama, wore a swan coat that said 'okama way' on the back…"

Naruto sweatdropped, "Damn. And people say I forget important things all the time. Noji-chan, can you shoot him really quick for me?"

Nojiko shrugged, "All I've got on me are my pistols Naruto-kun. I can't reach that far with these. My rifle is on our ship."

"Crap." Naruto said with a frown, "If Miss Valentine was here she would have been able to ID him right off the bat and save us the trouble of wondering if he knew who we all were or not." Although if she _had_ been there she might have gotten them all discovered, Mr. 2 didn't seem to know who any of them were, but Nojiko didn't kill those spies from before, she just defeated them. Naruto had no doubt that they went right back to Crocodile as soon as they were able.

Vivi held her face in despair, "One of the faces he showed from his memory was the face of my father. What in the world would he need my father's face to do?"

Naruto pondered, "Well apparently Baroque Works is trying to throw your country into anarchy. Doing anything at all with your dad's face since he's a king would probably cause any number of problems to come up. That's somewhat troubling."

Nami walked over to Vivi, "Well if he uses his memory to turn into one of us we won't be able to trust each other, that is assuming that he ever finds out that we're enemies."

Naruto frowned at the face that Vivi was making, she was really concerned about what was going on with her country. Well as long as he and everyone else were there, there was no way that this nation was going to fall… not if any of them had anything to say about it.

Naruto jumped ships back to his own and headed inside where he found Yosaku asleep on his couch and Miss Valentine reading a newspaper from her own seat. Where she got the newspaper he wasn't sure, but that was neither here nor there, "Hey did you all miss what just happened on the Going Merry?"

Miss Valentine lowered her paper and looked at him inquisitively, "Pretty much. Is it that big of a deal?"

Naruto pushed Yosaku off of the couch and sat down on it, "You tell me." He started as he placed his feet up on Yosaku's still sleeping body, "Is Mr. 2 showing up on the Straw Hats' ship and touching their faces really that big of a deal to you?"

Miss Valentine looked at him in shock and a little bit of fear, "He was here?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I'm surprised that you didn't hear it or find out about it… the guy was pretty loud. I don't think I'll ever forget this run-in either. I'll be having nightmares every time I start to dream about Nami-chan for the next ten years." He caught her strange look, "Please don't ask, I don't want to relive it. If you must know, ask Soren when he gets here, I have no problems with him puking… actually I do since it would probably burn through the ship."

"So…" She started with a grin on her face, "You have 'dreams' about the Nami girl do you?"

Naruto returned her grin, "Sure do. I also have them about Noji-chan and you too, so don't feel left out, you're right there in the mix of my mind. Congratulations."

Miss Valentine sputtered nonsensically before giving Naruto a stern look, "You're a real pervert."

"Nope." Naruto said as he readjusted his feet, "I'm just honest. And honestly; you're hot. And don't think clownshoes here." He then pointed down to Yosaku, "-and every other guy on this ship don't think somewhat the same way. That's normal. Now if I were harassing you about it, that would make me a pervert. But me, I'm simply willing to look and speculate." Naruto then teasingly gave her a once over, "And speculate I shall."

Shaking her head and returning to reading her newspaper, Miss Valentine sighed and spoke to Naruto chidingly, "Watch yourself Mr. Captain. After you deal with Baroque Works I don't have to stay here anymore."

Naruto scoffed, "You don't have to stay here _now_. You were the one that said that Crocodile was going to kill you so you decided to come with us."

Miss Valentine stuck her tongue out at Naruto over her paper and went back to reading.

"Uzumaki!" Soren yelled out as he came inside the common area, "We've got trouble."

Naruto stood up with a questioning look on his face, "What kind of trouble? Is it the fun kind of trouble or the annoying kind of trouble that makes me want to hit something repeatedly, and very hard for being stupid."

Soren stared at him blankly for a moment, "Um… what kind of trouble qualifies as the rubber brat running away from our ships before we were all fully docked because he smelled food in the port town we stopped in?"

Naruto sighed, "The second kind…" Naruto's shoulders slumped as he walked out onto deck while speaking to Miss Valentine, "Tell everyone to stick with the Straw Hats until we come back, okay?" Getting an ok sign from Miss Valentine, he put a hand on Soren's shoulder and used Shunshin no Jutsu to move from the ship to land.

XxX

"Let's see…" Soren said as they leapt along the rooftops of the town searching for Luffy, "If I were a half-wit with a one track mind and an empty stomach, where would I be?"

Naruto pointed down, "How about down there with the trail that leads through the walls of about four different buildings." Naruto took a sniff of the air, "Although in his defense, the smell of the restaurant's food is great. I wonder if _this_ place has ramen?" The two men jumped down and walked through the holes in the walls that ended with them in the restaurant in question, "Hey have you guys seen a goofy kid in a straw hat? He probably was the one that did this to the wall."

The people inside pointed outside warily.

Soren sighed, "He's already into something isn't he?"

Naruto nodded, "More than likely. And he's running. Luffy never runs, so this must be something pretty big."

"Tashigi! Assemble all of the men and have them comb every corner of the town for his crew!"

Naruto frowned at the sound of that voice. If he was after Luffy then one of them would have to go and fight him. By one of them he meant him himself since he wasn't sure what good acid would do against smoke, therefore it was up to him to deal with Smoker once again. He needed to come up with a more permanent way to deal with the bastard, because blowing him away when he turned to smoke wasn't going to do the trick every time, "Soren." Naruto said.

"Yes?" Soren asked.

"You remember that little tick you have when it comes to Marines?" Naruto hinted.

Soren slowly started grinning, "I might."

"As long as you make sure they don't see any of the Straw Hats or our own crew, feel free to go nuts." Naruto said before leaping back atop the rooftops.

Soren let a manic grin cross his features as he also took to the rooftops, albeit in a different direction to tail Tashigi and find all of the Marines she had run off to round up.

XxX

Sanji had bought disguises in the town for them all to wear as they crossed the desert towards Alabasta's capitol city incognito. For the men they consisted of generally cloaks and turbans, and for the females of the group, it consisted of belly dancer outfits.

Nojiko sweatdropped as she looked herself over in her new clothes, "Naruto-kun would either punch Sanji directly in the face, or shake his hand vigorously for convincing us to actually go through with wearing this stuff."

Miss Valentine nodded as Sanji fawned over all of the women travelling in the party until Igaram made to restrain him for getting too fresh with Vivi, "I'd lean more towards the latter or some unholy combination of the two options."

Nami turned to Vivi, "So what's the plan? Where are we going Vivi?"

"Well first and foremost I want to stop the rebellion." Vivi started, "We don't know when they might rise up and cause needless bloodshed. The base of the rebels where the leader lives is an oasis town called Yuba. To go there we need-." She was cut off from speaking by Zoro grabbing her arm.

"Wait, hide!" He said, getting everyone to take refuge inside a ruined building as a group of Marines ran near them, "What are Marines doing here?"

He then saw who was being chased by them and that they were coming this way, "Zoro!" Luffy called out.

"There's the Straw Hat crew!" One of the Marines called out.

Zoro paled, "Why the hell didn't you come and find us _after_ you lost them you idiot?"

"Get back men!" Smoker called out as he rushed ahead of the regular soldiers, "You're not getting away Strawhat! Howaito Burou (White Blow)!" He shot out a hard stream of smoke to blast Luffy hard.

"Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" A rough wind blasted the smoke away from Luffy and threw Smoker backwards along with the rest of his men. Naruto stood in the middle of the street with his arms crossed over his chest, "Hello there Smoker. Remember me?"

Smoker was able to catch himself as the rest of his men were blown further down the street and stood up straight to face Naruto, "Uzumaki… How good of you to join us. I've been meaning to pay you back for Loguetown. I'll put you down and then go after Straw Hat next."

Naruto smirked, "For that plan of action to work you still need to get past me. And I don't think you have what it takes to pull that little miracle off." He dropped into a combat stance.

XxX

"Come on men!" One of the misplaced Marines shouted as he reached his feet, "We can't just leave Captain Smoker all on his own like this, let's go back him up!" Those were his last coherent words before a loogie hit him in the forehead and started burning its way through much to the horror of the man and all of the men around him. After a moment of panic and painful screams he dropped to the ground motionlessly.

"That's funny, because _my_ captain told me to do whatever I had to do to keep the rest of you out of the way." Soren said from the rooftop he had spit from. Smoke from his acid flying into the air for intimidation tactics covered his body, "Sucks for all of you." He jumped off of the roof and landed in the street in front of them all.

Another Marine spoke up and drew a cutlass, "You're going to pay for that you freak! We won't let a monster like you have your way!"

Soren shrugged, "Well come on then, don't disappoint me now."

Upon his challenge, all of the Marines drew their own weapons and attempted to charge at him. As they got close and began swinging their blades at him, Soren effortlessly danced through their clumsy attacks with a scowl on his face, "You guys are all so weak that it's almost a waste of effort for me to kill you." He got directly into the middle of the fray and built up power for a moment, "Ibi-Ibi no Bakuhatsu (Rot Rot Explosion) !" He expelled acid from his body in a fine misty spray in all directions, coating all of the men that had been attacking him in the deadly fluid.

Soren smiled happily as the men all dropped to the ground screaming in pain as the acid worked over their bodies, melting through their clothing and skin, "Enjoy the tingling, burning sensation that goes with having your bodies liquefy!" He pulled the flask from his belt and walked away as he drank heartily. Before he could walk too far he saw a woman with black hair and glasses standing in front of him with a katana drawn. He sighed to himself, "Great… another woman to fight."

XxX

Naruto stared at Smoker while keeping in his stance, "Luffy!" He called out to the straw hat wearing boy, "Get everybody moving. I'll catch up later, I'm the only one of us that can handle him right now."

Luffy grinned to Naruto, "Thanks Naruto!"

Nami called back to him as they began running away, "Naruto-kun, we're heading to-."

"Ah, ah, ah!" Naruto turned around swiftly, waving his hands in an aggressive, "Don't say it so loudly Nami-chan. On the off chance that I can't stop this guy it would be better if he didn't know exactly where you were trying to go." As he had his back turned he looked down curiously when found himself covered in smoke clouds, "Oh you cheating son-of-a-biiittttcccchhh!" Naruto cried out as he found himself slung down the street into a building by Smoker.

"Naruto-kun!" Nojiko cried out as everyone watched Naruto get whipped into a wall by Smoker with destructive force.

Naruto picked himself out of the rubble and took off his sage coat before throwing it attached to a kunai at the retreating Straw Hat and Foxhound Pirates, "Take care of that for me until I get back to you!"

Nojiko picked up the coat and looked at it forlornly before turning back to Naruto, "Are you sure you'll come back?"

Naruto grinned at her, still picking small pieces of building out of his hair, "I'll be right behind you." He finished with a wink. Nojiko gave him a small smile before continuing on with everyone else.

"So that girl is an accomplice of yours or is she a lover?" Smoker asked, "I guess I'll just have to capture her too. It's too bad, a pretty thing like that won't last too long in Impel Down."

Naruto gave Smoker a cold glare before suddenly disappearing from his view in a gust of wind. Smoker looked around for any sign of Naruto before he saw a blurry fist and felt a sharp pain in his face that sent him flying into another building. Smoker slowly pulled himself out, growling lowly at Naruto who was standing where he had just been a moment ago, 'I didn't even see him moving or sense him coming.'

Naruto simply kept his glare on him, "You can threaten me, you can try to attack me, you can say anything you like about me. I don't care. But you threaten anyone that is close or precious to me just out of mere association with me and I will make your life a living hell. I've already killed one of your Marine captains for doing it, don't make me kill you too."

Smoker wiped the blood from his lip, "You're a notorious pirate that goes against the laws set up by the World Government. You've killed Marines in cold blood."

Naruto scoffed, "It wasn't really in cold blood. And those pathetic excuses for human beings? Sometimes I can see why Soren likes killing you all so much. You're different from that Nezumi prick. You actually have real strength and you actually use it to protect, I respect you for that. Have all of the problems with me that you want, I don't care. Hunt me down, chase me all over the globe, I'll be okay with that honestly, it actually sounds pretty fun. However, the second you put someone else into it that has nothing to with me being an 'outlaw' or a 'pirate' or whatever the hell the buzzword is these days for people that want to do what they want in life; I will hurt you, I will hurt you badly and I will let you know what a terrible mistake it was for you to even think that doing that was a good idea."

"Howaito Auto (White Out)!" Smoker attacked Naruto again with a wave of clouds from his arms.

Naruto jumped onto the roof of a nearby building to dodge the attack and threw a kunai at Smoker that just passed through his body, "What an obnoxious power. I can't even hurt you as long as you can do that." Naruto ran along the rooftops and jumped off as another blast of smoke hit nearby.

While he was hanging in the air, Smoker turned his entire body into a dense cloud of smoke and sent himself at Naruto, "Howaito Supauku (White Spark)!" The cloud engulfed Naruto's body bringing a smirk to Smoker's disembodied face until he noticed that he hadn't grabbed a person, but a large urn with a piece of paper stuck to it, and the piece of paper seemed to be burning down with the sound of a lit fuse.

"Damn it!" Smoker attempted to throw the urn away, but he had noticed it too fast and the planted paper bomb exploded right on him, taking out half of the town block with the force of the blast.

XxX

The sound of the explosion brought a smirk to Soren's face as he continued to look out at the girl brandishing a sword against him, "You really don't want to do that. I have no problems turning you into a puddle just so you know."

Tashigi glared at him, "You're a monster."

Soren raised an eyebrow, "And you're a bitch. You got any other useless names to call me?"

A growl came from her throat, "I don't even want to know how a criminal like you can justify yourself for the things that you do."

Soren frowned, "Good, because I wasn't going to fucking try to. I guess you could call me somewhat selfish. Those guys probably had families, some of them might have actually had honorable reasons for joining up with the Marines, but personally, to me once they put those uniforms on they chose their side. The Marines showed me no mercy when I was weak and defenseless so they'll get it right back now that I can actually do something about them. No mercy for the merciless."

Tashigi got herself ready to attack him, "In the name of the World Government and by the authority of the Marines you are under arrest."

Soren started laughing, "Under arrest? You think you can beat me? You actually think you can take me alive? Let me show you what I do to Marines that think they have a chance at taking me down!" Soren came at her straightforward and swiftly.

Tashigi attempted a sword thrust to impale him but Soren moved to the side and smacked the side of her katana hard, throwing her off balance. He then proceeded to follow up with his bare hands, "Juu Tora Moui (Ten Tigers Fury)!" He hit her in the body with ten high speed palm strikes that sent her flying backwards.

Tashigi coughed up blood and pulled herself to her feet only to catch a shin to the side from Soren that sent her into a shop, taking out the front window. Soren simply walked through the front door and motioned with his head to the frightened shopkeeper to leave. While his attention was diverted, Tashigi took a wide swing at him to try cutting him in half at the waist. Soren saw it coming at the last second and jumped into the air, grabbing onto the light fixture on the ceiling before descending with it and smashing it over her head sending her back to the floor.

Soren shook his head as he walked around her body, "I'm not even using my powers right now. You see normally I would have just turned you into a human slushy and kept on moving, but for some reason I feel the need to prove a point to you. If I killed you, you wouldn't learn anything, obviously because you would be dead." He saw her place her hand back on her sword handle and stepped on the blade to keep her from doing anything more.

"Not all pirates are bad people." Soren said looking down at her before taking on a thoughtful look, "Well, I'm a bad person. There are absolutely no excuses for me, I'm a fucking terrible person. But guys like the people on the Straw Hat crew and the other people on my crew are all good people. Sadly as far as pirates go they seem to be the minority, but it's a minority I want to preserve."

"Roronoa Zoro is not a good person!" She cried as she tried to free her sword from under his foot, "He tricked me into helping him obtain rare swords in Loguetown."

Soren raised an eyebrow, "How? Did you ask who he was? Did he make you pay for them and then ditch you? I'm sorry, but Roronoa Zoro is not a bad person. He's a lazy bastard most of the time but then again so is Uzumaki… Damn Uzumaki is lazy."

"How can you possibly defend _him_?" Tashigi inquired, "It's well documented that he's just another Marine murderer like you!"

Soren chuckled, "You can't even compare him to me. He only killed like fifteen tops, I've killed hundreds. Uzumaki only kills when someone tries to hurt the people around him or put them in danger. He's just one of those kinds of guys." Soren would have kept lecturing but he found himself ensnared in iron shackles around his body, "Oh not this again."

The familiar pink-haired woman that had fought him and Naruto when they first met walked into the ruined shop, "Hina thanks you for holding him here. Smoker-kun is so impatient, not waiting for me to get a new crew, so mean."

Tashigi adjusted the glasses on her face as she looked up, "Captain Hina."

Soren sighed, "Haven't we been through this already lady? You can't stop me! Ibi-Ibi no Hifu (Rot Rot Skin)!" Soren secreted acid through his skin and melted the shackles on him before rushing at Hina, leaving Tashigi alone. Hina simply stood still when Soren took a tiger-style swing at her. He simply passed through her body and came out shackled once more.

As Soren looked at himself with a tick mark on his head due to being ensnared again, Hina turned to Tashigi, "Go to Smoker-kun. This one you cannot defeat right now, not as you are. Leave him to Hina."

Tashigi nodded and put up her sword before leaving the shop. Soren eventually rolled his eyes and spit onto the shackles, enabling him to melt just enough of them to break out, "It's funny how you said she can't beat me as she is, because you can't beat me either. Now if I recall our last little run-in, I was kicking your ass until Uzumaki decided to be a bastard and drench us in seawater so he could abduct me and get away."

Hina smiled and nodded, "Yes that seems like the proper chain of events last time around for the most part. Hina suggests round two."

Soren smirked, "Soren agrees."

XxX

The Straw Hats and the remainders of the Foxhound Pirates made it to their docked ships. Johnny and Yosaku were moving quickly to get the ship ready to leave with the time being bought for them. Yosaku finished extending the sail and climbed down to run over to the side of the ship to raise anchor, "Are we really just going to leave Naruto-aniki and Soren back in Nanohana?"

Miss Valentine frowned as she stayed on the side of the ship nearest the Going Merry so she could get word on when they were all ready to leave, "He said that he would catch up. I have to believe that a guy like that wouldn't have said he was going to do something that he was incapable of pulling off."

Johnny came from inside and ran up to her, "So what the hell are we doing back on the ship?"

Miss Valentine looked at him, "We can take the ships up the river a distance before we actually have to traverse the desert. That's where Naruto and Soren can catch us if they can move fast enough to get there and meet us." She looked up at the crow's nest and saw that Nojiko was simply staring back at the town, "Nojiko what's the matter?"

The girl up above shook her head as she kept looking at the town, the massive billowing clouds of smoke and then the huge explosion that tore out, "They're tearing it apart… Naruto-kun and Soren fighting one another was bad enough, what's going to happen now that they're fighting together?"

Off of the ships Vivi had stopped her duck from boarding, "Carue, I have an important job that only you can do." She pulled out a letter and gave it to him, "Go north to Alubarna and give this letter to my father. This will reveal Crocodile and Baroque Works' conspiracy. Everything has been spelled out plain and clear."

"I will assist him princess." Said Igaram as he made his presence known, "You will be safe with these people for the time being. I will go with Carue and tell your father that you are quite alive and with a group of powerful strong-willed people."

Vivi gave him a smile and a short hug, "Take care of Carue and yourself Igaram. Now go tell my father that we can save this country!" As he got onto Carue she held on to the ducks face and looked at it, "Be careful and conserve your water okay?" She got an affirmative quack in response before he took off… immediately drinking deeply from the water supply he had around his neck audibly, "I said conserve your water!" She yelled with a tick mark at the retreating duck.

XxX

"Fuck!" Naruto yelled as he found himself encircled by Smoker's smoke. The man couldn't really hurt him or anything at this point, but even when he had gotten sick of messing around with him he couldn't do anything to blow him far enough away to get rid of him. Soren was still in the town somewhere fighting and even if he wasn't, the buildings seemed way too easy for him to break. Using the jutsu he used in Loguetown to end the fight would take out quite a few civilian casualties.

"Now you're done Uzumaki!" Smoker partially solidified and drew his jutte before thrusting it at Naruto's chest.

Naruto caught the tip of the weapon in the palm of his hand, legs buckling slightly under the force at which it came at him before he held his ground once more, "Heh, you're pretty strong physically aren't you. I think I'm starting to like you even more than I already did."

Smoker growled when Naruto held his ground against his weapon, "This weapon is tipped with seastone. Even touching it with your bare hands the way you are should nullify your Devil Fruit powers and make you as weak as a kitten!"

Naruto grinned, "Now whoever said that I even had Devil Fruit powers to start with huh? I certainly never claimed to have any, you must have just assumed, and you know what happens when you assume right? You make an 'ass' that Uzumaki Naruto has to kick!" Naruto used his free arm to chop through Smoker's wrists turning them to smoke and placing the jutte in his own hands. Naruto turned the weapon around and threw it javelin-style at Smoker.

His eyes widened as the seastone tip made impact with his chest, forcing the air and spit from his mouth with the impact that it made and sent him flying backwards into another building. Naruto grinned at finally dealing Smoker some actual damage for once and looked around at how much they had wrecked the place from the fight, "Man, and this was a nice place before we got here. Oh well, I don't have to pay for it!"

The building that Smoker had been sent into had its roof blown off as his towering, smoking form angrily emerged from the top of it. Naruto took a whiff of the air as he saw Smoker come out, "Did I throw you into the perfume store or something?"

Smoker let out a massive attack cry as he came at Naruto with his jutte one more time, the rest of his body billowing around Naruto's body, entrapping him. Naruto grit his teeth angrily at being surrounded by his powers once more and pulled a summoning scroll from his back. He bit his thumb and smeared it down the open scroll, "So you want to beat me into submission with a fucking jutte huh? Well if you wanted to duel then you should have told me!"

In a puff of smoke, the bandaged, scaly, oversized sword that Naruto oftentimes had found himself wielding found its way into his hands, "Samehada, cut him into ribbons!"

Smoker's jutte clashed with Naruto's odd blade, "You know if Tashigi could see you using this sword she'd be dead-set on finding some way to beat you and take it from you."

Naruto smirked as they pushed against each other's weapon, "Sorry, but I don't think she could use it even if I wasn't currently wielding it. Samehada is very selective about the company it keeps, it has a few prerequisites for anyone that wants to even touch the handle."

"This freaky looking thing?" Smoker questioned. He was coming awfully close to biting through the cigars in his mouth from the effort he was exerting to keep force with the grinning blonde that didn't seem like he was having that much trouble holding him back anymore, "What kind of requirements could this thing have? It's not a cursed blade is it?"

Naruto frowned, "That's not very nice. I would never call Samehada cursed… More like very picky about it's users." Much to Smoker's surprise the sword started vibrating and making disputing noises, "Alright sorry, jeez. I thought picky was the nicest way to put it. How else would I explain that you like to suck on my chakra like a weaning baby whenever I pick you up?"

"Are you talking to the sword?" Smoker asked in disbelief before outrage took over, "You're going to take me seriously damn you!"

Naruto saw the smoke clouds closing in and reflexively panicked as he really didn't want to get thrown around like a rag-doll like that again, even if he _could_ take that kind of abuse for only Kami knows how long. Samehada sensed Naruto's alarm and tried to cut off the attack from what it could sense was the source. It stretched and bent around the weapon held by Smoker and dragged itself across his chest, actually shredding off skin from the man.

Naruto watched Smoker fully reform in surprise and pull back as blood ran down his chest, "W-What? Did that thing actually do me damage?"

Naruto looked at Samehada who was purring appreciatively before smirking at Smoker, "Well, well, well. It looks like Samehada likes the way you taste. Very rich with a special energy it hasn't tasted before, it's so used to eating my own kind that your own is like something of a delicacy to it. And it can actually hurt you…" Naruto's smirk turned to a dark grin, "Let's see how much of a beating you can take."

XxX

Soren broke out of another set of iron shackles, "You're really starting to piss me off lady! Ibi-Ibi no Kawa (Rot Rot Stream)!" Soren's cheeks puffed out before he fired a large stream of acid from his mouth at Hina. The woman leapt aside as the stream followed her, hitting half a dozen buildings and melting their walls right down.

Soren was really beginning to get pissed off. She couldn't beat him, he was able to melt off her Devil Fruit originated restraints each time she was able to get them on him, but he couldn't close the distance and cut her to pieces with his acid based hand to hand techniques or beat her senseless with them. Every time he laid a finger on her he found himself ensnared once more, it was quite maddening to say the very least.

When he switched to distance attacks he found that she had evasive skill to go along with her stifling close range powers. He couldn't pin her down and hit her with his acid attack. He would have just said fuck it and saturated the area in some kind of wide spread attack, but he was in the desert. Using his acid based powers quickly ate through his bodily fluids and he didn't want to be utterly useless at the conclusion of the battle, especially since the dry climate was sapping him of his fluids faster than usual. Since his stronger attacks utilized a higher amount of fluids from his body, would he have attempted something like what he actually desired to use to bring the fight to a close he would more than likely take himself out and leave himself a sitting duck... maybe even weak enough for the Tashigi girl to finish off, wherever she was. Not to mention they would probably kill a whole lot of innocent people.

He reached for the flask at his belt while Hina was at a distance and raised it up to his mouth only to curse to himself when he found that it was empty with the bottom of it cut out. That Tashigi girl must have gotten closer to him than he thought. Instead he pulled a small vial of yellow liquid from his pocket, he identified it to the crew as lemon juice, and ingested it for a small boost of acid potency and a basically miniscule amount of fluid replenishment.

He looked around and noticed how much collateral damage he had caused by simply missing his target, "Maybe Uzumaki has a point about how I shoot off attacks… I should train my aim with Nojiko after all of this is over."

Hina frowned as she watched Soren look at her from a distance, 'This is dangerous. Hina is starting to run out of energy to deal with him. If Hina can't trap him how is Hina supposed to win?'

Soren sighed before turning around and running off, forcing Hina who had expected a fight to the death to face-fault, "Where do you think you're going? Come back and fight with Hina! We aren't done yet!"

Soren didn't even turn around as he yelled back, "Why would I do that? At this point it's just a matter of who has more stamina and I don't want to win like that. Killing you isn't that important. I'm certain that everyone else was able to get away while me and Uzumaki have been tearing this place to shreds and that means my job is done. A fight to the death isn't going to benefit me right now." He gave her a two fingered salute over his shoulder and jumped onto the still intact rooftops to search for Naruto.

XxX

Smoker gasped in shock and pain as Samehada flailed around the defense he had tried putting up by lifting his jutte and came down on his shoulder. Naruto dragged the sword downwards, shaving off the shoulder of his jacket and cutting into his shoulder.

Naruto grinned as he placed Samehada over his shoulder, "I still wish I could punch you in the face, but this is a very acceptable substitute for that."

Smoker pulled himself to his feet once more, ignoring his injuries, "Where did you get a seastone coated weapon?"

Naruto looked at him strangely, "Samehada isn't made of seastone. It's a blade and it's covered in scales. I don't really know why it can hit you, but right now I don't care. It certainly solves one of my problems."

Smoker yelled at Naruto, "If it isn't made of seastone or doesn't have seastone in its make then how can it hit me?"

Naruto shrugged, "Hell if I know, but I don't care." Naruto saw Soren motioning to him from the corner of his eye atop a roof and turned back to Smoker, "Well I'd hate to literally cut and run, but it seems that's what I'm doing. Go pick up the town you made me destroy."

"Damn you Uzumaki, this isn't over!" Smoker moved towards him to attack again, "Howaito Supaku (White Spark)!" He charged at Naruto after turning his body into a dense cloud once more.

Soren landed at Naruto's side, "You know you messed up so much of this part of town you can do something big to get rid of him right?"

Naruto blinked at Soren, "No. I kind of forgot that all of the people probably evacuated this place by now after all of the stuff we destroyed. Alright then." Naruto rolled through hand signs, "Fuuton: Tatsumaki Sandan Wind Release: Twister Shot)!" Naruto spat out a massive tornado that had Soren's eyes widen at seeing a human being actually spit out an actual tornado.

It started pulling in the debris around it, sucking chunks of the destroyed buildings and the sandy landscape surrounding the village into it. Smoker's smoke comprised body once again found itself being drawn into the forceful gale winds of the tornado created by Naruto's jutsu, "Not again! Damn it!"

"Captain Smoker!" Tashigi yelled from behind sturdy cover as she saw his smoky frame get sucked into the twister.

Naruto shrugged as he watched the tornado stay in place and continue spinning before turning around and walking away. Soren followed closely behind and pointed his thumb back towards the scene they had just left, "What the hell was that?"

Naruto looked at Soren, "Oh, that's how I got rid of him last time. I just pumped way more chakra into the jutsu this time so that it would take a while for him to disperse into the air, and even after that it'll be a while before he can get his bearings enough to try and search for us." He finished, resealing Samehada in the scroll he had taken it from.

Soren gave him a dry look, "So were you serious for any of that fight whatsoever?"

Naruto thought about it for a moment, "Right at the beginning I was, but when it was clear that he couldn't do much of anything to me I stopped caring so much. I learned something cool though."

Soren stopped walking, getting Naruto's attention, "Where were we supposed to be going again?"

Naruto shook his head, "I don't know. I was just going to follow the hot Alabasta princess, save her country, get her forever indebted to me, and somehow convince her to sleep with me."

Soren sweatdropped, "So we're stuck in the middle of the desert, we don't have any knowledge of the country whatsoever, and we aren't even sure of where we're supposed to be going? You are the stupidest captain I have ever seen in my entire life!"

Naruto got in Soren's face, "No, I'm not! That distinction goes to Luffy! You can't even score me on the spectrum of stupid that Luffy exists on!"

"You pass him on that scale in some ways!" Soren shouted back, "You have your own _continuum_ of stupid!" Naruto and Soren went nose to nose growling at each other, "You're so lucky that I can't waste any more fluid to melt you."

Naruto returned fire, "You're so lucky the ship isn't anywhere near us or I would tie you right to the front of it again." He turned to the right to see that they were still close to the ocean, "Come to think of it..." Naruto swatted him hard to the side sending him flying towards the water.

Soren was able to stop himself just short of falling into the ocean and got up to glare at Naruto, "I almost fell in there you whisker-faced asshole! I should beat the shit out of you!" He yelled as he noticed Naruto walking up to him with his attention out towards the ocean, "What the fuck is so interesting?" Soren turned to see five destroyed and flaming ships sinking not far from shore, "Who in the hell did that?"

Naruto shook his head and looked further down the coast, "Hey, some guy crashed his boat!" Naruto ran up the seashore and looked at the small boat. It had simply run aground; there was nothing wrong with it at all.

Soren arrived shortly after and saw a man half submerged in the sand. He grabbed onto one of the man's legs and pulled him out. The person had on black boots, black knee length shorts, an orange belt that Naruto subconsciously wanted to steal, and an orange hat on his head. The man was shirtless and had a very distinctive tattoo on his back. Soren's jaw almost dropped at seeing the tattoo, "No way… what is one of these guys doing all the way out here? Shouldn't they be somewhere closer to the New World or something?"

Naruto looked at his crewmate oddly, "Who are you talking about? Do you know who this guy is?"

Soren nodded, "I might." He used his foot to flip the man over and took in his features before speaking again. The man had black hair, freckles on his face, and on the front of his hat were two blue smileys, one smiling, the other frowning. Soren gestured down, "Let me introduce you to Portgas D. Ace. The second division commander of the Whitebeard Pirates." He looked up at Naruto, expecting to see some kind of reaction but had to hold himself from face-faulting when he saw Naruto picking his ear and staring at what had come out, "Hey! Pay attention asshole!"

Naruto flicked his ear gunk into the ocean, "What? I don't know who the hell any of the people you just talked about were. Should I care?"

Soren growled, "Yes you should care! This guy is one of the most dangerous people in the world, 'Fire Fist Ace' is a major player out on the Grand Line."

Naruto poked at him with a stick that he had somehow procured in the desert, "Well it doesn't seem like he's the most dangerous of anything. He looks like a major player in the afterlife right now. Look at him… he's dead man."

Soren palmed his face, "He's not dead… At least I don't think so." He blinked in confusion, "Where's the little reindeer doctor right now when you need him?"

"*yawn*" Ace let out a massive yawn that scared a few years off of Naruto and Soren's life spans as they damn near teleported back out of fright. He sat up and looked around, smacking his lips, "Oh man… Well at least I got out of Luffy's sight before I fell asleep again. That would have been uncool to crash like that in front of my little brother's crew."

Naruto walked up to Ace, "You're Luffy's older brother?" He asked.

Ace looked up at Naruto before getting up off the ground, "Uh, yeah. You guys know Luffy?"

Naruto nodded, "He took my crew away from the town when the Marines showed up and crashed our little landing party. And now we have no clue where the hell they're all going so we can catch up." He looked Ace over, "You know, other than the hair color you really don't look like Luffy."

Ace waved it off, "I get that from time to time. Wait, you were the one that fought that Marine that was chasing my brother?"

"Smoker?" Naruto asked, "Yeah, I beat the crap out of that guy. Why, did you want a piece of him? He's still back there somewhere, though he isn't going to be any good for anything for at least a few hours."

Ace gave a wide grin and reached his hand out for Naruto to shake, "I appreciate that. It's good to know that someone is looking out for the idiot when I can't be around. The name's Portgas D. Ace."

Naruto grinned back as he shook his hand, "Uzumaki Naruto. The bald kid standing right there is Soren." Soren rolled his eyes at Naruto's introduction but made an acknowledging gesture to show who he was.

Soren then walked up to Ace, "Alright now that formalities are out of the way, what is a high ranking member of the Whitebeard Pirates doing all the way back near the start of the Grand Line?"

Ace's face got serious, "I'm looking for a man that used to be a subordinate of mine. He would be going by the name of 'Blackbeard' these days if you've heard of him."

Naruto and Soren shook their heads when Naruto spoke up, "Your mood changed pretty quickly. What did this guy do to you to make you chase him all over the Grand Line?"

Ace's hat shadowed his face, "He killed one of his own crewmates. He stole and killed one of our men and then he ran for the hills. I'm here to take him down." That soured Naruto's mood, an old school pet peeve of his to say the very least was a man that put himself above his own comrades. This Blackbeard seemed like someone that would just flat out rub him the wrong way.

Soren and Naruto looked at each other, "Well I was going to ask you for your help in getting to wherever Luffy and his crew ended up taking my crew, but you've got enough on your plate at the moment. But if I see this guy do you want me to kill him for you?" Naruto said with a gleam in his eye.

"Only if it suits you and if you can handle it. He wasn't on Whitebeard's crew for nothing." Ace said dismissively, "But I actually have a mission for you if you want to accept it."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Missions usually consist of payment."

Ace reached into his pockets before grinning sheepishly, "It seems that I left my wallet elsewhere. Can I give you an I.O.U?"

Soren pointed to Ace's belt, "If you give me that flask of water on your belt you've got a deal."

Ace shrugged and unhooked the flask to throw at Soren who accepted it with a grin. Naruto palmed his face, "And that's why I handle our official business. You do not know how to negotiate." He sighed and gestured at Ace, "What's the mission?"

Ace smirked, "It's actually pretty simple. I just want you to watch Luffy's back. I have a feeling that he's going to get into some real big trouble somewhere down the line that he might not be able to handle on his own and a guy like you seems reliable."

Naruto nodded, "Sure thing. But it would help right now if I knew where the hell he was going."

Ace scratched his head under his hat, "I think he said something about heading north to Alubarna. If you head east you'll find a river that you can follow north for a while. That's what they'll all probably be taking. You can probably catch them pretty quickly if you get moving."

Naruto bowed slightly, "Then that's where we need to get going to. Good luck out there Ace. I hope I see you again out there sometime."

"Don't worry about me, worry about Luffy, that's your mission." Ace teased, "I'll be fine, I've just got to get back out onto the waters." He pushed his boat back into the ocean and jumped onto it, "See you guys whenever."

Naruto and Soren waved to Ace as he started off along the waves. Soren pointed out at him as his form retreated further and further away, "Ace seems like an interesting guy, and he's one of Whitebeard's favorites. Why can't rubber boy be cool like that?"

Naruto frowned as they started out towards the river that Ace identified for them, "Hey, Luffy's cool. He's just a different kind of cool. Comparing Luffy's cool to my cool and Ace's cool is completely uncool."

Soren sweatdropped, "Yeah, you're… cool. Let's just find everybody else already before even more bad stuff happens to us."

Naruto nodded, "Agreed, how fast can you move?"

Soren took a swig of the new flask he had just gotten from Ace, "I can go for as long as you need me to. I'll set a decent pace for us." The two men took off through the sands to begin searching for their friends.

Naruto gave a side glance at Soren, "You do know that you could have just waited for Ace to tell us that we were going to be following a river instead of trading a favor from an important guy for a sip of water right?"

Soren spit out the water he was drinking, "Um… What?"

Naruto sighed, "Just keep running."

* * *

**Sorry for the longer than usual wait between chapters but my goddamn transmission died in my 98 Ford Taurus. I love that fucking car man! I'm pissed! Anyway, it's here now, hot and fresh for your reading pleasure. Please enjoy.**

**Kenchi out.**


	11. Hot, Hot Heat

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. While the mangas I read are okay, I like my readable media slow and depressing… which is also how I like my women. That didn't make any sense… or did it? And you're damn right I sip cappuccino and wear a beret inside of Starbucks when I write these shits. Do somethin'!

I don't really feel too right in the head at this point in time as you can probably tell.

Enjoy the chapter.

...Or don't. I don't control you.

...Or do I?

...

...

No I don't, otherwise you would have wired me money by now.

**Chapter 11: Hot, Hot Heat**

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Naruto wasn't a very hateful person. It was very, very difficult to irk Naruto's nerves enough to actually make him openly despise you just for existing. Things that had earned this discrepancy: Orochimaru, Kabuto Yakushi, Madara Uchiha, bigotry, cold ramen, and fresh vegetables. Now there was a new add-on to that list.

"I fucking hate the goddamn desert!" Naruto yelled as he and Soren finally found where the Straw Hat crew had left the ship and moved inland from. The two decided to take a short breather on board before trying to figure out which way they had headed. The Going Merry had been stopped by a town covered in sand, like it caught the brunt of the abuse from a sandstorm.

Soren yelled right back as he walked out of their kitchen, "Oh shut the hell up Uzumaki! At least you don't dry out like a raisin in the sun like I do. I need more fluid out here than everyone else on our crew combined!" He then pointed a thumb back into the kitchen, "And what the hell happened to all of their food? Didn't they just restock back in Nanohana? It hasn't even been two days yet. As a matter of fact what happened to our food, because we're out on our ship too?"

"Forget the food, look at my face Soren!" Naruto shouted while painfully poking his red face, "I've got fucking sunburn!" Even though it would heal up in record time, sunburn was still sunburn and it still sucked for everyone alike.

Soren flicked Naruto on the forehead, eliciting a yelp of pain, "Look at me you idiot, I'm bald." Now that Naruto noticed, Soren's entire exposed skin set was even more lobster red than his was.

Naruto gave Soren an apologetic look, "Oh, sorry Soren. You're right. Come on, they've got that doctor reindeer Chopper of theirs on board. I'm sure they've got something for this." Naruto accentuated with an intentionally hard set of pats on the back as he made his way back inside.

Soren yelled out in pain and followed Naruto back inside, taking care to keep his back arched, "Fuck you! Gah, I'm going to be shedding for weeks!"

"Awesome!" Naruto shouted as he picked up something on a chair inside of the ship, "Noji-chan left my sage coat here, and that means no more sunburn for me." Naruto said with a grin while throwing the red jacket on his frame.

Soren grumbled and went all over going through the possessions of the Straw Hat crew members trying to find some of Chopper's medical supplies, and maybe something to cover his body with while they crossed the rest of the desert. Chuckling at Soren's grumbles, Naruto noticed a note fall to the floor that he picked up to read.

_To Naruto-kun and Soren._

_We are headed northwest to Yuba with the rest of the Straw Hats. We thought about leaving one of us with the ship for when you caught up, but I know that you'll be able to meet us soon. I hope you'll be careful, and that you two don't kill each other out there because if you do we'll never find your bodies._

_Good luck, Nojiko._

Naruto shook his head and put the note in his pocket with a smile on his face, "I appreciate the thought Noji-chan, but there was a chance that someone else could have intercepted this that shouldn't have."

"Ahh…" Soren walked up to Naruto with a look of relief on his face as he rubbed a white ointment onto his head, "Did that little reindeer make this stuff? Again I reiterate, we need to lure that little miracle worker onto our ship. Take some, it's awesome." He then blinked before pointing at Naruto accusingly, "Hey, what happened to your face? It's barely even red anymore. Bullshit! You aren't even peeling!"

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "I heal really quick."

Soren grumbled a little more before rubbing more ointment onto his head and settling down, "Well we left the Marines in the dust back in Nanohana, after the asskicking we gave them if they show up again I would call that a small miracle for them."

"Or…" Naruto responded, "They'll just amass their forces after this and wait us out so that they don't have to fight us on those same terms again. Either way, we need to catch up to everybody else and link back up with our own crew. Where the hell is Yuba?"

"It's northwest." Soren pointed in the proper direction as they made their way back outside, "And why are we going to Yuba? You and I could probably sack the capital all on our own and nip this in the bud now."

Naruto wagged his finger chidingly at Soren, "Sacking the capital wouldn't do anyone any good Soren, unless you want to run the country or something, and I don't see why in Kami's name you would… it's mostly paperwork anyway. Crocodile isn't going to be out in the open, that would be way too easy and I'm sure that if he orchestrated this whole thing he's not that stupid." Naruto stroked his chin in thought, "We're not going to Yuba."

Soren blinked blankly for a moment before he pumped his fist in victory, "Hell yeah! We're going to sack the capital!"

Naruto shook his head, "We're not going to the capital either. It wouldn't even do us any good to go there I keep telling you." He walked along the deck of the ship, pacing about, "We need to utterly wreck his entire operation, make it rot from the inside out. We need to start picking Baroque Works apart, because even if we got Crocodile's location somehow he still has a damn entire army at his beck and call to block us."

Before Naruto could say anymore a pack of running feet and a mass of confused animal noises drew their attention. Both men stood at the edge of the ship and took note of a group of strange purple frilled lizards running south through the desert. At a closer look, Soren nudged Naruto, "Uzumaki, check it out. Look at what they're carrying."

The lizards were carrying paper messages in their hands. Naruto narrowed his eyes, "Go get one of Nami-chan's maps and tell me what's north of Yuba."

Soren went inside while Naruto debated killing one of the innocent lizards for their message, 'Nah… there's no reason to, especially if we end up running into some human operatives after this anyway.'

Soren came back out, "There's a town north of Yuba, Rainbase. Why did you want to know?"

"Those things came from straight north northwest. It looks like we're going to Rainbase Soren. Get ready because we're going to be moving fast again." Naruto said with a smirk on his face.

Soren shrugged, "You're the boss. Just let me grab my stuff and we can leave."

XxX

As the Straw Hats and the remainders of the Foxhound Pirates walked through the desert, sans Naruto and Soren, the latter crew was actually concerned with their missing crew members… or one person was. Nojiko walked with her head down as they all trudged through the desert, "I wish I knew whether or not they were okay. We left Nanohana so fast I couldn't tell whether or not they won."

Johnny snickered, "We saw a tornado from ten kilometers away from the town. Who else on the face of the planet has the power to make tornadoes at will? And who else would be crazy enough to use it in the middle of a town? Naruto-aniki and Soren are just fine."

With the promise of actually eating lunch at the next rock they came across, please note that this was in a desert, Luffy sprinted while dragging all of the supplies behind him over to the shady area, "Look! A rock! Lunch!"

"Why is he so fast _now_?" Usopp asked while pointing with his thumb at the dust cloud.

Sanji sighed as he took a drag from his cigarette while his eyes were preoccupied with reading something, "Because Vivi-chan told the idiot we could eat at the next rock we made it to."

Vivi smiled sheepishly before looking over to Nami, "So I've met him and know who he is, but I've never personally had a conversation with the man. Just who is this Naruto person that you and your sister keep mentioning. You've been referencing him ever since we left Whiskey Peak."

Nami turned to her, "Oh yeah, if Naruto-kun was on our crew then things wouldn't be nearly as hard as they are. Every time we've ever seen him fight he's beaten his opponent pretty easily. We've only seen him get serious once, and I still doubt he was really trying then."

Yosaku, covered in desert travel garb, snorted nearby, "I don't think we're ever going to see Naruto-aniki actually try against anyone. When he smashed Arlong the only hits he took were the ones he wanted to take, he tore the place apart without even meaning to! I mean, he makes tornadoes and tidal waves at will without batting an eye. That usually means that he can do more than that."

"No way." Vivi said, shaking her head, "There's no way that anyone is that strong. I mean look at you guys, I've seen Luffy fight and the way you talk you make it seem like he could destroy all of you without breaking a sweat. I admit, he's very good from when he protected me back at Whiskey Peak, but come on."

Johnny and Yosaku raised their hands slowly, "Actually on that note, Naruto-aniki's been both beating the crap out of us and dodging Nojiko-aneue's gunshots blindfolded for training, or as he likes to call it, kicks." Both men then turned to each other and blinked, "Wait, he never turned the weight seals back on did he?"

Johnny laughed uproariously, "I knew it was feeling too easy to move around!" He pumped a fist towards Zoro, "Really soon Zoro-aniki, we'll be strong enough to fight you evenly really soon. Count on it!"

Zoro simply shook his head in amusement as he dragged a heat exhausted Chopper behind him on a makeshift sled.

Miss Valentine had been very silent since they had left Nanohana, seemingly in thought, "What's this guy's angle?" She asked, getting the attention of everyone who had been talking, "He just storms into a fight that wasn't his business, protects a princess he's never met of a country he probably otherwise would never have gone to, and then after he beats me up he offers to protect me. I can't put my finger on this guy."

Nojiko shrugged, "I've stopped trying to figure him out by now. It just leads to you thinking in circles. Just go with the flow like everyone else on our ship has been doing, because I don't even think Naruto-kun knows what he plans on doing until right when he does it."

Miss Valentine laughed in amusement, "Come on. He has to have some kind of higher level of thinking or something that you're all just not getting, all masterminds do. There's no way that anyone would just come out to sea without a plan of what they wanted right?" She finished, laughing more until six separate sweatdrops were her answer, "Really?"

Nami nodded and palmed her forehead as she tried to explain, "Let me put this in perspective for you just so that you understand the level of 'higher thinking' you're dealing with. When our captain Luffy left his home island in the East Blue on a little dinghy by himself he had a plan of forming a crew and eventually finding One Piece and becoming King of the Pirates. Naruto-kun just got bored one day and two hours later hopped a merchant ship that took him away from his continent where he stole a ship from pirates out at sea that attacked the one he was already riding on. He then ended up meeting me, Luffy, and Zoro and travelled with us for a bit before wandering off and taking on these two sword slacker clowns and my sister when he got tired of staying in one place. I don't even think he has an actual goal for being out on the Grand Line."

Miss Valentine face-faulted into the sand, "That's crazy! Who goes out onto the Grand Line without even an inkling of what you want to do out here?"

Yosaku interjected, "In Naruto-aniki's defense he did say he came out here in particular to fight the 'crushing boredom' he was feeling from when he was at wherever his home is."

Johnny spoke next, "He also said that he wanted to find the strongest people in the world and fight them to see where he stacked up in comparison... And I pity the poor bastards that are that high up in the food chain."

Nojiko sighed, "That's Naruto-kun to a tee alright…"

Vivi blinked in confusion, "But why doesn't he fight Luffy if he just wants to see where he stands in the world?"

Zoro shook his head, "Because both of them know that a fight like that wouldn't prove anything. As they both are now Naruto would destroy Luffy and they both know it. As far as we know Naruto has no Devil Fruit powers and knows the weakness that all users suffer from, he also has no problems using that weakness as he said as much himself when he travelled with us. Even without it from what I've seen it wouldn't matter. Luffy can't hit him because he moves too fast even when he's just playing around, he's just as physically strong as Luffy if not stronger, he has too many different techniques that no one has ever even seen before, and the way he fought at Arlong Park was like an experienced warrior that had done that kind of thing countless times."

Usopp scratched his head under his turban, "I'm still stumped at how someone like that can be so strong to manipulate elements without a Devil Fruit."

Miss Valentine dragged a hand down her face and looked at everyone with a deadpan expression, "So you're saying that I've been travelling on a ship with a man that has enough power to physically manipulate the actual environment around him at will, he has no goals in life and yet he finds himself out on the most dangerous ocean route known to man just for kicks, he has a crew of pirates yet he never particularly cared for being one, he wants to fight the most powerful people in existence but has no real motivation for doing so, and lastly he doesn't even have a Devil Fruit. By the way; why is he even here in the first place?"

Johnny smirked, "I think he said something about saving the country and getting the 'super-hot princess' to dance for him again like at Whiskey Peak… whatever that means." Vivi visibly blushed and turned her face from sight.

Sanji chuckled lecherously, "You know I think me and this Naruto guy are going to get along fairly well." He turned a page in the book he was reading, "Especially if he has more of these orange books I found on your ship. Seriously, whoever wrote this is a genius!"

Miss Valentine kept her deadpan face until a smile slowly worked its way onto her face, "I'm following the human embodiment of anarchy and dischord… *laughs* You know, this Naruto might be more fun to be around than being in Baroque Works. At least he won't try to kill you if you mess up."

At that moment, Luffy came sprinting back from the rock he had dragged all of their luggage to, "There are a bunch of dying birds back there! Chopper, come with me and heal them!"

Chopper got off of the sled he was being dragged on, "O-Okay, I'm coming." Luffy picked him up and sprinted back to the rocks immediately.

"Dying birds?" Vivi said, "Wait Luffy-san! Those birds are warusagi! Thieves of the desert!" She yelled out in vain to him.

Nami looked at Nojiko, both with sweatdrops on their heads, "My captain is stupider."

Nojiko shook her head, "No Luffy's just ignorant. My captain is stupider. He's something of a pervert too."

Nami smirked, "You know you like it. At least he's cute."

Nojiko rolled her eyes, "Being cute only makes up for being only so dense and clueless. I swear Naruto-kun plays hopscotch on that line every single day."

"Says you." Nami said before turning her view ahead slyly, "So… you want to trade?"

Nojiko scoffed, "Not a chance in hell."

XxX

(Two Days Later)

Naruto and Soren, who had found a white cloak to cover himself with on the ship, eventually found their way into Rainbase without too much trouble and effort, other than the next to endless running.

Naruto shook his head as they entered town, his old goggles hiding his eyes as he realized during the first trek to where his and Luffy's crews had docked their ships that getting sand blown into your eyes was a pain in the ass, "I'm just saying Soren, there was no reason at all for you to stop and do what you did."

Soren turned to his captain and gave him a dry look, "We were being chased by a giant scorpion for like twelve miles. All I did was just turn around and melt it right quick."

Naruto made a gesture as if that was his point, "Exactly! You melted it! We were outrunning it so bad it wasn't even funny, it wasn't going to catch us, and I think it was getting tired. Besides, it only felt like twelve miles, we didn't go anywhere because you made us run in circles!"

Soren took a swig from his canteen, "How could you tell it was getting tired? It was a fucking scorpion! Why didn't you just kick it into the distance or say something if you were that worried about it Mr. Nature Activist?"

Naruto growled, "Because someone turned into a banshee and started yelling about how we were going to die for about two miles worth of running. I couldn't get a word in edge-wise."

Soren turned away, scratching his mark "Come on man… you can't say those giant claws didn't freak you out."

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "Those giant claws didn't freak me out… I've seen bigger."

Soren couldn't tell whether or not he was kidding, "You aren't even from the Grand Line, how could you have seen bigger? I call bullshit."

Naruto shrugged, "Believe whatever you want to. Now come on, let's look around this place."

The city was a pretty thriving looking place. From what they both gathered from merely listening in to the conversations of others there was a widespread drought going on around the entire country, well from what both men could see there sure as hell wasn't one going on here.

"Drought my ass." Soren said as they continued walking around the city, "For a country undergoing a drought this particular place seems to be doing just aces doesn't it?"

Naruto 'hmmed' in thought, "Maybe. But we wouldn't hear that many people complain about it if there wasn't one going on. It's just one town. And apparently that river we were near used to be way stronger than it is now."

Soren rubbed his chin, "Well droughts usually stop everything. If there was a drought there would be no real commerce coming to this place because water is the base of everything. No water, no nothing, you know?"

Naruto pointed to a huge pyramid shaped building, "You think that might have something to do with the reason why this place is still kicking?"

Soren looked at the giant pyramid building, and more specifically at the giant crocodile statue on top of it, "Gee… that isn't a dead giveaway to anyone that isn't a complete idiot at all is it?"

Naruto smirked and nodded, "Okay, it's time for some good old-fashioned espionage. And what better way to do that than to actually stay at this stupid resort."

Soren interjected helpfully, "It's actually a resort/restaurant/casino."

Naruto waved it off, "Whatever, can't you see I'm planning here? Anyway, we get a room and simply scope this place out until Crocodile does something stupid enough that he slips up and comes out, and then we kick his ass."

Soren grinned, "I like the part where we kick his ass especially." The grin fell from his face, "But wait, what if he notices us? Won't he try to kill us?"

Naruto nodded, "Of course he will! But he's not going to come and do it himself, he'll just send his lackeys to do it, and you and me can kill his lackeys all day because he's not even goingto send his elites. He's not going to do anything widescale and so as long as we don't give them an excuse to kick us out everything will be fine."

Soren thought about it, "Well I do need a vacation… but you do know that when everyone finds out where we are they're going to beat the crap out of us."

"Yeah." Naruto admitted, "But I'm sure we can come up with a good enough reason as to why we're here when it comes to it; like we have terrible senses of direction or something like that. Besides, I'm paying for this with my own money so who cares what they think." Both men stopped talking as they arrived at the front desk, "Hello, I would like to purchase a room for a week's stay at your resort."

Soren interjected, "It's a resort/restaurant/casino."

Naruto got a tick mark on his head, "Yeah… sure… whatever." He turned his attention back to the attendant, "Anyway, could I get a room for a week here?"

The woman behind the desk smiled pleasantly, "Of course, that will be 100,000 beli."

Soren blinked in surprise, "Damn that's a lot. How are we going to-?" He cut himself off when he saw Naruto simply flip through some bills and hand over the cash.

The lady smiled pleasantly and handed them a pair of keys, "Thank you and please enjoy your stay at Rain Dinners."

Naruto nodded and motioned for Soren to follow along as they searched for their room. The acid-user whispered harshly once they got out of earshot, "How the hell did you pay for that? You just dropped 100,000 beli like it was nothing."

Naruto shrugged, "Because it kind of was nothing. I have money from when I first got to the East Blue, I also ended up stealing some money from those bounty hunters at Whiskey Peak, and from that castle at Drum Island."

Soren raised an eyebrow, "You stole right in front of the Straw Hats in Drum Kingdom?"

Naruto grinned, "Well not _right in front of them_… They never saw me actually do it."

Soren shook his head, "You're… kind of a bastard you know that?"

Naruto made a wishy-washy motion with his hand, "A little bit."

XxX

(One Day Later)

Resorts weren't really Naruto's thing. He never really felt comfortable being pampered and not having to do anything productive for himself so even having to endure this for twenty-four hours left him borderline stir crazy. He couldn't train with Soren lest they blow the shoddy cover they had, and when I say shoddy I mean shoddy. In hindsight Naruto should have probably used Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) to hide the identities of himself and Soren but didn't do so for two reasons.

One; To keep the henge over Soren he would have had to stay with him the entire time they were there and that would have seriously made it difficult to attempt any surveillance, way more difficult than it would have been to just slip in and out of the shadows otherwise, because Soren was actually surprisingly good at making himself scarce when it was needed. How else would he have been able to dodge the Marines for as long as he did otherwise?

Two; He simply forgot once they got inside. However once he remembered, told this to Soren, and got through listening to him gripe about how stupid a captain he was, Naruto shut him up by simply saying, "Robbery etiquette says that you cannot criticize the robbery plan while the job is in session. You have to wait until the raid is over."

On that note, Naruto was simply sitting lazily in the casino, waiting on word from either Soren or one of the Kage Bunshin he had littered about the entire city keeping tabs on whatever they found of interest. Naruto was currently indulging in the wonders of blackjack while listening to the conversation around him.

Naruto looked down disinterestedly as he was more interested with the hearsay coming from the fellow casino patrons around him, "Hit me." Naruto said as he had a visible king of spades. He hadn't even bothered to check what else he had.

The dealer shrugged and did as Naruto asked before motioning as if asking if he wanted another card. Naruto was currently smirking after a remark that someone made nearby, 'Crocodile, a hero of the people my ass.' Naruto didn't even bother looking down, "I'll stay."

The dealer sweatdropped and went around the table. Naruto's thoughts strayed elsewhere as he kept his own eyes open for anything of interest in the crowd of people, 'I wonder where everyone else is. Luffy is strong enough to keep everyone safe, they'll all be fine.'

"Well look at that." A voice Naruto hadn't heard in a while said, "It seems like you won. Dealer, what kind of streak is this man on right now?"

The dealer was giving chips to Naruto with a dry look on his face, "Miss Manager, this guy has been here for two hours, I think he's won about forty-one times straight by now."

A familiar woman in a white cowboy hat sat next to Naruto and leaned her cheek into her hand, "You must be very well off right about now. I hope you wouldn't mind cashing some of that out and buying a lady a drink."

Naruto smirked and finally turned to face her, "It's certainly been a while hasn't it. What do I call you here? Do I call you by your real name or your code name? I ask because your boss might be uptight about that kind of thing and I'm not really here to bust you, just him."

She returned his smirk with one of her own, "You can call me whatever you want. I don't really care to tell you the truth."

Naruto nodded, "Okay then I think I'll use your real name Robin-chan. Now did you come over here to just shoot the breeze with me and watch me clean this place out or is there something you want from me?" He said as he stood up, taking the spoils of his victory.

Nico Robin shook her head as she began to follow him, "What exactly is your big plan to take down Crocodile? I highly doubt that you cleaning out his casino the way you've been doing is supposed to be a part of some conspiracy to finish off Baroque Works."

Naruto shrugged, "You never know. But I have to say that this is a rather smart way to fund the group. Taking the money of the people around you to keep them happy and stupid right before you ruin their country. I bet everyone in this town couldn't care less about the ongoings of the rest of the country even if they tried. A good place for a base, no civil unrest to touch you, you never even have to see the effects of what you're doing."

Robin laughed slightly, "So you're some kind of counter-revolutionary? Like the most wanted man in the world, but simply one for anarchy?"

Naruto shook his head with an amused look on his face as they navigated the crowd, "You're trying to look at the big picture when there simply is none to look at Robin-chan. I don't have any underlying motives, I don't have a desire to see the entire government collapse or to see it maintain control, and after I'm done here I don't really care about what happens to this place. I just know right from wrong, and what this Crocodile bastard is doing is wrong." They finally made it to the place to cash out as Naruto set his winnings on the table, "I don't know what exactly he's trying to accomplish since he doesn't seem like the kind of guy to run a country, but all I know is that I can't let it happen." Naruto placed his hand out as a set of large stacks of bills were set into his hand.

Robin followed Naruto once again as he walked away. The blonde sighed and looked over his shoulder as he led her along, "It's clear that you're not here to kill me because I've been giving you countless openings to go for it since you've found me so what do you want? If you stay out of my way when this all goes down then we won't have to be enemies, but if you step in my way you'll risk getting caught in the crossfire, and that is just no place for a lady like you to be."

Robin frowned, "So give me a time frame."

Naruto looked back at her and grinned widely, "I can't do that."

That was an answer she couldn't accept, "Why not? If you want me out of the way for whatever it is you're here to do then I'll need to know when to bow out of this organization." Crocodile may have been a Shichibukai, but the way this man spoke was as if that title was just a pretty word, as if it was already a foregone conclusion that he wasn't going to be stopped by him.

Naruto's grin turned sheepish, "I can't give you a time frame because I don't even know myself when all of this is going to kick off. Your guess is as good as mine honestly."

That stopped her in her tracks. Robin stared at him in disbelief, "So you're basically telling me that sometime in the next who knows when, something is going to happen that will spell the end for Baroque Works, and you not only don't know when it's going to happen you don't even have a clue of what's going to spark it?"

Naruto shook his head, "No I know what's going to spark it. I definitely know that much, I just don't know how long it's going to take for him to show up."

"Him?" Robin questioned before her face took on a sly smile, "You mean the Straw Hat boy, Luffy." She giggled, "You know, you are the absolute worst mastermind I have ever seen in my entire life. You're banking on the rubber boy to beat Crocodile instead of you fighting him yourself."

Naruto shrugged, "You call me a bad mastermind because you think my plan is stupid, but tell me Robin-chan." Naruto summoned over a waiter and quickly paid for two drink, "If a plan still works, can you really call it stupid then?" Naruto handed her one of the drinks and quickly downed his before backing away into the crowd. After a wave of people passed in front of him there was no sign of him except a puff of smoke.

Robin stared at where he had once been before laughing to herself and leaving with her drink in hand.

Meanwhile Naruto was outside of the casino watching her reaction from afar. When he saw her turn around and leave with a smile on her face he pumped his fist in victory, "Yes! Kami that was so cool! If I had tried that at least one hundred years ago I never would have pulled that off!" He sighed and looked up in accomplishment, "So that's why all of the bad guys did stuff like that all the time… That felt really, really good. Go figure."

XxX

Naruto slinked out of sight and managed to make his way up to the very top of Rain Dinners, currently sitting on the golden crocodile statue at the top, pretty much out of sight. His eyes were shut as he meditated, around the edges of them were slight orange pigment. A smirk came to his face as he sensed someone coming near, "What do you have Soren?"

A moment later, a rapid pitter-patter of footsteps coming up the side of the resort signified Soren running up the side of the building and coming to a stop right next to Naruto on the roof, "I really hate that you can do that. How the hell did you know I was coming before I even started making noise?"

Naruto shrugged and opened his eyes revealing yellow toad-like eyes with a horizontal bar-like pupil before they receded to the normal blue, "Oh, just some tricks I've picked up. Now what do you have for me?"

Soren sat down near Naruto on the roof, "It's a big conspiracy Uzumaki. Crocodile wants to overthrow the king of Alabasta."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "No? Really? Tell me something else I didn't know?"

Soren started leaking acid mist from his body in anger, "Shut the hell up and let me finish if you don't mind, Mr. I-know-everything-about-nothing. Now as I was saying he's actually going to come out for this one if you can actually believe it, like it's the bad guy code to stay in the shadows until it's time for the big stuff to happen and then they have to go and make a show of it. Anyway, as far as I can gather it won't be long now before he shows himself. So when do we get him?" He asked eagerly.

Naruto shook his head, "We don't ever get him. Luffy gets him."

Soren's jaw dropped, "Oh come on Uzumaki! The only reason I was so excited about this was because I thought I was going to fight Crocodile myself! And you're letting rubber boy take the fight? Why?"

Naruto looked over at Soren, "Call it a litmus test if you will. You have nothing to prove to me, you've been here in the Grand Line for as long as you have and you're still alive. I don't need to fight Crocodile myself because he hasn't pissed me off enough to get me on his case. Ace told me to watch over Luffy, but I'm not going to fight every single battle for him. He signed on and told the princess to her face that he was going to do this himself, and I'm the kind of guy that expects people to keep their promises. He's fighting Crocodile himself, and you're staying out of it."

Soren was upset at not getting a crack at a Shichibukai but understood, Luffy was untested, and how better to protect someone than to first see exactly what they're capable of and how much they can handle? This was possibly the best feasible field test for someone that couldn't have been set up, something like this had to just happen, and interfering in any way would have been in bad taste.

Still…, "So I can't fight anyone?" Soren asked.

Naruto sighed, "You can fight someone if they somehow find us and try to start something, now where the hell are the Straw Hats and our crew? I'm ready to get this show on the road you know?"

Soren shrugged, "I don't know, but I do know someone that's in town; your friend Smoker and that sword-using chick that's always with him, Tashigi."

"Damn it…." Naruto ran his hand through his hair, "Wait, you know his underling's name? Why?" Soren looked away and whistled innocently, "You kicked her ass in Nanohana didn't you?"

"No!" Soren claimed defensively, "I didn't kill her! I didn't even try to kill her! That's what _I_ consider kicking someone's ass, killing them. As long as I leave you alive that wasn't an ass-kicking, it was a character builder. I was even nice enough to leave her sword intact." He said with a hint of pride.

Naruto's eye twitched, "Wow… I'm so proud of you that you didn't turn a girl into a puddle. Would you like some applause for that feat of mercy?"

Soren grumbled, "Kiss my ass Uzumaki…"

Naruto chuckled before a mental cue from a dispelled Kage Bunshin put a damper on his mood, "The Straw Hats are finally here. And they've got the Marines back on their ass. They ran into Smoker again." He said as he stood up, pointing at a riff-raff coming up the street, "They're coming this way. Get out of sight and watch from afar. This is for our crew also."

Soren nodded as they jumped from the roof to an adjacent building to watch the scene unfold.

XxX

As the group came upon Rain Dinners, Sanji spoke, "This isn't good. We should split up."

Everyone nodded in agreement. Luffy smiled, "Then we'll all meet back up at Crocodile's!" Luffy said before he launched himself in the air with his powers and pulled his eyelid at Smoker, "Come and get me Smokey!"

Smoker launched himself into the air with his own powers, "Don't think you're getting away this time! Howaito Bain (White Vine)!" Smoker wrapped his smoky appendage around the mid-air Luffy's body and held him in place, constricting him painfully.

Luffy rapidly inhaled through his mouth, "Gomu Gomu no Fuusen (Gum Gum Balloon)!" Luffy's body instantly expanded and broke Smoker's grip on him, sending both of them forcefully away from one another. Luffy crash landed in a camel pen and fled the scene.

XxX

Soren looked at the street below and the pirates that separated, "They split up. Who do we follow?"

Naruto looked at his crewmate, "You can follow whoever you want. I've got Kage Bunshin scouring the entire town, I'm everywhere. Pick your favorite that you want to keep track of."

Soren looked around before sitting firmly on the edge of the building, "Why would I flip channels when I have picture in picture right here?"

Naruto laughed, "Spoken like a lazy bastard. Now shut up so I can see how everybody does."

XxX

"7!" Yosaku cried out as he cut into two Marines that lifted their own swords to block but were simply overpowered by the swordsman.

"I'm on 7 too you bastard!" Johnny yelled in return as he blocked a pair of Marines that bore down on him with their own cutlasses. Johnny smirked and let off his own pressure that was blocking them, forcing them to stumble forward where he immediately dispatched them with slashes to the back, "And that's 9!"

Yosaku chuckled as once again he blocked an attack from a Marine before freeing up one hand and delivering a haymaker to the unsuspecting man's face, "8! Hey where's Zoro-aniki? Wasn't he here just a second ago?"

Johnny ducked a slash before blocking another one over his shoulder as he used his free arm to point down the street, "Some girl with a katana and glasses chased him away. Hey did you know that Zoro-aniki is afraid of girls like that?" He asked right before using his free hand to grab the attacking Marine's arm and pull him towards his body to deliver a pair of back elbows to his nose, "10."

Yosaku swung his sword powerfully at a Marine, disarming him when the man lost his grip and let his sword fly off. He grabbed the hapless man by his collar and threw him at Johnny, "9!"

Johnny ducked and let the man crash into a pack of incoming Marines, knocking them unconscious, "What the hell?"

Yosaku grinned cruelly, "14! And don't say something like that about Zoro-aniki! If you were on a ship with someone like Nami-aneue you would be scared too!"

Johnny stomped over to him and got in his face, "We _are_ on a ship with someone like that! I'm not afraid of Nojiko-aneue! I love her, she's like my sister!"

Yosaku returned fire, "A sister that carries guns! Guns that she can actually use! Guns that she routinely brings out and uses on you, me, and Naruto-aniki!"

"Because we're stupid!" Johnny added, "She shoots at us because she cares about us!"

Both men turned from each other, stopped arguing, and yelled simultaneously at the Marines that had surrounded them, "Can we help you!"

The Marines backed up a step as Johnny and Yosaku started stalking towards them threateningly. Yosaku had his massive nodachi sitting on his shoulder while Johnny had his uchigatana sheathed and was flicking it up and down with his thumb. Both men spoke in stereo, "Can't you see two men are talking?" They shouted before launching at all of the Marines.

Yosaku lifted his sword overhead and cleaved forward with a mighty swing as Johnny quickly unsheathed his sword and spun around in a lightning quick circle, pushing the force of Yosaku's original attack out from the epicenter in a perfect circle around them. The force of the move knocked every single Marine caught in the crossfire back violently and even broke street-side windows with the sheer force of the jolt, "Kumiawase Shindou (Combination Shockwave)!"

XxX

Nami, Usopp, and Nojiko were running together through the streets when Nami pointed ahead, "Look! There's the entrance to Rain Dinners! It's built in the middle of a lake?"

Usopp looked around as they ran, "No one else is here yet?"

Nojiko kept looking around, but not speaking a word, 'Where did you go Naruto-kun? Are you alright?'

A few Baroque Works operatives saw them running, "There they are! Take them out!"

Usopp and Nami panicked at the sight of the men pointing rifles at them, but Nojiko scoffed and reached under her cloak and swiftly brandished a pair of pistols before unloading both into the unfortunate enemies. As the men cried out in pain upon being shot, the blue haired girl sighed and reholstered her pistols, reaching into a supply pouch on her waist to reload while she had the chance.

She turned around and noticed Usopp and Nami staring at her, "What?"

Nami pointed at what she had just done, "You just took those guys down. I didn't know you could do that."

Nojiko looked down at where her pistols were held as she reloaded, "Well Naruto-kun taught me how. I still can't hit him though, he's just way too fast."

Usopp stared at her in disbelief, "Those were great shots. You've only been shooting since you've been travelling with Naruto? That's really good."

Nojiko blushed under the praise, "Well Naruto-kun says that he, quote, 'Wants me to be able to shoot the wings off of a fly in flight from thirty yards away.' So I'm not even close to being good yet."

Zoro ran up to them, looking around at the fallen Baroque Works members, "Whoa, what happened here?"

Nami yelled at the green haired swordsman, "Zoro, weren't you with Vivi?"

Zoro nodded, "I was but I let her go ahead. Isn't she here yet? She didn't have to even fight anyone!"

Nami groaned, "She's probably inside already!"

"Aaahh!" Luffy yelled as he ran towards the casino, "Moku Moku's chasing me! Let's go everybody!" Smoker was hot on his heels the entire time. Luffy stopped in front of the massive resort and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Crocodile! Get your ass out here!"

XxX

Soren and Naruto sweatdropped at Luffy's display, "Rubber boy means well and tries hard but he is simply not that bright at all is he?"

Naruto chuckled humorously, "Seriously, this guy reminds me of myself when I was a kid so much it isn't even funny, and I'm not sure how much of a good thing that is. But I was a _kid_, he's damn near a grown man. What the hell is his excuse?"

Soren looked at all of the amassed Straw Hats plus Nojiko, "Where are Sanji, Chopper, Johnny, Yosaku, and Miss Valentine?"

Naruto kept his eyes on the action below, "Johnny and Yosaku are beating the hell out of either a bunch of Marines or a bunch of Baroque Works' Millions, I can't tell because they're not really distinguishing one side from the other. Miss Valentine is doing her damndest to stay inconspicuous throughout this whole thing, she's just sitting pretty in a café at the edge of town, I'm actually thinking of going to get her since she isn't going to fight. Sanji is doing the same damn thing Johnny and Yosaku are doing only they're enjoying it better. And Chopper? I have not the faintest idea where he is."

XxX

Nami cracked Luffy in the back of the head when he ran into the casino and once again shouted for Crocodile to show himself, "How is that going to get him to come out you dumbass? He's the hero of this country, do you want to make enemies of all of the people too?"

Luffy simply ignored her and kept yelling out until employees started calling for security and Smoker kicked the front door down, "I've got you now Straw Hat! This place is on a lake, you can't get away!"

"Damn…" Luffy mumbled before taking off running through the building.

Nojiko sweatdropped, "What is this guy's problem with Luffy and Naruto-kun? He's so obsessive it's kind of scary."

Three security guards tried to take Luffy outside but he simply bowled them over and kept running around the casino. Suddenly a red carpet rolled out from the main office as multiple attendants stood around gesturing to the door, "Right this way to the VIP room please!"

That actually pissed off all of the Straw Hats. Nami glared at the door, "Is he saying to bring it on?"

Zoro laughed angrily, "What a clever guy."

Luffy growled, "Let's go already!" Luffy ran down the carpet and through the door, "Hey what does VIP mean?" The rest of the crew ran inside after him, short one Nojiko, who stayed outside, still concealed by her desert garb.

Nojiko shook her head and walked away, "There is no way I'm going in there with the rest of you, are you all insane?" She threw her hands up in exasperation as she left the casino, "I'm looking for everyone else so we can bail you idiots out after you get yourselves caught."

XxX

Soren looked at the entrance of the casino warily, "Should we go in?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nope." He pointed, "Noji-chan's coming out. She's my responsibility right now. Back in a sec." Naruto vanished in a shunshin, leaving Soren alone on the roof until he reappeared a second later, holding Nojiko close to him, "Hi Noji-chan."

CRACK

"Fuck!" Naruto cried as he held the lump on his head from where Nojiko hit him with the butt of her pistol, "Okay, I guess I might have deserved that."

Nojiko glared at him before cocking and pointing the same pistol at Soren who immediately stopped laughing, "Where the hell have you two been? I know damn well you're both more than fast enough to catch up to us."

Naruto and Soren looked at each other before nodding and speaking at the same time, "Here getting intel."

Nojiko tapped her foot impatiently, "And what can you tell me that I don't already know? Think carefully."

Soren rubbed his head, "Even with rigged games for some reason this guy doesn't lose at gambling."

Naruto shrugged, "The resort massage parlor doesn't do happy endings- Ow goddamn it!" Naruto yelled after taking another hit from Nojiko's gun.

"Fucking pervert…" She growled, "What are you doing, aren't you going to go fight Crocodile? Go do your thing and turn that casino into a crater in the ground and finish this."

Naruto stroked his chin, "I could do that. I should do that. But I'm not going to do that. So sorry Noji-chan, not this time."

Soren grumbled, "Yeah, the almighty Uzumaki says we aren't fighting Crocodile… teme."

Nojiko looked at Naruto strangely, "Why the hell aren't we fighting Baroque Works Naruto-kun?"

Naruto returned her look, "You're telling me you want to fight?" Nojiko shook her head, "Luffy's crew were the ones that volunteered to do this. I didn't sign us up for this. I'm just here to observe and step in if it becomes absolutely necessary."

"And 'absolutely necessary' means?" The female crew member asked.

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Desperate doomsday ultimatum scenario… more or less."

"Well…" Nojiko stated sheepishly, "Luffy, Nami, Usopp, and Zoro walked right into the most blatant trap I've ever seen anyone set up ever. Does that count as bad enough to get involved?"

Naruto shook his head, "Nope."

Nojiko face-faulted, "Damn it, are you going to do anything? Do you at least know where Vivi is?"

"Yeah." Naruto admitted as he pointed to the entrance of Rain Dinners, "She's right there."

"Damn it Naruto-kun!" Nojiko shouted, "Don't let them fight Crocodile alone! They're not you!"

"You're damn right they're not me, that's why I'm making them do this!" Naruto shouted over her, actually stopping her with the anger in his voice, "You think I don't know that no one on the Straw Hat crew is as strong as me? You think I don't realize that I could probably stop this entire thing by myself and just go about my business? Well say that I do that. Say that I march my ass right into that casino, clean everyone's clock, free everyone, stomp a mudhole in Crocodile's ass, and save this damn country by myself; what the hell would any of them get out of this? What would anyone on that crew actually learn from this?"

Nojiko looked between the casino and Naruto, "But they could die…"

Naruto shook his head, "I'm not stupid Noji-chan. I'm not going to let anyone die, but fighting a battle that they've dedicated themselves to won't help anyone here. We've just gotten onto the Grand Line, and all of them have big goals, goals that will put them in more danger than this. The only way to truly grow is to push your limits. Just let it happen, this isn't our fight…" He walked to the edge of the building a smirked as he saw a pile of beaten down bodies littering the streets around Rain Dinners, "Man, Sanji and the boys sure broke off a serious ass-kicking just now didn't they."

Crocodile and Nico Robin came out from inside to survey the scene, "Hmm… Once again, I'll be right back." Naruto shunshined down from his spot, leaving Nojiko and Soren on the roof.

Crocodile looked down at one of the beaten men, "What happened here?"

The bloodied man looked up painfully, "The guy that did this called himself Mr. Prince. He and two other guys left towards the south end of town."

Crocodile looked down the street where Naruto appeared in a gust of leaves, grinning and waving at him. Crocodile glared at him coldly, "Piece of shit, don't think you can get away from me."

Robin shook her head, "Why don't you just let him go?"

Crocodile turned the lower half of his body to sand and took off after Naruto, "Be quiet, He killed all of my employees. No one humiliates me like this!"

Naruto saw him coming and grinned wider as he took off to evade him, "You've got to be faster than that you know? You'll never catch me moving slow like this!" Naruto turned back and saw his lower body was sand, "You know I once knew another guy that had the same powers you did-."

Crocodile cut Naruto off with an attack, "Dezato Supada (Desert Spada)!" Crocodile's right hand turned into a loose blade of sand and stabbed it into the ground. It carried out towards Naruto like a torpedo, cutting through the pavement. Right when it hit Naruto he disappeared in a puff of smoke, his body replaced by a pot.

"Like I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted." Naruto said as he walked out from a nearby alley, "I knew a guy that had the same powers you did… but he was way better than you."

Crocodile simply looked at Naruto with his usual lazy looking expression, "Are you Mr. Prince?"

Naruto grinned, "No I can't say that I am? Are you telling me that you don't know who I am? I could have sworn I told your pretty partner who I was." Kabuki instruments started playing as he started hopping to the side on one foot, "I am the child of prophecy, the number one immortal knucklehead ninja, the all-powerful and infinitely sexy eternal toad sennin, and the worst possible matchup you could have to fight right now; Uzumaki Naruto." He finished with one hand straight out in front of him and the other straight out behind, crouched down in a side view with the wind blowing rose petals around him.

Crocodile stood in place with a sweatdrop on his head while Naruto looked up to the rooftops with a thumbs up, "Good going guys, I think you nailed that one right on the money!"

On the roofs surrounding the street, a mass of Naruto clones with instruments, baskets of petals, and a few channeling wind chakra down below gave Naruto a grin in return, "Anytime boss!" They then dispersed out around town.

Crocodile broke out in chuckles, "So you're the kid that Miss All-Sunday told me said he was going to tear my organization apart. Between you and Straw Hat coming after me I don't know which one is more laughable."

Naruto laughed along with him, "Whatever you say, but I didn't come here to fight, at least not yet, I'm leaving that to someone else. I just came to-." Naruto suddenly threw three shuriken at Crocodile that passed through his body harmlessly, "-Test your ability." Naruto nodded as if that was all he needed to know, "Yeah, you're just perfect for the kid to get his feet wet with."

Crocodile looked at Naruto as if he were an idiot, "And just what is that supposed to mean?"

Naruto laughed and turned around to walk away, "Oh don't mind me, I've seen all I've needed to see. Besides, I'm no one important anyway, I'm nothing but a humble observer, this doesn't have very much to do with me." Crocodile sent another attack at Naruto, but he vanished in a blur of speed before it could hit.

"Don't attack me Crocodile… It's not very smart." Naruto's voice rang out from around him, "Now weren't you looking for a Mr. Prince? I don't know about you but _I _have people to collect."

Crocodile looked around before scoffing and making his way to the outskirts of town to find 'Mr. Prince'.

* * *

**Had to stop here. If I kept going this thing would be pushing 15k and contrary to popular belief there is such a thing as too much of a good thing… man that didn't sound arrogant at all did it?**

**Anyway, chapter up, it's late, I'm done. Later.**

**Kenchi out.**


	12. Whatever Doesn't Kill You

I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I own nothing. As a matter of fact I don't own nothing, how can you own nothing? Nothing is an abstract concept, it cannot be owned, so in essence I don't even own nothing, and that my friends is a damn shame. What was I talking about again?

Oh, I don't own them, enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 12: Whatever Doesn't Kill You…

* * *

**

Smoker stared at the Straw Hat crew after being pulled out of the destroyed resort Rain Dinners, which Crocodile had sunken to the bottom of the lake it was situated on to finish them all off. He let out a sigh and waved them off, "Go." He said, allowing them to leave without a fight, "The next time we meet however you're a dead man. Remember that Straw Hat Luffy."

The sound of the Marines combing through the town got ever closer when Luffy gave Smoker a grin, "You know, I don't hate your guts after all Smokey."

Smoker pulled out his jutte and took a swing at him to get him to flee, "Get the hell out of here!"

Smoker watched as the crew took off, leaving him behind as the group of Marines came to him, "Sir, aren't you going to go after them?"

Smoker shut his eyes and leaned against a building, "No, I'm tired." He ignored the looks of surprise from his men, "Call back the men who went off to chase them, they won't catch them. Get them back here and call headquarters. Tell them to send all Marine ships in the vicinity to Alabasta."

The Marine who had been speaking to him stared in shock, "Call for reinforcements? But I don't think the superior officers will let them go to fight such a small number of pirates."

Smoker glared darkly at the man, "Since when have I listened to my superior officers' opinions? Now go!" He finished, scaring the man off to accomplish his task. As he stood alone in the street he looked around before walking off on his own in thought.

XxX

Naruto appeared back on the rooftop next to Soren and Nojiko, "Me and Crocodile had a nice little chat. I do have to say that he's way taller than I expected him to be though, most masterminds like this are short little pieces of nothing."

Nojiko blinked at him, "So what happened? Did you beat him up already?"

Naruto shook his head, "I told you, I'm not fighting Crocodile, Luffy is. All I did was just point him in their general direction. That should get some fireworks started."

Nojiko frowned while Soren glowered in the background, muttering about blonde bastards, "Naruto-kun I really don't like this idea, what if they get hurt?"

"Oh they're all going to get hurt, that's for certain." Naruto shrugged carelessly, "It's a good experience for them. Now we need to get to Alubarna to make sure that this country doesn't go under in the case that they can't beat Crocodile and his goon squad."

"How in the hell are we supposed to pull that off Uzumaki?" Soren said, "It took you and I a day to get here on foot by ourselves from the ships, how are they going to keep up with us?"

Naruto grinned, "You just let me worry about that. Now go get Miss Valentine and I'll go get Johnny and Yosaku and stop them from kicking the Marines' and the Billions' asses." Naruto grabbed onto Nojiko and took off along the rooftops while Soren went off his own way to search for Miss Valentine.

XxX

It didn't take long for Naruto and Soren to corral their targets since Naruto was already aware of their positions due to the Kage Bunshin he had spread out around Rainbase dispelling periodically around the people of interest to keep him posted on the situation. Naruto stood just outside of town with Nojiko, Johnny, and Yosaku in tow when Soren and Miss Valentine sauntered up.

Naruto grinned amusedly at Miss Valentine who had been conspicuous in her absence throughout everyone's stay in Rainbase, "Hello dear, have a good time watching the panic unfold?"

Miss Valentine let out a laugh and smiled, "It's more interesting to not be directly involved you see."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Says you."

Soren's eye twitched in annoyance as one important aspect of their coming back together had not been addressed yet, "Are we all forgetting that we have no way to get to Alubarna before the shit hits the fan?"

That got everyone amassed to look at Naruto expectantly. Yosaku voiced the concerns of everyone present, "So how are we supposed to get to Alubarna Naruto-aniki? By the time we get there normally everything will be all over."

Naruto shook his head and grinned, "I never showed you guys that I could do this did I?" Naruto bit his thumb and made a few hand-seals, "This is going to be fun, Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

A puff of smoke surrounded Naruto's body, clearing out to reveal Naruto standing on the head of one of six brown toads twice his size, "Say hello to the transport toads you guys." Naruto took the silence and stunned looks on the faces of his friends as a victory for him, "What's the matter you guys? Haven't I been introducing myself as the toad sennin? Didn't you think that actually meant something?"

Nojiko pointed, "You just made those things appear out of thin air."

Naruto nodded, "Yes Noji-chan, we've established this already, I remember, I was here."

Soren snapped out of it first after slapping himself and getting on one of the toad's back's, "I'll say it again even though I was kind of joking the first time; what can't you do damn it?"

Naruto grinned at his bald ally, "And I'll repeat myself; I don't know yet, you'll know when I do." Naruto looked at the rest of his crew, "Well, get on. They're not going to hurt you or anything, I summoned them myself. They listen to me and help me out." They remained still until Naruto rolled his eyes and moved swiftly behind Nojiko, picking her up and putting her on one of the toads.

Nojiko was somewhat scared of the massive amphibian, but quickly learned that Naruto was right and they wouldn't hurt her. Naruto smiled at her, "You see? Now everyone get on so we can get moving."

All of the others finally relented and got onto the backs of the toads per the blonde captain's orders. Naruto allowed his comrades to get themselves situated when a dispelling Kage Bunshin alerted Naruto to something of importance occurring elsewhere in the desert, "Damn it Luffy." Naruto grabbed the area between his eyes out of stress.

Naruto hopped off of his toad and de-summoned it, "You guys go on ahead, I've got something to see. Miss Valentine, you know the way to Alubarna right? Get everyone there and I'll catch up on my own later."

Miss Valentine nodded but frowned, "You're leaving again?" A small smile came to her face, "We just can't seem to keep you around can we?"

Naruto shrugged, "Hey, I appeared out of nowhere. You never know when I'm just gonna pop up out of nowhere, or disappear in the blink of an eye. You guys can handle things, and remember to stay low profile and out of trouble, this is the Straw Hats' fight." With that, Naruto took off on foot back towards the city.

Johnny pointed to the dust trail Naruto was leaving in his wake, "He needs to stop doing that."

"It's a mission he took." Soren explained, "He knows that just watching over Luffy all the time would get irksome for all of us so he wants to make sure he can handle himself. That doesn't mean he's just going to let him die though… Now let's go, he'll catch up." Soren bounced on the toad's back and looked at it curiously, "How do I make this stupid thing go?"

The toad took exception to being called stupid and began hopping and bucking with Soren on it before taking off in a hurry, the acid-user yelling at the top of his lungs. Miss Valentine shook her head and cupped her hands around her mouth, "Hey, that's the wrong way! We need to go east!"

XxX

Crocodile dropped a small hourglass at Luffy's feet as the straw hat clad teen stared at him curiously, "I'll give you three minutes. After that I won't have the time to play with you anymore. Any problems with that?"

Luffy stood ahead of him, ready to fight, "Nope, that's fine with me." He cocked his fist back, "Gomu Gomu no Pistol (Gum Gum Pistol)!" Luffy let off his rubber arm out in a punch, but Crocodile's body simply turned to sand and shifted out of the way. He reformed and came at Luffy with a swing of his golden hook who bent over backwards to avoid the metal appendage. Luffy's leg extended into the air as he dodged and he decided to use his own momentum for an attack, "Gomu Gomu no Stamp (Gum Gum Stamp)!" Luffy backflipped and thrusted his leg out at Crocodile, however when it hit him his body turned to sand upon impact.

Luffy looked shocked as his leg snapped back and he landed on his feet. Crocodile's body reformed again, with him seemingly not caring that he was in a fight at the moment, "Let me tell you something important Straw Hat. No matter what you do, you'll never, ever-."

Luffy didn't let him finish as he sent himself at Crocodile to attack again, "Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum Gum Gatling)!" Luffy launched rapid-fire fisticuffs at Crocodile, each punch busting right through his sandy body with violent intent. When the attack ended however once again Crocodile's body reformed, no worse for wear whatsoever, "Sand monster!" Luffy shouted at him in anger, rushing to attack once again.

"Listen up Straw Hat." Crocodile said lazily, "These mosquito-bite attacks are useless against me. Because you will never, ever-."

Luffy cut him off again, getting directly in his face with his arms pushed back as far as they could go, "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka (Gum Gum Bazooka)!" Luufy shot his arms forward and punched two twin holes through Crocodile's chest, blowing a mass of sand out of the back. Luffy was not deterred by the now standard result of his attacks and shot his leg as high into the air as he could throw it before bringing it down, "Gomu Gomu no Ono (Gum Gum Axe)!"

Luffy's brutal axe kick utterly pulverized Crocodile's body, leaving the boy alone and confused in the desert, "Damn it! Did I crush you, stupid sand gator!" Luffy shouted as he stomped at the sand.

"I told you already that none of that would work." Crocodile said as he appeared behind Luffy out of nowhere.

Luffy turned around enraged, "You asshole!"

Crocodile sighed, "No matter how hard you fight rubber man… You will never defp-." He finished with a mumble when Luffy's fist burst through his face once more.

Luffy jumped back, "Defp? What the hell have you been trying to say?"

Crocodile stared at Luffy with murder in his eyes, "Why don't we end the games now Straw Hat Luffy?"

Luffy glared out at him, "I've been fighting seriously the whole time!" His thoughts were somewhat panicked, 'Damn it, I can't hit him. He keeps dissolving.'

Crocodile smirked as he put his hand back, "You and I are in two completely different leagues. Dezato Supada (Desert Spada)!" Crocodile threw his hand forward, sending an attack rushing at Luffy through the sand. Upon seeing the move split a rock right down the middle, Luffy cartwheeled out of the way as it was in his best interests to move aside and ended up landing on his head, "Ouch."

Crocodile grinned, "You sure wouldn't have been saying ouch if it had hit you." He noticed Luffy marveling at the massive rip in the desert that he had just caused, "Depending on how you use and train Devil Fruit powers they can be very strong in battle. But I'm not like the other idiots who are just content with having the power, I've honed mine to perfection!"

"Dezato Girasole (Desert Sunflower)!" Crocodile stabbed his hand into the ground and caused a pit of quicksand to form that started sucking Luffy in, "You'll wish you never stood up to me!"

Luffy started trying to outrun the effect of the sand pit while Crocodile watched in amusement, "Quicksand is a very convenient coffin, no grave needed. There's no living being that can stand toe to toe with me in the desert." Crocodile paused for a moment as he felt himself blasted with a feeling of ill intent, like a blonde wanted to strangle him or something, but he quickly passed that aside to watch Luffy struggle.

"You're going down!" Luffy threw his hands high into the air as he ran against the sand pit, "Gomu Gomu no Bazooka (Gum Gum Bazooka)!" Luffy used the momentum to throw his hands down and push himself up out of the pit and into the air where he turned his fingers into a clasped net, "If I can't hit you I'll capture you! Gomu Gomu no Ami (Gum Gum Net)!" Luffy stretched his fingers around Crocodile in the form of a net.

Crocodile once again simply turned to sand and drifted through it, "Don't you get it? Take a hint, it's impossible for you-.

"Gomu Gomu no Muchi (Gum Gum Whip)!"

Crocodile found his sandy body cut in half by a long kick by Luffy, "Repeating the same old moves again huh?" Luffy fell from the air right into the range of a strike from Crocodile, "Barchan (Crescent-Shaped Dune)!" Crocodile swung his right arm and ended up hitting Luffy's.

As Luffy hit the ground he looked at his arm in horror, "My arm! It's… Gah! My arm turned into a mummy!" Luffy's arm under the bicep was shriveled and dead looking.

Crocodile has a pleased look on his face, "Because it's sand I sucked the water out of your arm. Maybe I should kill you by sucking the water out of your entire body… to give you a little taste of the desert."

Luffy got a look of revelation, "That's it!" Luffy pulled out a small barrel and began drinking, "Water!"

Crocodile scoffed, "Ridiculous."

"No it isn't!" Luffy snapped at him, "The old guy in Yuba spent all night digging up this water. You want to know what he said? 'Yuba will never be defeated by sand!' Gomu Gomu-!"

Crocodile rolled his eyes, "Are you still trying this?"

Luffy launched himself at Crocodile and bit his head off, getting a sandy mouthful, "-no Baku Baku (Gum Gum Chomp Chomp)!"

"Enough bullshit!" Crocodile roared as he burst out of Luffy's mouth, "Prepare to die… along with the fertile soil of Yuba."

Luffy spit out the leftover sand in his mouth and looked at Crocodile in confusion, "Huh?"

He soon got an elaboration from Crocodile, "Your three minutes are up. I told you I didn't have time to play with you. Sables (Sandstorm)." Crocodile formed a twister out of sand that quickly overwhelmed Luffy, "The sand is nice and dry today." He chuckled in a taunting manner, "Alright Straw Hat. The prevailing winds here are always north to south. If the sandstorm I've just spawned rides that wind and travels south once it's mature where do you think it will hit when it's nice and big?"

"South?" Luffy questioned.

"Yuba." Crocodile said cruelly.

Luffy launched forward and grabbed onto Crocodile's shoulders, "What the hell are you doing? That old guy has nothing to do with you!" Luffy broke off and started chasing after the sandstorm, "Stop damn you!"

Crocodile laughed, "Once this wind picks up even I won't be able to stop it!"

Luffy grabbed onto Crocodile and started yelling in his face, taking all of the dark humor he was feeling out of the equation, "Stop it no-!" Luffy stopped yelling after being stabbed with Crocodile's hook.

Crocodile lifted him off of the ground by the hook, "Who in the hell do you think I am? There are plenty of rookies who are all talk… just like you Straw Hat Luffy. The Grand Line is full of them."

He looked at the sandstorm he had made, "Yuba will die. This last sandstorm will ensure it. It will set the rebels over the edge and thus the archaic love for others in this country is what will destroy it in the end. Same for you Straw Hat. You would have lived longer if you hadn't succumbed to your weaker emotions. Water… not even the water will help you."

Luffy reached up and grabbed Crocodile's arm weakly around the hook, eliciting some surprise from the man, "You're still alive?" He threw Luffy off of the hook and let him sink into the sand pit. Luffy clutched at his wound and spit up blood, "You must be in quite some pain. Don't worry it will all be over soon." He laughed at Luffy's anguish as he watched him sink beneath the sand.

He turned around when Luffy's body disappeared from sight, "What a waste of my time."

After Crocodile was long gone, Naruto appeared on the battlefield shaking his head, "Stupid Kage Bunshin, you couldn't dispel earlier and tell me this was happening." Naruto walked over to the sand pit and crouched down at the edge of it.

Suddenly Luffy's head burst above the bottom of the pit, "MEAAAAAAT!"

Naruto jumped back in shock, "Ahh holy shit! Luffy-zombie!" Naruto blinked and calmed down, "Oh wait, he said 'MEAAAAAT!' not 'BRAAAAAINS!'" Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "Okay, he's alive. Now how do I get him out of there without sinking myself?"

Suddenly Luffy's body was lifted from the pit by a multitude of hands and threw him at Naruto who abruptly tossed the wounded rubber man off of him and stood up angrily, "Who's the dead motherfucker that did that?"

"Well that's a very warm welcome Mr. Uzumaki." Naruto turned to see Nico Robin smiling confidently at him, "And here I thought you and I were friends."

Naruto smirked, "Well you might as well be. For some reason a lot of my friends become my friends after they try to kill me… and you're way hotter than the majority of them that have tried, therefore you already have your foot in the door so to speak."

"As nice as it is to see you doing… whatever it is you're planning to do." Robin said, "I came for him."

Naruto frowned, "I can't let you kill him Robin-chan, don't try it."

Robin shook her head and walked over to Luffy's downed form, "I'm not here to kill him."

Luffy weakly looked up at her, "…Thank you."

She simply stared down at him, all semblance of a smile gone from her face, "Why do you fight?" She asked, confusing Luffy, "All of you who carry the name 'D.'" Luffy simply coughed on the ground, still looking up at her. Robin used her power to form a hand to throw Luffy's hat over to her, "That seems to be a pointless question. I've found you."

Naruto simply stood off to the side, watching intently, 'D? Isn't that just a stupid initial? What the hell does that have to do with anything? Come to think of it, what does it even stand for?'

The attention of both Naruto and Robin was taken by a man in a brown star covered turban with two purple lines running down his face from his eyes. He wore a long white robe with brown stars on it. Robin smirked upon seeing him, "Oh you're awake."

"What happened to Vivi-sama?" He questioned as he limped closer with a sword in his hand, "Now that I understand the nature of your powers I won't be beaten so easily."

Robin turned and started walking away, "Oh, stop it. Don't get yourself any more injured than you already are. This is actually perfect timing, why don't you save that boy? He's the brave and gallant knight that escorted your princess safely here. The princess is fine, she's on the way to Alubarna at the moment. I don't know what will happen but you know the state that this country is in."

The new arrival looked down at that brandishing of truth, "Huh?"

Luffy grabbed onto his robe, "Meat." He said firmly.

Naruto stared down at Luffy and then at the crocodile with a banana growth on its nose and tail that Nico Robin was using to transport herself to Alubarna, "Luffy, I'm going to give you a second shot at this. I'm going to Alubarna as we speak, and I'm probably going to beat you there by a lot. I'm not going to say that you can win if you fight him again, but if I find him first and it looks like it's all going downhill even more I'm going to beat his ass myself."

Naruto smirked down at him when he felt Luffy's eyes snap to him from on the ground, "All you have to do is get up and beat him first. It's that simple, just get up, cross the desert to Alubarna, and get your win back. Good luck." Naruto then burst into smoke, leaving not a trace of his presence behind.

XxX

(With Foxhound Pirates)

"Damn these things are fast!" Johnny whooped in appreciation while his sword using partner was shouting in joy while on his own toad, "Naruto-aniki is awesome!"

Miss Valentine started counting on her fingers, "So he can walk on the surface of anything… water included, he can move faster than anyone I've ever seen, he can jump fifty feet in the air without a running start, he can make countless copies of himself, he make tornadoes, tidal waves, and fireballs, he has a living sword that eats his energy and moves around on its own, and he can call these toads out whenever he wants." She sighed, "Is there anything I'm missing about this?"

Nojiko sweatdropped, "I'm sure that there is… there always is. I think he gets off on the expressions on our faces whenever he does something else that should be impossible."

Soren smirked, "I'm going to stop considering that he can't do everything. Then he won't be able to catch me off guard with this crap anymore."

"Yo!" Yosaku called out, "We're there, and it looks like there are guards at the gates! How are we getting in?"

The toads couldn't speak but they all got huge grins on their faces before they jumped straight over the walls of the city, taking all of the Foxhound Pirates with them. The toads stopped on the rooftops inside of the walls and let them all off.

Nojiko patted the one she had ridden gratefully, "Thank you very much. That was quick!"

The toads all nodded before dispelling in a cloud of smoke.

Soren scratched his head, "So now what? Uzumaki said not to do anything, do we just observe or something?"

Nojiko shook her head, "No way, I'm finding my sister. She's definitely here if we all are. Maybe I can help her out."

Johnny and Yosaku looked at each other and nodded, "We're going to find Zoro-aniki! Maybe we can see how much stronger he's gotten since we last saw him fight."

Soren's jaw dropped as Johnny and Yosaku jumped off the roof and started running down the streets searching for Zoro while Nojiko started hopping the closely positioned rooftops to look for Nami. Soren growled and yelled, "Damn it! Uzumaki's going to kick my ass when he finds out this happened, and then I'm going to kick your asses because he kicked my ass!" He palmed his face and looked over at Miss Valentine who was simply standing there with her umbrella shut, looking at him amusedly, "Oh what? Are you going to go off and jump in the fighting too?"

Miss Valentine laughed, "No way. I'm not fighting anyone here, not while Crocodile can still identify and kill me. I'm just going to be watching the whole thing as it happens. I would fly up above the city and watch from there, but they would see me and shoot me from there if I did so I'm stuck with you for the time being tough guy."

"Wonderful." Soren deadpanned, "Let's go somewhere good to watch this stuff unfold. A good view of the whole city you know?"

Miss Valentine grinned at him, "Follow me then!" She said, running across the roof and jumping across the street with the help of her parasol allowing her to float, laughing as she left Soren in her dust.

"Oi!" Soren shouted, "Get back here!" He got a running start and cleared the street below before following Miss Valentine, "I hate the people around me so much…"

XxX

(With Nojiko)

Nojiko sat down on a rooftop and looked around searching for Nami, "Man this city is totally cleared out. There's not a soul in this town other than the soldiers I keep seeing all over the place, it's so creepy." She sighed and looked up at the sun beating down on her, "So this rebellion is really going to happen…"

She stood up and stretched, "Okay, now where's my troublesome sister?" As she looked around something in her head immediately told her to duck, and from training with Naruto she learned that when she got that certain feeling she had better act on it or bad things would happen to her. It was a good thing she did too since upon her body hitting the roof she saw a set of shuriken fly over her head.

Nojiko stood back up and drew a pistol from beneath her desert cloak, looking around for whoever had just thrown those. She had the instinct to say Naruto's name, but the way they had flown, the speed at which they were thrown, and the sound of them cutting through the air showed her that they were absolutely real and Naruto never threw real weapons at her like that.

Nojiko narrowed her eyes, "Ninja wannabe… Naruto-kun would sleepwalk all over you if he was here." She then sighed, "But he's _not_ here… I'm here. And that means I have to kick your ass." She looked around tensely, "I just have to find you first. And that shouldn't be too hard."

Her response was another set of shuriken coming at her. Nojiko scoffed and rolled out of the way before firing her pistol in the direction they came from. Nojiko's bullet flew towards the tile on another rooftop, however a sheet of similar pattern and color was thrown off to reveal a woman with short red hair, a grey ninja gi, grey pants, and grey sandals, moving to dodge.

Nojiko simply stared at the girl, "And you are?" She asked.

The woman smirked, "Miss Thursday. My idiot partner Mr. 11 may have gotten himself killed, but I am more than enough to make up for that fool's absence."

Nojiko spun her pistol on her finger, "Right… I don't think you'll just let me be and go away, I'm looking for someone, and I'm not really supposed to get into a fight."

Miss Thursday pulled up a drawing of Nojiko, "You were the one that beat the Unluckies right? You're a threat, and you just so happen to be here just as Operation Utopia is starting, I can't let you go. You have to die girly."

"Uh huh." Nojiko said disinterestedly, "Let me respond to that in the following manner." Nojiko immediately fired her pistol in the blink of an eye, forcing Miss Thursday to duck aside and return fire with a shuriken.

Nojiko forced her to miss, "You might as well quit. My captain is so much better than you it's not even funny. I really don't want to shoot you."

"Too much of a bleeding heart to go through with it?" Miss Thursday taunted, "That's very unfortunate for you."

Nojiko smirked, "No not really. I just don't want to waste my ammunition on you, it's purely economical you see."

The female ninja got a tick mark on her head, "Economical this." She said as she jumped over to Nojiko's rooftop and attempted a high kick that Nojiko avoided, "Stop dodging me!"

Nojiko saw her coming in for a low sweep and used a back handspring to avoid the second kick, 'Wow… Naruto-kun was right. All of that trying to dodge him made this child's play. Compared to him she's moving in slow motion.'

Nojiko raised her pistol and fired, but Miss Thursday threw down a smoke bomb and vanished before the bullet made contact. Nojiko hardened her senses in an attempt to find her again when Miss Thursday's laughter rang out around her, "You have no idea how to handle yourself in a battle against a warrior of the shadows do you?"

Nojiko had a sweatdrop on her head as Miss Thursday kept speaking, "Witness the power of a true ninja." Her appearance popped up all over the place directly around Nojiko, "You cannot find the real me can you?"

Nojiko's sweatdrop grew more pronounced, "Instead of setting this up why didn't you set traps or something before I even got here? Or how about instead of hiding to activate this you just kill me? Am I making sense or am I just not getting it?"

Miss Thursday growled, "Big talk from a little girl. If you are so certain of yourself then find me." She said with a smirk.

Nojiko smiled pleasantly, a little too pleasantly, "With pleasure." She threw off her cloak to reveal her belly dancer clothing and all of her weapons on her person. Her rifle and shotgun were strapped across her back, she had a belt with five pistols on it around her waist and a small grenade between each pistol on her belt, on the back part of the belt was a pouch to hold her ammunition. Nojiko pulled the shotgun off of her back and a pistol from her belt in the other hand.

Trying to take advantage of her technique, Miss Thursday threw a kunai at Nojiko who dodged it effortlessly, spun in a circle and took shots at each image of Miss Thursday, emptying her guns and revealing that they were mirrors set up to disorient her, "Hinekuru Kanaria (Spinning Canary)!"

Miss Thursday was left unharmed, but staring at a content Nojiko who placed the shotgun on her back once more, "H-How did you-?"

"Naruto-kun's better than you. When he did that he used actual clones, and they actually moved… and threw stuff at me." She shivered involuntarily, "I beat him up and told him never to throw another real weapon at me again. But the point is; you can't beat me like this." She holstered her pistol and pulled out two more with a grin on her face, "Now dance for me!"

Nojiko shot at Miss Thursday's feet, making the woman hop around on each toe. When she wasted her three shots with each pistol she holstered them and pulled out another. By the time Nojiko had used all of her pistols, Miss Thursday was hunched over, breathing heavily, "And now you lose." She slung her shotgun off of her back and quickly reloaded it before shooting at the roof in front of Miss Thursday, making it cave in and drop her inside of the building.

Peering inside the hole she had just made she found Miss Thursday knocked out cold and covered in the debris from the hole she had just fallen through. Nojiko reloaded her shotgun and placed it on her back with her rifle, "Well that worked out just fine. At least Nami can't say she won a fight like that, right?" She finished with a small giggle.

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

"Zoro-aniki!" Both men yelled at the tops of their lungs as they ran through the streets. Yosaku turned to Johnny, "Where the hell could he be? As a matter of fact where is everyone else? Didn't we tell them to follow us?"

Johnny shook his head, "No we didn't, we just left. You think they'll be alright without us?"

Yosaku paled, "I'm more worried about us. What if we run into any of those Baroque Works creeps? We'll be eaten alive!"

Johnny stopped running and grabbed Yosaku by his collar, pulling him close to face him, "Now what kind of attitude is that? You just say we're going to get our asses kicked just like that? We haven't even fought anyone yet so how can you just go and say that? We've been training hard haven't we?" Yosaku nodded and Johnny gave him a shake, "So get yourself together, if we end up in a fight we end up in a fight and that will be that."

Yosaku gulped, "But what if we lose? Naruto-aniki isn't here to get us out of trouble like he was against Soren, he only wanted aniki. If someone attacks us and beats us now they'll kill us."

Johnny smirked as the sun reflected off of his sunglasses, "Then we die. All we have to do is not lose right?"

"You should listen to your friend." A voice said from further down the street.

"Right. It won't matter how much you've trained if you still think you're weak at heart." Said a female voice from the same direction.

Johnny and Yosaku got tick marks on their heads and turned towards them, "Who the hell asked you?" They said simultaneously, "Can't you see this is a private conversation here? Butt out!"

The man that had spoken wore Greek armor; complete with the bronze helmet that covered his entire head only leaving some of his face exposed, the bronze torso plating with the tassels at the bottom that resembled a skirt, the large shield, the spear in his hand and the short sword on his waist, the long greaves on his legs and the sandals. The female of the group had long black hair and wore the same thing minus the helmet and in more of a rustic red color.

Johnny and Yosaku stared at them for a moment before the headgear clad swordsman of the pair pointed at them lamely, "Who in the hell are you two supposed to be?"

The man smirked cruelly, "I suppose you can call us Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday."

Johnny and Yosaku looked at each other, one in excitement and the other in concern. Johnny ducked low into his stance to draw his uchigatana, "This is actually perfect timing. You guys can prove to my friend here that were not as bad as he makes us out to be."

Miss Tuesday chuckled and pointed her spear at them both, "We'll see about that boys. Neither of you look to be much."

Yosaku laughed nervously as he drew his nodachi from his back, "Yeah, we get that a lot."

Mr. 10 stabbed his spear into the ground and drew his short sword and pointed it at the swordsmen, "For those about to die we salu-." He was cut off and forced to block when Johnny appeared in front of him and flicked his blade from the sheath to slash at his face.

Johnny sneered at him as they clashed steel, "Shut up and fight. If you're going to get in our way we'll just have to move you out of the path won't we?"

Miss Tuesday made to stab at Johnny with her spear while he was sidetracked by Mr. 10, but Yosaku cut her spear in half, stopping her from attacking, "You're not going to stab my buddy while I'm here."

She smirked and drew her own short sword, "You really think you can beat us? You were nearly shaking in your boots a second ago, where did all of this confidence come from?"

Yosaku looked back at Johnny who was fending off attacks from Mr. 10's short sword, "Johnny is right. Naruto-aniki has been training us hard and he never would have put us in this kind of trouble if we weren't ready for it. We're not losing."

Johnny hopped back out of the way of a vertical slash from Mr. 10 before retaliating with a backslash that hit Mr. 10 in the chest and knocked him backwards, leaving a mark on his bronze armor. Meanwhile Yosaku had taken to attacking Miss Tuesday, and had almost ended up dislocating her shoulder when she was forced to block an overhead swing from his weapon.

The two Baroque Works members joined back together, standing back to back and pointing their swords at Johnny and Yosaku. Mr. 10 glared at Johnny, "You're a little gnat; nearly impossible to hit and annoying to boot."

Miss Tuesday followed up about Yosaku, "You're a complete brute; nothing but strength behind your attacks. It's clear that neither of you have any real formal training to speak of. All you do is rely on your physical attributes to beat your enemies."

Johnny chuckled, "That's actually really accurate. I'm the speed and he's the muscle, and while we may not know anything better than the basics, we're working on that."

Yosaku smirked, "It's still enough to beat you both up and down the street."

Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday took offense to that and linked arms before spinning rapidly in a circle at Johnny and Yosaku until they became a blur, "Take this! Kaiten no Hone (Rotating Phalanx)!"

Yosaku lifted his sword and blocked the attack, sliding back as the combination attack of Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday repeatedly bashed against his blade. Johnny noticed Yosaku sliding back and pushed against his back to help him keep his ground. Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday finally ended the attack, bouncing off of Yosaku's sword and standing facing both swordsmen once more.

Yosaku stood in a ready stance with cuts all over his forearms from blocking the attack, "Johnny. I'm really pissed off now."

Johnny stood ready to fight as well, behind his partner, "Well what are you going to do about it?"

"The new move?" Yosaku suggested, looking over his shoulder questioningly. He got a grin on his face when he saw Johnny nod in agreement, "Alright then!" Yosaku jumped behind Johnny who held his sword over his back, "You'd better make this work."

Johnny glared back at him, "Just do your part and we'll work it out from there!"

Yosaku put his sword as far back as he could before swinging it forward full force, sending Johnny flying towards Mr. 10 and Miss Tuesday. Both of them split apart and moved aside, forcing him to miss and head towards a wall, but Johnny sprung off of the wall with his feet and headed back towards them with more momentum than before. They moved again and he sprung off of the road this time before springing off another wall, gaining stored energy the entire time.

Soon he resembled a ping-pong ball with the way he was bouncing off of the walls and the ground, seeking out his enemies for attack. Eventually he caught Mr. 10 off guard and cut him with a single slash, moving at blinding speed, "Hanekaeru Eikyou (Rebound Impact)!" Mr. 10 dropped to the ground motionless after a spray of blood came from his body, he had cut through the armor from the speed and kinetic energy generated from the move.

Johnny ended up losing his footing and tumbling head over heels into a wall, grunting in pain as he found himself unable to stand back up, "Damn it, that move wrecks my knees. It generates too much force for my legs to take." He breathed heavily as he held his legs painfully.

Miss Tuesday watched her partner hit the ground after Johnny's attack and glared at Yosaku, "I'll kill you both for this! Do you hear me?" She charged Yosaku with her sword set to run him straight through.

Yosaku shut his eyes for a moment, "If something like that happened to my buddy I would feel the same way, but still…" He lifted his sword and batted the flat of it against the nearby building three hard times, getting a loud echoing clang before a steady vibration sounded out from his blade. Miss Tuesday ran at him, intent to kill when he swung his sword horizontally, forcing her to block, however his sword was still vibrating and producing the humming noise, and its effects were seen when he cut straight through her sword and armor, causing her to fly back into a building, leaving behind a hole in the wall, "Shintou-Sei no Ryouken (Concussive Hound)!"

She lay in the hole bleeding from her wound with no life in her eyes. Yosaku sheathed his sword and looked down at his hands that were violently shaking uncontrollably, "Damn. I guess this still messes up all of the bones in my hands to use."

Johnny moved himself into a sitting position against the wall, still unable to walk and smirking at his friend, "I told you we'd win." He groaned and rubbed his legs, "I'm too hurt for the victory dance."

XxX

(With Soren and Miss Valentine)

"Where the fuck are we going?" Soren asked as he continued to jump from rooftop to rooftop to follow the low floating Miss Valentine, "We could be lost for all I know. How do you even know where we're going?"

Miss Valentine looked down with a smile, "I was an officer agent for Baroque Works. One of our jobs other than laying low and getting money for funding the group was to spread lies and rumors about the king in Alabasta so you can say that I kind of contributed to the situation right now, but other than that we had to know the layout of the city for this operation. I know the best place in town to get a view of everything."

Soren looked up at her as he ran, "So why aren't we fighting the other officer agents then? I would suspect that you would know something about them wouldn't you?"

Miss Valentine laughed before responding, "No, not at all. No one knew anything about anyone else in the group among the officer agents, number pairs 5 to 0. It was supposed to stay a secret. All I know is that everyone above Mr. 5's number are undoubtedly stronger than me." Her good mood faded, "If one of them finds me and recognizes me all I would be able to do would be to run. They would destroy me in a straight fight."

"No they wouldn't." Soren said confidently, "Uzumaki would never let that happen, and even though he's not here I'm sure I'm more than enough to handle anyone in Baroque Works… I'm still pissed that Uzumaki told me to lay off of Crocodile though. I really wanted to fight a Shichibukai to see how I stack up on their level. The damned mutts of the sea…"

Miss Valentine looked at him strangely upon hearing the hatred in his voice for the Shichibukai. Who would want to go out of their way to fight one of them, and why? Just to test their own strength? That's suicidal, even for someone on this crew.

The two kept moving along until a loud clang noise shook the building Soren was running on, almost knocking him over and forcing him to stumble to keep his balance, "What the hell?"

Miss Valentine floated around the building to get a look and frowned at what she saw, "Soren get off of the building and get over here!"

Soren listened and jumped off of the roof of the shaky building just as it was to collapse. He landed in the street just as it gave way and covered his eyes as dust and debris flew about, "What the hell was that?" Soren asked to Miss Valentine who had landed right next to him.

She had her parasol up to shield her from the dust and debris coming at them, "I don't know! All I know is what I saw doing it!"

"Well what or should I say who was it?" Soren responded.

The dust cleared to reveal a towering man at least twice Soren's size covered head to toe in thick, red medieval armor with a 'V' on his chest, the helmet had a face-shield covering his features from view. He also had a massive war hammer/axe in his hands.

"So who the hell is this guy and why do I care?" Soren asked, getting a shrug of confusion from Miss Valentine.

A feminine voice sounded out from the wreckage that the strange man emerged from, "We're the demolition experts of Baroque Works. You can just call us Mr. 5 and Miss Mother's Day."

That got Soren and Miss Valentine blinking in confusion before the bubbly blonde woman started laughing so hard she had to wipe a tear from her eyes, "So they promoted one of the frontier agents to pick up the slack after what happened at Whiskey Peak. We don't have anything to worry about Soren, they're way weaker than me. The gap between frontier and officer agents is massive."

Soren smirked which got an angry response out of the female who came out and stood aside the new Mr. 5. She had silver hair tied in a messy ponytail, cruel brown eyes and a teardrop mark on her face. She wore a white bodysuit and black platform heels, "And how would you know that we're weaker than you? The number pairs 5 and up are officer agents; the elites."

"I know." Miss Valentine said before her smile became somewhat malicious, "I used to be in the old number 5 pair. And I really don't like being replaced."

That caused Miss Mother's Day to stare at her in shock, "You're Miss Valentine? But you're supposed to be marked for death when you fail your missions. No one took care of you?"

Miss Valentine shook her head, "They tried. But they ran into a walking maelstrom when they did, and now I'm free and don't have to deal with this group anymore. Now get out of our way, you're just glorified frontier agents that got called up to fill a slot."

"We were the Mr. 6 pair before you got yourself beaten." Miss Mother's Day grit her teeth in anger before smirking, "Mr. 5, show her exactly how 'above us' she really is."

Mr. 5 lifted his hammer above his head and smashed it onto the ground, causing a fissure in the earth towards Soren and Miss Valentine. Miss Valentine jumped into the air and floated up high, laughing the entire time, "It's all yours Soren!"

Soren sat perched on an awning overhanging off of a building as he glared up at Miss Valentine, "Gee thanks, I appreciate it so much." He stood up straight and cracked his neck, "Alright. Let's do this then." Soren jumped back onto the ground and flexed his fingers, "Well what are you waiting for, a written invitation?"

Miss Mother's Day revealed two hidden blades on her wrists and came at Soren, slashing at his face and neck with her weapons. Soren caught her by her wrists and sighed, "Got anything better than that?"

Miss Mother's Day smirked and kicked the heel of her foot on the ground to reveal a blade in the front of her platform heels that she used in a rising kick coming right up the middle that Soren had to let go of her to avoid. Soren looked at her frightfully and grabbed his groin before pointing a shaky finger at her, "Holy shit! Don't do that! That was way too close!"

While he had been focused on Miss Mother's Day, the new Mr. 5 came up behind him with his hammer held in front of him in a stabbing motion with the top heavy part facing the ground, "Nenshou Tektsui (Burning Iron Hammer)!" He tried to smash Soren with the hammer but he leapt out of the way in time for the attack to miss. The ground formed spider-web pattern cracks around his body as the pavement crumbled from the force of the attack.

Soren jumped out of the range of his attack and ended up being engaged by Miss Mother's Day and her multiple blades once more as she had now opened up another one on her other foot to go along with the other three she had already been using. Soren simply kept dodging while keeping an eye on Mr. 5 who stood out of the way as still as a statue.

Miss Mother's Day took advantage of his flighty attention and covered her mouth with her hands before spitting a substance in Soren's face. She retreated back to Mr. 5's side and looked at Soren with a smug, satisfied look on her face, "How do you like that. If you're lucky maybe your eyes won't be useless forever, not that it will matter after we kill you."

"Oh, me covering my eyes was more of a reflex than anything." He said completely calm as he moved his hand to reveal no adverse effects from whatever she had used on him, "You can't use stuff like that on me, it won't work."

"Why the hell not?" Miss Mother's Day roared, "That was acid!"

Soren gave her a dry look before hocking a loogie across the area at Mr. 5' hammer. A sizzling noise alerted them both that the metal of his hammer was falling apart. Miss Mother's Day looked at Soren in shock as he simply smirked at her, "No it wasn't. _That_ was acid." Soren's eyes drifted up as he continued to smirk.

Miss Mother's Day and Mr. 5 looked up to see Miss Valentine falling towards them. The female member was able to move, but with his heavy armor Mr. 5 was not, "Hissatsu: 10,000 Kilo Guillotine (Sure-Kill: 10,000 Kilo Guillotine!" Miss Valentine dropped a single leg down on Mr. 5's torso, leaving a massive crater where she landed and utterly crushing his armor like a tin can and his body at the middle. She floated out of the crater she made, looking at Miss Mother's Day with a smile, "The old Mr. 5 would have seen that coming and blown me to bits before I had even gotten close. Like I said, even the level of skill between just one true number pair separating the officer agents and frontier agents is significant."

Miss Mother's Day paled at the sight of her partner being effortlessly killed by Miss Valentine and turned to run only to come face to face with Soren, "And where do you think you're going? You started this, we're finishing it!" She swung a blade at Soren out of surprise and fear and ended up getting ducked and back-leg swept by Soren who spun back around and hit her with a falling palm strike right to her chest, "Ishitora Kyuukei (Stone Tiger Break)!" The resulting hit ended up cracking the ground beneath her from the force of the strike as her eyes rolled back into her head and blood came from her mouth.

Miss Valentine walked over and looked down at her, "I told you I didn't like being replaced."

Dusting off his hands, Soren looked down at the deceased woman without a care, "Well now your replacement needs a replacement."

She laughed brightly, "Maybe I can get back in now?" Soren gave Miss Valentine a serious look before she laughed even harder, "Yeah right. You actually believed that? To hell with Baroque Works, I've got a real team to work with now."

XxX

Vivi had to watch as he childhood friend and leader of the rebel forces, Kohza, was cut down as he stood between the rebel and imperial forces, pleading for them to stop fighting. This lead to the outraged rebels to begin the battle against the king's forces. She tried yelling for them to stop, trying to yell down to them from where she was that Crocodile had been behind everything, but the man in question had conjured a sandstorm to drown out her voice amid the chaos of battle.

She sat watching helplessly in tears, "Please stop."

Robin stood nearby a captive King Cobra, watching the events unfold, "It's too bad your voice won't reach them. Such a lively battle, isn't it little girl?"

Cobra saw Crocodile walking closer to Vivi who was still too sidetracked by watching her people fight, "Vivi get away from him! Run!"

She stood up to face him instead of running away as instructed, "This sandstorm is your doing?" An arrogant smirk was her only response, "As long as I can stop the cannon in fifteen minutes I can reduce the amount of casualties."

Crocodile's smirk faded, "You stop the uprising this way… you can stop the uprising that way…" He reached out speedily and wrapped his hand around her neck, "Wake up princess! Your dream isn't realistic and this is reality! Dreams are only something that the powerful can bring into reality."

Tears started streaming from Vivi's eyes, "Even if it's not realistic I don't care! You bastards just wouldn't understand! I'm the princess of this nation, for this country I would-!"

Crocodile cut her off, "15 minutes until the cannon goes off. The reinforcements for the rebellion will be arriving soon. Your fate is sealed along with the blast area." He held Vivi out over the edge of their elevated position, "If you had told the loyalists about the blast you would have caused chaos but you would have saved thousands of lives."

"Crocodile! Stop it now!" King Cobra roared from his area in captivity.

"You thought you could save everyone." Crocodile chuckled, "So in the end you lead everyone to their deaths. From now on no one will know any better. You worked for me for 2 years and for that I thank you, but in the end you never had a choice at all. Whether saving the country or rebelling, whichever boring ideal you choose to fight for, either one would result in more death… So let me tell you, you cannot save this country." With that he dropped Vivi over the edge.

"CROCODILE!"

A shout from the sky of a voice that he thought he had finished off attracted Crocodile's attention, "The fucking straw hat kid." Luffy was riding on a massive falcon, coming right towards the palace.

"It took him long enough to show up." Vivi blinked in surprise as she realized she was no longer falling. She looked up to find herself in the arms of a grinning Naruto sticking to the wall with his feet, "If he didn't show by the time I caught you and put you somewhere safe I was going to kick Crocodile's ass myself… but then again the hero always shows up at the last second." Naruto jumped down to the base level of the palace.

Vivi sniffled in his arms, "The palace is going to be bombed, there isn't any time left. Everyone is going to die and no one can even hear me. If this keeps up the country will-."

"It'll be okay." Naruto assured her. He looked up with a smirk, "Luffy won't let Crocodile win, and no one is going to let that asshole blow up your people."

"What?" Naruto turned around with Vivi still in his arms to find Chopper there, looking at him in shock, "Luffy's still alive?"

Naruto grinned, "Yep, he's up there about to kick the crap out of Crocodile."

Usopp was bandaged like a mummy from his injuries, "See? I knew it!"

Sanji shook his head as he walked up too, "Does that look like the face of someone who 'knew it'?"

"Usopp!" Nami roared as she hit him in the back with her new clima-tact staff, "Who asked you to make me a damn party toy to fight with?" She dropped a heavily wounded Zoro who stood angrily, "Oh whatever, you're fine."

Usopp looked at her weakly, "But it worked just fine…"

Nami pointed at him, "I'll kick your ass later."

Naruto looked at the Straw Hat Crew with a smile on his face as he set Vivi down, "Right, well since you're here there's no need for me to butt in. I'm going to go back up Luffy if he needs it. Keep an eye out for my crew, they should be out and about around the town somewhere if they aren't on their way here already." Vivi only broke her grip from around Naruto's neck with a little effort from him.

Luffy launched himself up at Crocodile who simply stood in place, "So you want to be impaled again do you? No matter how many times you try Straw Hat, you still can't hit me."

Luffy kept flying towards him and unleashed a wicked left hand that caught Crocodile right in the jaw, forcing him to spit blood from the force of the hit and sending him flying."

Naruto grinned at the sight of seeing Crocodile finally take a punch, "Oh yeah… I'm so there." He channeled chakra to his feet and ran back up to where Luffy was fighting Crocodile.

* * *

**Chapter done. About the numbers that I used. Number pairs 10, the partner for Mr. 11 (Just her because Mr. 11 was killed in canon by the Billions), and the number pair 6 that I promoted to 5 are all actual number pairs, but were never used in canon so I did it myself. The reason the fights weren't so grueling is because they were all frontier agents. Frontier agents (All numbers below 5) are around Igaram and Vivi's level of power so that should indicate their combat capabilities. I didn't show the Straw Hats fight besides Luffy (Because his was the most important) because everyone already knows what happened in those, and this thing is already hitting over 10k… again.**

**Anyway, the next chapter will be the end of Alabasta. I hate this arc because it's so damn long! I need to end this so I can do cool things again…**

**Whatever… Kenchi out.**

**P.S. Gobble Gobble Motherfucker.  
**


	13. Making Your Mark

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I hate writing these things but I believe that every time I write a disclaimer a tree sprouts somewhere in the world. So not only am I keeping my ass from getting sued I'm saving the environment one sapling at a time.

What the fuck have you done lately?

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 13: Making Your Mark**

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Luffy drilled Crocodile with a wicked right hand that sent him sprawling head over heels, but Luffy wasn't done with his offensive assault yet. Luffy got his legs pumping and stretched out his arms to grasp Crocodile by the shoulders before stopping his legs and launching forward from the momentum, rolling through the air. Crocodile was curious as to why Luffy could touch him and felt the moisture on his arms, but had no time to think further on it when the rubber boy headbutted him right in the face, "Gomu Gomu no Marunokogiri (Gum Gum Buzzsaw)!"

Crocodile was sent flying flat on his back again while Luffy backflipped out of it and landed on his feet with a grin, "He he he."

Cobra looked on in awe at the sight of Crocodile lain out by this strange person that just appeared out of nowhere.

"Damn Luffy!" Cobra's attention was turned to his left where he saw a blonde man leaning on a wall watching the fight with interest, "That looked personal to me. What'd he do to you… Other than shove a hook through your chest and leave you for dead of course."

"Heh." Nico Robin chuckled in amusement, "Mr. Uzumaki. How did you get here so quickly?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Oh, I've been here hiding the whole time. I got here the same time you did, I rode that banana-nosed crocodile that you rode to get here. The bottom side. It was miserable, I got sand all in my hair."

Robin's eyes widened before returning to normal, "I'm just going to nod politely as if what you just said wasn't completely odd and asinine sounding." She turned her attention back to the fight between Luffy and Crocodile.

"Get up." Luffy said, knowing that the little amount of offense he managed to string together wouldn't be enough to keep Crocodile down, "The first time when I lost, the water from Yuba made me realize that if you touch water you can't turn into sand."

Naruto's eyes widened, "Yeah it's good for Crocodile that he's fighting Luffy, because if we had fought I would have worn his ass out now that that particular nugget of information is out."

Luffy continued talking, "So that's why you hate the rain. Because you're scared of it!" The barrel on Luffy's back was constantly covering him in water, "As long as I'm using this I can beat you. This party is just starting!"

"Hell yeah!" Naruto yelled, getting caught up in the feeling, "Kick his ass Luffy!" He noticed Cobra and Robin looking at him strangely, "What? I never get to see good fights anymore. I'm excited."

XxX

Usopp looked at Vivi strangely as the battle raged between the troops and the rebels, "You want me to find the shooter? How the hell am I supposed to do that?"

Vivi clasped her hands together in front of herself, "There's no time to think about it, we only have ten minutes."

Usopp frowned, "Since the diameter of the blast is about 5 kilometers the enemy should be about 2.5 kilometers away."

"No!" Vivi said suddenly, "The shooters might be very near here."

"What?" Usopp exclaimed, "How? If the shooter is here, when the explosion goes off then they'll be-."

Nami scowled, "Crocodile is just that kind of person, to kill his own allies."

One of Baroque Works' disguised soldiers attempted to attack Vivi from behind but was quickly put out of commission by Zoro and Sanji, courtesy of a sword slash and a kick to the face. This turned the rest on to the fact that they were surrounded by members of Baroque Works' Billions, "We've finally found you Princess Vivi. Killing you will get us promoted and make us millionaires!"

Sanji looked at Zoro, "How long do you think this will take?"

Zoro shrugged, "We have to make every second count at a time like this so..."

"Two seconds." Both men said simultaneously before beginning their assault on the weak smattering of Crocodile's bottom level cronies. Everyone else on the crew took off to search for Crocodile's weapon, however it didn't take long for Sanji and Zoro to finish off their opponents and they immediately followed suit.

After running for a while Zoro came to a stop at an odd sight. His old bounty hunter friends trying to make their way through Alubarna.

"Come on Yosaku hurry up! And stop dropping me!" Johnny yelled as he found himself glaring at Yosaku from the ground.

Yosaku growled down at his partner, "My hands can't hold anything right now you rubber-legged bastard! Why don't you crawl your useless ass to where the action is?"

"What are you two doing?" Zoro asked, getting their attention away from their argument, "And what is wrong with you two?"

"A fight." Both said at the same time before Yosaku grinned and jumped in the air gleefully, "A fight we actually won! With minimal visible damage done ourselves!"

"Hey!" Johnny snapped at him irritably, "What the hell do you call this? I can't walk asshole!"

Yosaku waved him off, "I said _visible_ damage. You just look like a lazy-ass that won't stand up."

Zoro sweatdropped at their banter, "Yeah okay… We're doing something important right now, are you two coming?" He almost face-faulted when he saw Yosaku trying to pick up Johnny and throw him over his shoulder with just his legs. The two finally worked it out with Johnny clawing his way onto Yosaku's back and holding on, "…Let's go then." He said before running off after the rest of his crew.

XxX

Crocodile sat on the ground laughing, "You think you can beat me?" Upon hearing Luffy's yes he laughed louder, "Even near death you could still see through my powers, but you're still so young, do you think that's all there is to it? You _do_ know I'm one of the Shichibukai!"

Luffy set himself in his fighting stance, "Who cares? I'll just be the eight one of you then! Gomu Gomu no Bullet (Gum Gum Bullet)!" Luffy stretched his arm back and shot a punch right at Crocodile's face.

Crocodile ducked his punch, "Attacks like this are too easy to dodge." He grabbed on to Luffy's arm, "Is your hand wet now? Don't forget that I can absorb water Straw Hat." He said as he began sucking the extra water out of Luffy's arm.

'I forgot he had that ability!' Luffy rushed at Crocodile and launched a kick that only ended with his foot going through Crocodile's sandy head. As he flew through Crocodile's body he took deep drinks from the barrel on his back, "The first time we fought you said by using Devil Fruit powers in different ways you get stronger." He launched another long punch at Crocodile before snapping his arm like a rubber band, "Gomu Gomu no Machine Gun (Gum Gum Machine Gun)!" The vibration of Luffy's arm sent it at Crocodile in an almost unreadable pattern, narrowly missing the man who was able to dodge it correctly at the last moment.

"Sneaky bastard!" He dragged his golden hook across the ground to stop his dodging movement, "Dezato Supada (Desert Spada)!" He sent a blade of sand through the ground at Luffy.

"Not this attack again." Luffy said as he dodged it by a hair, "Man that was dangerous…" He said as he looked at the groove that was cut in the area he just moved out of the way of.

Luffy shot his fist out at Crocodile again who just scoffed, "You always use the same attack, how could you win like that?"

Luffy pulled his fist back at the last second and rushed up to Crocodile's face before backhanding him unexpectedly, "I've been planning this from the beginning!" He shouted as he took the water barrel from his back and sprayed the water at his enemy, "To get you soaked!"

"Of course you did…" Crocodile said while forming a sandy whirlwind in his palm, "Sables (Sandstorm)!" Luffy panicked and found himself and his barrel thrown backwards by Crocodile's attack.

"Aah! Water barrel!" Luffy caught his barrel before it could fall and smash on the ground, sighing in relief.

Crocodile laughed and stood back up, "You're really into this fight Straw Hat! If you lose your barrel your chances are shot! If that's the case then how is this any different from the last time?"

Luffy looked at his barrel before glaring at Crocodile, "You're right, it wouldn't be any different." He drank down all the rest of his water and smashed his barrel on the ground, "Then how about this? If it's like this I'm different from the last time!"

Crocodile looked at him with a stunned expression, "You can't be serious."

Over on the side, Naruto palmed his forehead, "Luffy… I have no smart mouth remarks to make about this…" Robin was simply giggling at what she was seeing.

Luffy had drunken all of the water and bulged out around his mid-section, "Water Luffy." With a pop noise, water started coming out of Luffy's belly button, "Oh damn it, I'm leaking!"

Crocodile simply stared at Luffy panic at his leaking water, unable to even say anything about how absurd the boy was, 'Is this kid serious?'

Robin stopped giggling long enough to comment on the fight, "Straw Hat Luffy is a very interesting person isn't he?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Interesting like a kid that spent too much time huffing paint. Damned if I don't dig his attitude though."

Crocodile watched Luffy start to get sick to his stomach from drinking so much water and began to get angry, 'Doesn't he get what's going on? Is this brat underestimating me or something?' He finally snapped, "You goddamn kid! What the hell are you joking about?"

In response, Luffy squeezed his stomach and spat a spray of water out in Crocodile's face, paralyzing the man from moving, "Who's kidding? I'm always serious! Gomu Gomu no Rocket (Gum Gum Rocket)!" Luffy stretched his hands back and smashed them right into Crocodile's body, sending him flying back through a wall, "How's that asshole?"

"I can't believe this…" Cobra said as he watched Luffy battle Crocodile. He then yelled in pain as he felt himself freed from the wall he was stuck to, via Nico Robin pulling spikes that had stuck him there out.

Robin used her powers to remove the spikes, "Now's not the time to appreciate it just yet King Cobra. You should hurry up and take me to the place where the true history is written."

Cobra looked at Robin hatefully, "Why would you want to see that?"

The look on the woman's face was not one of amusement as she used her extra hands grown from Cobra's body to put him in an excruciating submission hold, "It doesn't matter to you. Just take me there." She smirked at Luffy, "It looks like your good luck is about to run out."

Crocodile emerged from the rubble of the wall with an enraged look on his face, "Nico Robin hurry up if you don't want to be drained dry too because this kid has fucking pissed me off!"

Robin nodded, "Whatever you say." She turned to Naruto, who other than getting a hardened look on his face when she harmed Cobra, did nothing, "And what of you Me. Uzumaki? It would probably be in your best interest to move as well."

Naruto shook his head, "No, I'll be wherever you're going shortly enough. I'm still watching the fight."

"The fight is over Mr. Uzumaki, but as you wish." She said as she began to walk away.

"Listen up Straw Hat." Crocodile said, grinning evilly, "Every stone in this place will be destroyed." Crocodile placed his hand on the ground and quickly all of the grass began to turn yellow, then the trees, and then every part of the ground began to dry out and crack, before splitting and dropping Luffy through a fault in the ground.

Luffy began to fall, "That bastard!" He shot of globs of water from his body at Crocodile, but the man simply raised his hand and the water dissolved, "He can absorb it just like that?"

"You think you took my ability away 'Water Luffy'? Then you're a fool! The power of sand depends on the aridity of the environment. My right hand can dry up anything without limit; even trees, rocks, and dirt!"

Luffy watched at the entire area was turned to sand, even the sandals on his feet.

"Guraundo Sekko (Ground Drying)!" Crocodile continued to turn the place into a wasteland. Obliterating the former beauty of the top of Alabasta's Royal Palace.

XxX

Robin was dragging Cobra through town looking for something when a group of Marines stood in her path, "You all need to simply move aside. I have something important to do."

Tashigi was at the head of the group, leading them against her, "It's hard to allow that with what's already happening in Alubarna! I've already heard all of the reports, understood?"

Robin almost sneered but kept up her calm face, "I don't really care, as long as you are all government dogs I despise your existence. If you don't get out of my way…" She finished threateningly.

A katana was brandished by Tashigi, "There's no way that's happening!"

Robin's hat shadowed her eyes, "Then it looks like I have to kill you."

Cobra decided to attempt to interject, "Wait Marines! Don't worry about me, stop the uprising first! At 4 p.m. everyone will be bombed so you need to end it!"

Tashigi looked at the watch on her wrist in shock, "What? In 7 minutes?"

Cobra pleaded with her, "Please, this concerns the lives of one million citizens!"

Tashigi readied herself to attack, "Don't worry, we'll save you and stop her!" Her men quickly followed suit.

"You can't stop me." Robin said simply, "Treinta Fleur (Thirty Flower)." Robin used her powers to grow hands on a bunch of Tashigi's Marines and strangle them.

One of Tashigi's Marines pointed at her in recognization, "Lieutenant! That's-!"

He was cut off from speaking with a sizzling noise from something melting through the back of his head through the front, killing him instantly.

"Nico Robin! The Legendary 'Devil Child'! 79 million beli bounty! Finally, someone around here that isn't a wimp. If you've been outrunning the Marines for upwards of twenty years since you were eight you've got to be tough!"

"Soren… doing that was completely and utterly pointless."

On the rooftop, Soren stood crouching over the edge before looking up at Miss Valentine who was simply floating around using her umbrella, "Sorry. You know how when some people see insects they just need to squash them no matter whether or not they're bothering them? Well that's me; only except insects they're Marines, and instead of squashing them I kill them in the most painful way available at the moment."

Tashigi glared up at Soren who simply waved at her in amusement, "You! What are you doing here?"

Miss Valentine landed next to Soren and the two looked at each other before shrugging, "Vacation? But enough about me, what about that bomb that's going to off, or do I need to help Miss Nico Robin clear out your useless cannon fodder Marines. You might as well make them useful."

Tashigi growled lowly at Soren until Robin's impatient voice got her attention, "Hey! Have you had enough yet or what? Do I have to kill every one of you to get my point across?"

Tashigi looked between Robin and Soren, wondering who the woman nearby him was, 'Even with numbers on our side we can't do a thing to these people.' She looked at her troops, "Everyone get to the palace grounds and stop that bomb! Hurry!" As her Marines went off to resolve the issue she stood in front of Robin ready to fight, "Now let that man go."

"When I said to get out of my way or I'd kill you I was serious." Robin grew hands on Tashigi's shoulders to hold her throat back while another pair of hands grown on her chest took her sword from her and pointed it at her neck.

"Nico Robin."

Robin refrained from finishing her off when she heard Soren speak, "What do you want?"

The humor from before was gone from Soren's face, "I can understand your hatred of the Marines, I have my own vendetta against them to be honest, and you can feel free to kill all of the bastards that you want, but you're going to let that one go."

Robin raised a single eyebrow and looked up at him, "And why should I?"

Soren grinned, "Well Uzumaki told me not to fight any of you unless you provoked me, despite the fact that I want to fight you and your boss… _really bad_. Let's just say that killing her would unnecessarily provoke me and you're supposed to be in something of a hurry right? Drop the girl and just continue on, she's nobody to you."

Robin smiled in amusement, "And what exactly is she to you?"

A chuckle came from the bald young man, "She's interesting, which is more than I can say about the current situation at large. I really don't care about this country so you can do what you like with whatever it is you're doing with that guy there, he looks important."

Miss Valentine rolled her eyes, "Stupidity is contagious on your ship I swear. That's the king of the country."

"Really?" Soren questioned, "Well that just proves my point then doesn't it?" Robin simply stared at him for a long time before dropping Tashigi and continuing on about her way with naught a word, "I appreciate it."

Miss Valentine watched Robin head off with Cobra in tow, shaking her head before turning back to Soren, "You just played a game of chicken with Nico Robin for some random Marine chick… that's trying to kill you."

"I know." Soren responded before Tashigi almost cut him in half, forcing him and Miss Valentine to jump, her floating to another roof before sitting on the edge to watch and him landing in the street, "Well you're welcome." He said sarcastically.

Tashigi made her way back down to the ground and stood in front of him, sword drawn against him, "Why did you do that? I don't owe you anything you know?"

Soren nodded, "I didn't do that for you, I did that for me. I'm going to do a little something important for you. I'm going to do everything in my power to keep you alive until you understand that good and evil isn't the simple shade of black and white that you and your precious Marines and World Government paint it to be. The lines are blurred, and while I'm as close to evil as you're going to see in a lot of cases there are tons of people out there far worse than me… that work alongside you."

Tashigi bristled in anger and took a swing at him with her sword snarling at him when he dodged it again without issue like in Nanohana, "So you're some kind of noble visionary that can see underneath the supposed lies of the government?"

Soren kept dodging her, "You're kind of right. I can see underneath the façade of peace that is constantly put up, but I'm doing this for me. I could swear I've told you this before but I'm selfish. There's no big major conspiracy at hand in my head, I just want to utterly eradicate the influence of the Marines and the bastard government that backs them and grants them their authority."

"Not if I kill you here and finish you off! You're just a glorified murderer!" She stopped attacking when after an errant swing of her blade a glowing, sizzling green knife hand stopped just short of her face.

Soren simply moved his hand from in front of her face to grabbing the blade of her sword, melting the metal through and dismembering the blade. Tashigi stepped back and looked at the remains of her sword before glaring at Soren who dusted his hands off, "Looks like you need a better weapon."

Tashigi attempted to continue to fight with the remaining scraps of her sword but ended up taking a short backhand that sent her down to the ground. She tried sitting up but ended up getting her lights turned out once and for all by the bottom of Soren's boot.

Soren looked at the unconscious girl as Miss Valentine drifted down behind him with a dry look on her face, "Wow… knocking a girl out after saving her life… You're such a lady's man Soren." She remarked sarcastically, laughing amusedly.

Soren looked at her with a twitching eye, "Shut it Valentine. You're looking at the wrong guy for chivalry. She pointed a sword at me, therefore she lost all chances for special treatment because of her gender."

Walking ahead of him with her umbrella out to shade her from the sun she made an uncaring noise, "So now what? Do we follow her?" She really didn't want to try and tail Nico Robin, although she was confident of Soren's ability to handle himself she wasn't him and made no qualms about considering herself on his or Crocodile's second in command's level.

Soren shook his head, "Nope. We're still looking for Uzumaki, which means we're more or less looking for Crocodile too since that's where his blonde ass is probably situated."

Miss Valentine sweatdropped, 'We're going to find Crocodile…' She raised her finger and pointed in the direction Robin walked off in, "I vote we follow her." She finished with a weak laugh

Soren stroked his chin in thought, "Your opinion has been noted, however in this instance this is not a democracy, it's a dictatorship, and I say we're going to find Croco- I mean Uzumaki. Of course you can always go off on your own if you really want to find her."

Miss Valentine paled, 'Take my chances getting between Crocodile, Naruto, and whatever is going on around them, or go off on my own and get strangled by Nico Robin… It's lose-lose no matter what I do…' She groaned in defeat, "Fine… We'll look for Naruto."

"Good." Soren said, "Where is Uzumaki anyway?"

The only thing stopping Miss Valentine from strangling him where he stood was the fact that he would just melt her hands off for trying it anyway.

XxX

Luffy pulled himself up on a ledge overlooking what used to be the palace lawn, "Damn, that guy's hand can turn the palace lawn into a desert." He looked around below, "Where did he go?"

Crocodile appeared right above Luffy, standing on the ledge he was hanging on, "You made me waste so much energy with this little fight." He reached down and grabbed Luffy around the neck with his right hand. Luffy tried to spit a water ball at Crocodile again but missed, "You didn't hit me this time Straw Hat." His powers began coming into play as he began absorbing Luffy's fluid again from his body, "Looks like you lose again."

Luffy's body began to completely shrivel up and become wrinkled as Crocodile looked at the massive clocktower, "This is a great way for you to die. This whole area and the yard of the palace itself will be blown to hell so just stay silent-." He threw Luffy high into the air, "-And enjoy the show! Celebrate the birth of a new country and its king!" He let Luffy's body lifelessly hit the ground, "Sorry about that Straw Hat, but I'm in a hurry."

Crocodile mumbled to himself as he turned to sand and started to blow away in the wind, "I think she meant the tomb in the west side…"

Luffy simply laid motionless on the ground. Naruto appeared next to him in a shunshin, "Luffy… make a noise if you're not dead." In response Luffy made a low wheezing noise due to how dry he was. Naruto poked at him with his foot, "If you're done with Crocodile and want to tag out I'm all for it. Wiping that smirk off of his face would make my day."

Luffy didn't respond, but something told Naruto to look up, once he did so his eyes widened and a smile came onto his face, "You're so lucky it isn't even funny." He stepped back as the glob of water Luffy shot and missed at Crocodile came back down and splashed all over him.

Luffy sat up and took a huge breath, "Gah! I thought I was dead for sure!"

Naruto looked down at him with a deadpan expression, "You pretty much were. Be happy that your aim is shit. Now do you want to tag out to your friendly neighborhood shinobi?" Naruto said, putting his hand out in a gesture.

Luffy slapped Naruto's hand away, "There's no way Crocodile is getting off that easily!" He stood up and dusted the sand off of his body, "Now which way did that guy go?" Naruto silently pointed west of their location, "Gotta go!" Luffy immediately set off in that direction to pursue Crocodile once more in a trail of dust.

Naruto's form then popped out existence in a puff of smoke.

XxX

(Royal Tomb of Alabasta)

A hidden set of stairs opened up to Robin and Cobra leading underground, "There. The true history is down there. Normal people wouldn't know of its existence." He looked at Robin scrutinizingly.

"The world is full of secrets, even a major country's king like yourself can't know everything." Robin said as she began to descend the stairs.

"Can you understand the true history?" Cobra asked.

Robin didn't even glance back, "Of course. That's why Crocodile made a deal with me, he can't kill me." The realization that someone could read what was down there shocked Cobra, "It's not your fault. You never realized that there was someone who can actually read it." She looked over her shoulder at Robin, "There should be some information about 'Pluton' in this history of yours shouldn't there?"

Cobra kept his face impassive, "I wouldn't know. All the Alabastan Kingdom ever did was protect its true history, nothing more."

"Protect?" Robin scoffed, "Don't joke around."

"This place is fucking huge."

As they finished descending the stairs they found Naruto already down there leaning against a massive ornate door. Robin tensed up seeing him there, "How did you find this place and how did you get down here before us?"

Naruto shrugged, "I followed you when you left. And I didn't beat you here, I just went inside when you weren't looking and were just messing around at the entrance after you opened it. So what's Pluton and what's the big deal about getting to it?"

Robin walked past him and began to open the door, "You'll see soon enough if you stay here."

XxX

(With Straw Hat Crew)

The group was still running around the city trying to locate Crocodile's explosive that would destroy all of the combating people. Nami turned to Chopper who had transformed into his Walk Point (his full reindeer form) to keep up with the others, "Chopper can you smell out anything?"

Chopper shook his head, "No, the whole town smells like gunpowder… as a matter of fact there's a smell of gunpowder and tangerines? Yeah, tangerines coming closer to us."

There was no time for any thought on the matter as they passed an intersection, ending up with Nami crashing into a figure close to her size and falling over.

"Watch out damn it!" Nami and another feminine voice cried out in anger at the same time before looking at each other and blinking, "Nojiko?"

Nojiko stood up and helped up her sister, "Nami? Where are you guys going?"

Nami stood up and moved her arms frantically, "We're looking for a huge bomb that's going to take out 5 kilometers in the next few minutes and kill us and everyone in the palace square!"

Nojiko paled, "Holy crap! Where the hell is it then? If it's that strong it has to be huge, and there can only be so many places to hide something like that! Something like that can't be too far from where it's supposed to go off. Use your heads damn it!" She noticed everyone staring at her bringing an embarrassed blush to her face, "Um… Naruto-kun made me learn about the weapons that I use and might use… bombs included."

"Right." Nami said to break the silence before turning to Chopper, "Chopper try to get the smell of a shooter aiming at the palace."

Chopper face-faulted in his deer form, "How is that even possible?"

XxX

"What about the rooftops?" Vivi asked as they had split up to cover ground better. Zoro with Usopp, Sanji with Johnny and Yosaku, Nami with Chopper, and Vivi with her guardian Pell, "Pell? Have you seen anything?"

The man that had brought Luffy to Alubarna, in his falcon form was flying around overhead, "Nothing. I've searched all of the rooftops from the air."

Vivi was seriously beginning to freak out, "We need to keep searching!"

XxX

Soren and Miss Valentine were still standing around the unconscious Tashigi with the male member of the duo pacing around thoughtfully, "I can't distinguish between the sounds of anarchy in all directions to find where Uzumaki is in particular and you couldn't see anything when you floated up to check. That guy is a bastard to find when you're actually looking for him."

Miss Valentine felt like repeatedly slamming her head into the nearest wall. They had been simply standing there for almost ten minutes trying to think of what to do and Soren was a well of useless ideas. He stopped his pacing as he faced a certain direction down the street, "Huh, it's rubber boy."

Luffy stood in place, huffing slightly, "Where's that fucking Crocodile?"

Soren simply stared at Luffy, "You lost him? One of the most dangerous men alive and you lost him after fighting him. That means you either got your ass kicked or it was easy and he ran away and looking at you I would bet on the first one."

Luffy blinked, "So? I'll just beat him up this time for sure!"

Miss Valentine spoke up, "I actually saw Crocodile when I was flying walking west towards the temple…"

Soren snapped his head over to her, "You did? Why the hell didn't you tell me that in the first place, that would have been something I would have liked to have known!"

Miss Valentine got right back in his face and yelled right back at him, "Because you said you were looking for Naruto! And I'm not dumb, all you were looking for Naruto for was so you could find and fight Crocodile. Well I don't feel like getting killed today so I didn't tell your sociopathic ass where he was!"

"I am running out of patience woman!" Soren said, "I want to melt you so badly right now!"

Miss Valentine laughed, "I wish you would try, see if Naruto wouldn't beat the shit out of you and gift-wrap you to the Marines after you did it!"

Soren growled, "You can't use Uzumaki as a shield, he'd have my back, I've known him longer than you! But you are a woman though… shit." He looked around, "Where did rubberneck get to?"

Miss Valentine smirked, "He took off right after I told him where Crocodile went. He's long gone."

"What?" Soren yelled, "Which way was that again?"

"I don't remember!" She stated cheerfully before floating off with her umbrella, laughing when Soren fired a shot of acid at her in anger.

"Get back here bitch!" Soren immediately took off after her, "You have to land sometime! The wind won't let you float forever and then your ass is mine!"

XxX

Naruto stood next to Robin as she went over some foreign writing on a large block inside of the tombs. As she went over the writing she averted her eyes towards Naruto who was looking at it intently, 'Can he possibly be able to read this?' Her eyes widened when she saw Naruto scan the writing with his finger as if he _was_ reading.

"Yes. It's just as I thought." Robin held her breath waiting on what exactly he found. If he could actually translate the Poneglyphs-, "I can't understand jack on this brick. How can fuck can you read this shit Robin-chan? I'm really feeling just how low my IQ just by standing here." If she didn't have a need to keep her composure at all times she probably would have face-faulted at that.

"Nothing else is here?" She asked Cobra, "Is this all this country is hiding?"

"You aren't satisfied?" He asked curiously, "I've fulfilled your wish and given you what you wanted."

"So is this the true history Nico Robin?" Crocodile asked as he entered the room, "It looks weird."

Naruto pointed at Crocodile in victory, "You see? Right there. If he doesn't have a clue of what's going on then I never had a chance in hell of getting this. Seriously, can someone translate this for me or teach me how to read it? Being ignorant isn't cool."

Crocodile looked at Naruto, "You. Why on earth are you down here?" He was preparing for another fight with Naruto, but the blonde wasn't making a hostile move towards him for the time being.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, everybody was doing it." Naruto turned to Robin, "For the benefit of those of us that have only taken the time to learn ways of reading and writing relevant to them, can you please read this out loud Robin-chan?"

Robin smiled at him, "Of course Mr. Uzumaki." She began to translate from the writing, "Soxilla conquered and built this kingdom in the year 239. In 269 the Dima family is the strongest. During the year 306 Arimar completed the Fuda Holy Temple. In 325 Massamdi, the Oridian hero-."

"Wait, wait, wait." Crocodile cut her off there, "Was _that_ what we were looking for? I don't give a damn about this place's history! I want to know whether or not there is a hidden weapon in this country!"

Robin shook her head, "There is nothing like that, it's all just history. The word 'Pluton' isn't in here anywhere."

Crocodile's face changed from anger to a chilling impassive look, "I see. Well that's unfortunate. Although you were an amazing partner I'll have to kill you now."

Robin turned around in shock, facing the tall man. Naruto stared at him tensely. Crocodile continued to talk, "Our agreement from 4 years ago has come to an end. You said, 'As long as you take me to the true history I'll tell you about the weapon.' After four years in Baroque Works you've always been smart and diligent in that time, and that was enough for me." He took a swing at Robin with his hook that knocked her hat off, " You ended up breaking your promise, but I'm not really mad at you. Do you know why dear?"

"Fool." Robin said as she reached into her coat for a vial, "I've known your intentions the entire time!" She threw the vial full of water at him. After he moved out of the way she grew an arm on his shoulder and caught it herself, "If I pour water on you then I can wound you, right?" Robin pulled a knife.

Before she could pour it on him he turned to sand and evaded any form of attack. He appeared behind her and cut her with his hook, "I can forgive you because from the start I never trusted anyone." He finished with a smirk. His smirk vanished when Robin's body turned to smoke and a split log hit the ground.

"That wasn't very cool Crocodile-teme." Naruto said from across the room, standing next to Robin who was looking at him strangely after saving her, "You don't just go double-crossing partners like that. There isn't very much that pisses me off more than people like you that would do that to a comrade." Naruto sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Fuck it. Luffy's taking too long to get here. I might as well kill you myself before you piss me off any more."

Suddenly the room started to shake. Crocodile looked around in confusion, "What the hell? The cannon shouldn't be ready yet." He looked at Cobra who had a victorious smirk on his face, his hands were also free from Robin's Hana Hana no Mi power, "What did you do?"

The king chuckled from his spot on the ground, "Nothing big, I just pulled away a main pillar. This is going to bring everything down, you and I are going to die right here."

Naruto palmed his forehead, "I _just_ said I was going to beat his ass! What part of you bringing the place down seemed like a good idea to you right now? Kami this is turning into a headache! All I wanted was something interesting to do, and now it's blown up into this whole big thing!"

Crocodile simply laughed at Naruto and the king, "I'll just turn the rocks to sand. No matter what, in 3 minutes this country will be mine and every obstacle in my way will be dead! As long as I know the Pluton exists I'll be able to find it in time, no problem!"

Naruto sighed, "A lunatic to the end… Just every other bad guy I've fought." Naruto started cracking his knuckles, "Well it's about time to end this once and for all. Let's stop beating around the bush and get straight to business. I haven't punched anything in the face in about a week."

Loud footsteps echoed through the crumbling tomb, alerting everyone's attention to the door. Crocodile's eyes turned angry at who he saw, "That damn kid again…"

Naruto sighed and dropped his shoulders sadly, "Man… Fine… Whatever, you'd better win this time Luffy. I'm getting sick of peeling you off of the ground and sending you back like a wind-up toy." Naruto pulled Robin with him and sat on the ground by Cobra, both of them just looking at him as if he were the oddest person on earth. The fact that the place was coming down around him seemingly didn't even bother him, however he was pouting like a kid at not getting to fight like he was skipped in a lunch line.

"Why are you still alive?" Crocodile said testily, "Why do you keep coming back every time I kill you?"

"Because you never fucking finish him off you asshole!" Naruto shouted from the sidelines, "It's like nails on a chalkboard, annoying! I almost stepped in twice already because I thought you finished him off, but yet again here he is! I hope he breaks his foot off in your ass this time!" Naruto said, crossing his arms and glaring at Crocodile.

Crocodile glared right back at him, vowing that Naruto was next after he dealt with Luffy, "Why are you here? How many times do I have to kill you to satisfy you?"

Luffy stared him down, "You took something away and haven't returned it yet."

"_I_ took away?" Crocodile asked, "Is it money? Is it fame? Is it trust? Is it life? Is it rain? Is it this country? Hahaha, what do you want me to give back? I took lots of things!"

Luffy raised an eyebrow, "Country? You say some stupid things."

Crocodile ran his hand through his hair, "I'll have the country eventually." He laughed, "By the time I got here the king's country was already gone!"

"If that's true-," Luffy started before rushing at Crocodile to attack, "Then that guy should laugh right in your face!"

Crocodile shook his head, "You can't just come here without water. You're nothing to me." He said that right before Luffy kicked him straight in the face. He then followed up with a punch that once again caught Crocodile flush and sent him into a wall.

Crocodile pulled himself out, "How? How could you have-?" He then saw something drip from Luffy's arms, "Blood?"

Luffy showed him his hand covered in blood, "That should stop your sand too right?"

A growl came from Crocodile before he began to laugh, "Twice already you should have been dead and yet you've come back repeatedly. I think that deserves a reward." Luffy shot another kick at him that he took the initiative to dodge this time around. He then took the golden cover of his hook off, "It seems like you really want me to finish you off for sure this time. For a dangerous enemy like you, you deserve a very poisonous hook." He held out his hook in what appeared to be a proper fighting stance, "This is the last fight Straw Hat."

Luffy shot his fist out at Crocodile who simply moved to the side and attempted to cut into Luffy's arm with his poison hook, however Luffy had been paying attention and snapped his arm like a rubber band to make Crocodile miss and slam it into the ground.

The two stared at each other in a stalemate as the place came down around them. Luffy then jumped at Crocodile and put his arm back, "Gomu Gomu no Bullet (Gum Gum Bullet)!" He brought it forward in a short range attack, however he backed off once Crocodile put his right hand up to catch it, learning once again from his past fights he switched to a kick that Crocodile was able to dodge again.

Crocodile swung his hook at the mid-air Luffy who was able to shift his body in the air to avoid it and bounce off some debris and watch Crocodile's hook hit a stray fallen rock. Upon making contact with it, it ate right through it.

Crocodile pulled his weapon back and looked at Luffy's face which had taken on a look of surprise, with another superior smirk, however a rock from the ceiling fell and landed between them, obscuring one from the other's sight. Crocodile jumped all over this chance and cut through the rock with his hook to get to Luffy, actually getting him with a slash, but he then fell prey to a spin kick from him upon striking him.

Cobra simply watched Luffy in amazement, 'All of the best fighters in the country and Crocodile marched right through them. Who is this boy?' He looked over at Naruto who was simply watching the fight intently this time, no snarky comments or running commentary, he simply watched.

Crocodile stood back up with a victorious grin, "Impaled, buried alive, dried up… you've been through all of that and you're still standing. This time you won't walk away however, the poison is spreading through your body, the match is over."

Luffy didn't seem to care at all, "You don't understand a thing." He then attacked again, with his fist only hitting the rocks around the area as Crocodile moved aside. Luffy kept up his attack though, "Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum Gum Gatling Gun)!

Luffy sent his fists at Crocodile in the speed of a blur but missed his punches, "You still don't understand?" Crocodile said, "You're about to die from the poison. Your body is already beginning to go numb. Even if you win you'll still die, after those last few fights with me it's a miracle you're still here." Luffy said nothing and shot his leg out, nearly lading a kick right into Crocodile's body and upsetting him, "Why are you still fighting?"

He lost his temper as the tomb began crumbling faster, "There isn't even anything for you here! Why are you doing this for someone else? What's the point of dying for someone else? If you had just let one or two people die you wouldn't even be in this mess to begin with!"

Luffy shook his head pitifully, "Like I said, you don't understand. Vivi, even though she keeps saying no death would throw her own life away to save others. If we had all left her that way she would have died, all because of you guys!"

Crocodile rolled his eyes, "That's why I said leave those kinds of people alone and let them die without bothering you."

Luffy came at him again with another rapid-fire flurry of punches, but Crocodile dodged and sent out a blade of sand through the ground at hi, however this seemed to be all that Luffy had left as his body dropped to its knees upon finishing the exchange. Crocodile laughed loudly, "Keep on talking kid! Your body can't even move anymore. It's all over for you!" Luffy tried in vain to push himself up, failing and falling back down, "What about now? Do you still think you can win?"

He gestured around himself, "No matter what you do for your useless companions, no matter how many times you block my plans, if you lose here everything you did would be useless, it doesn't matter if you somehow live, you're a loser! Amateur pirates like you show up in the Grand Line every day, I don't care about you trash because you always just die." He then grinned and looked up, "And now it's all over."

He simply stayed looking up while nothing happened whatsoever. Naruto grinned ferally, "What's the matter Crocodile-teme? Someone a little off with their calculation?"

Crocodile waved it off, "It still doesn't matter. Even if the cannon failed I still programmed the bomb to go off a few seconds later. It won't kill as many people as it would have otherwise, but the death toll will still be high enough."

Naruto's grin vanished and he started leaking killing intent, "So you're saying that even though everyone probably found and defused your stupid bomb by now it's still going to go off no matter what anyone does?"

Crocodile grinned at him and nodded, "That's right blondie, but it shouldn't matter to you, you're going to die down here like everyone else."

Naruto sighed and looked down, his hair shadowing his eyes, "There's only one thing stopping me from jumping up and uncorking the assbeating of a lifetime on you right now." He pointed over to the side, "He's going to do it for me."

Luffy had retaken his feet and was breathing heavily, but was otherwise ready to go, "If it's me against just you, you can never win."

"You could barely even speak those words!" Crocodile exclaimed, "That look suits you, it's pathetic, you still talk as if you can win."

Luffy kept huffing, "Because… I'm going to be King of the Pirates!"

Crocodile scoffed and came at Luffy with his hook, "If you really understood how harsh the sea was you wouldn't say stupid fucking things like that! I said it before, weaklings like you are all over the place! Once you've learned the difference in skill in this world, you'll just let your stupid dream die!"

Luffy's face turned enraged and he stopped Crocodile's hook thrust by lifting his leg and stomping on the wrist of the hook, slamming it to the ground, breaking the hook off, and leaving him wide open for a counter, "I'll just have to make sure I'm not as weak as you then."

Naruto watched Luffy act on his counter with a hard shot right to Crocodile's body that doubled him over, 'This kid… he's going to be just fine. He's the kind of guy that gets stronger every time he gets into fights like this. He'll just find ways to win against opponents he has no earthly right of standing up against.' A smile slowly stretched across his face, "Yeah, he'll be just fine."

Luffy followed up with a kick right to Crocodile's face that snapped his head back. Luffy then stretched his arm back and hammer-fisted Crocodile right into the ground. Crocodile stood back up enraged and revealed a secondary blade on his hook gauntlet, "I don't even know where you came from! Don't you know who I am? You mean nothing to me!"

"I'm better than you!" Luffy shouted back at him.

"You're going to disappear along with this temple now!" Crocodile formed a large sandstorm in his hands and jumped into the air, "Sables Pesado (Heavy Sandstorm)!" He then threw it at Luffy and caused a shockwave that didn't help keep the structural integrity of the tomb intact.

Luffy survived by expanding his body, before twisting it up while maintaining the air pressure inside of himself. He then blew all of the air out at the ground and rapidly launched himself at Crocodile who was still airborne, "Gomu Gomu no Storm (Gum Gum Storm)!"

He shot out his fist at Crocodile who let loose his blades of sand to catch him, however Luffy's fists plowed straight through the blades and right into Crocodile for an uncountable flurry of vicious punches. Going with the momentum of the attack, Crocodile's body ended up pummeled into the ceiling where the combo didn't stop. Luffy just kept pounding away on him, until he finally beat him through the solid rock of the mausoleum and up through the ground, sending Crocodile flying into the air outside.

Luffy then fell to the ground, completely spent by the demanding series of fights with the Shichibukai.

Cobra looked up in awe, "How did even make that possible? There were so many layers separating the surface from down here…"

Naruto whistled appreciatively, "That's got to suck. I would hate getting drilled like that. Through solid rock too?" Naruto got up and caught Luffy before he could hit the ground and set him down, "Damn Luffy. Cut it a little closer next time why don't you?"

Luffy grinned at Naruto widely, "Shishishi, sorry about that. But you saw it didn't you? I kicked that guy's ass to the moon."

"Or halfway at least." Naruto joked, "Good work."

Cobra walked over at Luffy and sighed in relief, "I will have to thank you for all that you have done."

Luffy looked over to the king, still grinning, "Heh, there's no need for it."

Naruto looked around them, "Yeah, this isn't the time or the place for this to be happening. We need to get out of here." He said, grabbing Cobra and Luffy and disappearing in a shunshin.

XxX

(Eight Days Later)

Naruto simply lay on the ledge of the palace, eyes closed, while Igaram stared at him from down in the currently being rebuilt palace yard, "Why are you all still here? Luffy-san and his crew departed over three days ago and yet you and your own are still here."

Naruto opened an eye and looked down at Igaram from his position, "Yeah, yeah, I hear what you're saying, but no matter how random it may seem I do things with purpose and intent. If we left right after the Straw Hats we would have caught up to them in like a day or something. Our ship is that much faster than theirs, remember?"

Igaram was confused, "How is this not a good thing?"

Naruto sighed, "Because curly." Naruto grinned when he felt the killing intent from the elite guard, "We all have our own stuff going on. All of us moving together would just be way too much. After seeing Luffy handle Crocodile, the kid doesn't need my help, and I don't think he would take it anyway."

"You're just lazing about so that you don't have to do anything for as long as you can." Nojiko said as she stood next to Igaram on the ground looking up at her captain.

Naruto feigned a look of hurt, "Noji-chan how could you think that way about me? Don't you love me anymore?" Naruto vanished from the roof in a blur and appeared behind her, about to wrap his arms around her waist, "I love y-… How do you keep doing that?" Naruto asked when he found a pistol positioned underneath his chin upon his attempt to make said move. He looked over at Igaram, "Can she even have these here? We are in the palace grounds after all."

Nojiko shook her head, "Guns don't kill people Naruto-kun, people do."

Naruto let go of her and stood back, "No I think the guns have a lot to do with that as well. If you stood there and pointed your finger at me and said 'bang' I don't think too much would happen."

Nojiko put her pistol up, "You're an idiot."

Naruto grinned, "You still love me though. Log Pose reset yet?"

Nojiko rolled her eyes and held up her wrist, "It reset a week ago. We've been ready to leave forever."

"And everybody else?" He asked.

Nojiko started listing off things on her fingers, "Miss Valentine was allowed free reign to go through the royal wardrobe so that's where she is, Johnny and Yosaku are taking turns 'training' or in other words beating the crap out of the soldiers, I haven't the faintest idea where Soren is but he should turn up soon enough." She huffed, "I'm not den mother for you cluster of degenerates you know."

Naruto hugged Nojiko from behind, "You're so good at it though… And you're right, you're not a den mother, you're my Nojiko." He finished putting a kiss on her neck that froze her up.

"Whoa! Standing right here!" Igaram said with a twitching eyebrow at Naruto who simply looked at him with disinterest.

"Oh yeah you are…" He shrugged, "Well do you mind beating it on out of here for a while? We're about to have a private conversation here."

Igaram started sputtering nonsense before walking off red-faced.

"Naruto-kun…" Nojiko said warily, her face just as red as Igaram's was, "What do you mean we need to talk?"

"You heard me." He asserted, "Tell me what you need to tell me, it's not healthy to keep something like this bottled up when you're an adult Noji-chan, especially seeing as how with the way we live anything can happen to either of us tomorrow."

"You already know." She replied, embarrassed, "Why make me say it again?" She placed her arms over his as he continued to hold on to her.

Naruto set his chin on top of her head, "Because you didn't really say it, and you were drunk so it doesn't count."

Nojiko sighed before turning around in Naruto's arms and looking him right in the eyes, "Naruto-kun I-."

Naruto cut her off by lowering his head and kissing Nojiko, "I know. There are still things you need to know about me before I can let you say that though. It could change the way you feel on the whole matter, okay?"

Nojiko frowned, "Okay. But can I still-?"

"Oh hell yes." Naruto replied gleefully, "After you let me do it the first time and get away with it I was going to keep on kissing you myself regardless."

Nojiko smiled and threw her arms around Naruto's neck to pull him down for another kiss, though in her head she was waving victory flags the entire time, 'Yeah Nami, how do you like that? I got him first!' She had no idea.

_(Flashback – Four Days Ago)_

_Nami had climbed up and made her way next to Naruto on the ledge overlooking the palace yard, "Why do you stay in places like this?"_

_Naruto shrugged, "I don't know… Easy to find, hard to get to. I couldn't tell you to be honest, I just do." He looked over at her, "So what pray tell do you need from me Nami-chan? You guys are all ready to leave tomorrow right?"_

_Nami nodded apprehensively, "Yeah, but why don't you all just come with us? I'm sure it would be great!"_

_Naruto shook his head, "We'd just be stepping all on each other's toes. And I can't just cut loose and go with you either, everyone on my ship needs me there. The idiots still aren't able to handle themselves against someone like Zoro, Soren's got Marines after his throat, Miss Valentine doesn't have anywhere to go, and your sister is in love with me."_

"_You know?" Nami asked him._

_Naruto gave her an amused look, "I'm not as stupid as I make myself out to be. I just act stupid because it's fun. Of course I know."_

_Nami rubbed her tattooed shoulder, "So you should know that I might too."_

"_I know." Naruto admitted, "Since before I left right?"_

_Nami looked at him with a small smile, "Do you know that what you did on Commi Island was the only time anyone ever did that for me? It was like you were a knight or something, rescuing me. I didn't even ask you to, I actually told you to stay out of the way and I treated you like a stranger. After all that you knew I did and you still did that for me. And then after it was over you just left, and I didn't think I would see you again." Nami grabbed Naruto's hand, "I don't think I can let that happen again."_

_Naruto looked up and sighed, "I can't do that Nami. Not really."_

_Nami blinked in confusion, "If it's about Nojiko it's okay." She smirked, "Believe it or not we almost got into a fight about it on the way to Yuba and we said we would share you."_

_Naruto had a small drop of blood coming from his nose, "Okay, honestly that's the greatest thing I've ever heard anyone say about anything ever… but I can't do that to you both." Nami opened her mouth to dispute him when he placed a finger over her lips, "There are things about me that you don't know Nami-chan. Things that I don't really want to talk about right now, that would make this difficult for you and her. I can't do things like this, not the way I want to."_

"_You think it won't work out?" Nami figured, "It'll be fine Naruto-kun. You're a good person. Why not? Is it about how we're pirates? That we'll have too many enemies or something?"_

_Naruto shook his head, "To hell with that. No one will be able to hurt any of you without getting ripped apart, rest assured of that. But in something like this, everything can go absolutely right for the rest of your lives… and it'll still be terribly wrong."_

"_Wha-?" Nami tried to ask._

_Naruto caught himself and shook his head, "Nevermind, just… forget it, I tend to ramble."_

_Nami giggled, "You're like an old man sometimes Naruto-kun."_

_Naruto's shoulders drooped, "Tell me about it…" He heaved out._

_The two sat in silence for a bit, just enjoying the night, "You don't get a choice." Nami said simply, surprising the man, "Not in this. You don't get to make yourself all alone and unhappy. Not someone like you." Nami swung their hands back and forth, "Besides… You _do_ know how greedy I can be, don't you?" She said leaning in closer to his face._

_Naruto sweatdropped, "You don't have the faintest idea what you're getting into, you know that right?"_

_Nami touched her forehead to his, "Then educate me." She finished, pressing her lips to his._

(End Flashback)

XxX

(The Next Day)

"Bad news Uzumaki." Soren said as he had shown himself after a few days of being scarce, "You know how we heard the news about the Straw Hats breaking through the blockade from the Marines when they left?"

Naruto nodded as they walked through the halls of the palace, "Yeah. It's one of the reasons we decided to stay here, remember?"

Soren scratched his head nervously, "Yeah… well about that. They didn't leave and return to their stations when he got away."

Naruto froze in place and turned to him slowly with a stone face, "Repeat that please."

Soren did so with a serious face, "They didn't leave, other than the Smoker guy. When I left a few days ago to see how our ship was doing I ended up around the coast before I went inland along the river and it's still teeming with Marine ships. We're going to have to fight our way out of the river to get to the open ocean." The only thing keeping Naruto from slamming his head into an ornate pillar was that he was a guest here. Soren continued, "And it gets worse. They're calling in more ships because they called for a higher-up to come here and go over the situation of the World Government and Alabasta's place in it after all of the drama and the rebellion and whatnot."

Naruto's voice was tense, "And by higher-up you mean…"

Soren bit his lip before responding, "The Marines promotional levels are just like politics when it comes down to it. What other ranking in the Marines would be suitable for something like this Uzumaki, for a king?"

"They're sending an Admiral, and he's coming _here_ to Alubarna."

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**Done. Finally I can start doing stuff that is fun to me again. And I'm going to have a ball with this one. I've got mental storyline backed up in my head for all kinds of fun things and this is just the tip of the iceburg yo. Till next time, I hope you enjoyed it, feel free to drop me a line and I'll do what I can to respond. Any question that I feel comfortable answering and is not a blatant spoiler and I'll try to do so.**

**Till next time my peepulation, Kenchi out.**


	14. Public Enemy

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I wonder if making my own series about swashbuckling ninjas that search the seas of the world for a man called "Hokage" in order to defeat him and become king of the ninjas would get my ass sued on both sides of the coin. And yes I just wrote that as an excuse to use the word "swashbuckling".

You don't know me, you don't know what I've done. I'm a technical technician, a high-flyer of the highest caliber, and a real jam-up guy. Who are you to doubt El Dandy? –Err… I mean Kenchi618?

…Do something about it.

**Chapter 14: Public Enemy**

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Naruto and all of his other crewmates sat in the room that they all shared at the palace, which was more like a small home in most cases. Everyone except Naruto and Soren were silently freaking out. The news about the incoming meeting with an Admiral and King Cobra actually spread fairly quickly around the city after Soren, a lot of people were excited about the World Government talks coming to Alubarna, hoping that efforts to help Alabasta pick up the country after the civil war would be coming forth.

The Foxhound Pirates weren't so happy about it. Johnny kept flicking his sword loose from his sheath with his thumb, "What if they don't even know we're here? Can't we just slip out and vanish before the Admiral gets here"

Soren shook his head, "The coast is locked down tight. No matter which way we go on the river once we reach the sea they'll have us beaded and come right for us. One ship against 40, what part of that sounds good to you in any way, shape, or form?"

Yosaku pointed at Naruto, "We have a guy that can make tidal waves, whirlpools and walk on water. Are you really telling me that we can't get out of here?"

Naruto frowned, "It's one of me against 40 ships armed to the teeth and with itchy trigger finger. Now I like me a whole lot, but even I wouldn't bet on myself to get out of here that way."

Miss Valentine snapped her fingers as an idea hit her, "We could ask the king for temporary commission as Alabasta's privateers until we get out of here."

Soren shook his head, "Won't work. Privateers are still pirates and the only pirates allowed by law are the Shichibukai by the World Government. Me and Uzumaki have laundry lists from here to the floor, they would come after us so fast you guys would wonder what the hell happened."

Nojiko moaned and fell backwards onto a bed, "So we can't ask for amnesty or something? We did just help save the country." A paper was dropped on her from above. Picking it up it revealed Luffy's wanted poster with an updated bounty, "100 million? For what? Isn't it a good thing he exposed corruption like what Crocodile was doing?"

"I've been trying to tell you guys from the start, the World Government at its heart is corrupt." Soren growled in annoyance, "They want to be seen as infallible. The knowledge that Crocodile operated under their noses to overthrow an entire country makes them all look incompetent or something, so they raised Luffy's bounty to help it stay covered up as much as it is."

"Did you hear?" Johnny said matter-of-factly, "They tried to pass of that Smoker guy as the one that took down Crocodile."

"Of course they did." Soren said, shrugging, "They need to save some kind of face on this don't they? And we can't hide either, our ship is still in the river near Erumalu but they won't risk coming up the channel after us because they would just be lining themselves up single-file, and any idiot could fight their way out of that kind of situation."

Naruto looked at Soren curiously, "You sound like you've been through this kind of thing before. You have any plans for us to get out of this?"

Soren shook his head and smiled apologetically, "Not right off of the top of my head Uzumaki, I've never been stuck like this before. I've always been on my own so I could basically disappear until the heat died down or I could slip away."

Naruto cupped his chin in thought, "If we could at least get to open sea I could make sure we get away. I can generate an air current that would speed us up and slow them down." Naruto stood up and walked over to the window to look out at the city, "How long do we have until the Admiral gets here?"

"Realistically?" Soren asked, crossing his arms across his chest, "If we're completely serious about a time frame then I'd say two days would be overly optimistic."

"That's just fantastic…" Miss Valentine said, "I dodge Crocodile and now I'm still going to die because we're about to be smushed by an Admiral and thousands of Marines." She rubbed her temple, "Someone come up with something and get us out of here!"

Soren rolled his eyes, "You're going to be waiting for a while. Between all of us only I have any experience keeping out of arm's reach of the Marines, the rest of us are total newbies at sailing in the first place, and the only one of us with the firepower to blast their way out is maybe Uzumaki and I still don't think he can pull it off, not that he'd leave the rest of you behind even if he is capable of doing it himself."

Nojiko placed her hands on her knees and her chin in her palms, "So what's going to happen once whoever it is gets here?"

"They're going to kill all of you and throw me and Uzumaki in Impel Down." Soren said nonchalantly before backtracking, "Well that's if whoever it is can bring us down without killing us first. I don't know about mon capitan, but to hell with prison… I hear stories about that place."

Johnny's jaw dropped, "Why would they kill us instead of capture us? We're with you aren't we?"

Miss Valentine shook her head, "You don't have significant bounties if you even have one at all. Naruto and Soren have high bounties and I'm linked to Baroque Works so they would try to capture us to make a spectacle out of it. The rest of you they would just execute on the spot."

"Which would be better for you." Soren added before shivering, "You really don't want to go to Impel Down, seriously, and that's where me, Uzumaki, and Valentine would be dragged off to if we're caught."

Naruto sighed, "Well if it comes down to it I'll let you guys get away and draw the heat to me. At least I can make sure I survive." Naruto's eyes widened, "Holy shit! That's it! It's absolutely perfect! I can totally survive getting captured, dattebayo!" He slapped himself across the face and twitched his eyebrow, "Goddamn it I thought I finally outgrew that…"

"How?" Nojiko asked, "How the hell would you ever survive anything like that?"

Naruto grinned, "Trust me. This idea is going to totally work. There's no way they can hold me." He walked over to Nojiko and rubbed her shoulder comfortingly, "We've got a shot now. It's better than all of us getting caught here, trapped like rats."

Everyone in the room started looking more positive except for one person, "No way." Soren said, shaking his head, "I know exactly what you're going to do and I say no way. It's suicide. What do you think they're going to do when they capture you?"

Naruto picked his ear, "Put handcuffs on me and beat the crap out of me after they store me somewhere safe."

"Exactly!" Soren roared, "They're going to beat the shit out of you with seastone cuffs on and then drag you off to get violated in Impel Down!"

"-Seastone which doesn't affect me." Naruto added blankly.

"Seastone which doesn't… affect you." Soren's statement slowed down as he realized why that was important, "Oh… they don't know that."

Naruto grinned widely and nodded, "They think I'm like you and have one of those Devil Fruit powers so they'll put those things on me and think everything will be okay, like how Smoker thought his weapon was going to break me down in Nanohana. No matter what they do, as long as I can reach my hands there's nothing they _can_ do because they still don't know how all of my jutsu work."

Yosaku had been silent most of the time as he knew he couldn't come up with anything to get them out, "So how the hell are we possibly going to pull this off? I don't even know what's fully going on here."

Miss Valentine had simply been staring at Naruto in disbelief as she caught on to what he was saying almost right from the start, "You can't be serious." Upon seeing how Naruto's face had lost all concern for the conversation after his last answer she got her own answer, "So you, all by yourself I might add, are going to make sure we all get out of here and then you're going to somehow catch up to us?"

"Yep!" Naruto replied cheerfully as he went to leave the room, "So don't sweat it Miss Valentine, all we need to do now is work out the plan to get you all away." He exited and shut the door behind him.

The room was silent before Miss Valentine shrugged and went to leave as well, "Okay, well this is going to end badly for everyone. I might as well enjoy the last bit of time I have alive living in a palace." She left the room laughing to herself.

XxX

Naruto stood in the throne room of the palace in front of King Cobra, Igaram, and a man directly under Igaram as one of the elite guards of Alabasta, Chaka, "We're going to be leaving before we end up putting you in a bad spot. The last thing you need right now is more scrutinization from the World Government than you're already going to get."

"Yes…" Igaram said, "We are incredibly grateful to all of you for your efforts, but something like this, to have them discover how close to the royal family you are after how they tried covering up Crocodile's defeat would only end badly for everyone."

Chaka spoke, "Do you need help in escaping?"

Naruto shook his head, "You couldn't help even if we did. From what I've been told they would find out. Hell, I'm still wondering who was able to take my picture for my bounty, I didn't see a soul."

Cobra rubbed his beard in thought, "This is very troubling. As much as it pains me to say this, when is the soonest you can depart? I would not like to have to force you out of our capital after the service you have assisted our nation with." He really wished that he could assist Naruto by vouching for him, however he had a duty to his country, and harboring a fugitive of the World Government wouldn't help them any.

Naruto waved off his concern, "We can leave now, but we actually have to wait. The only way we're really getting out of here is our plan that needs exact timing."

Cobra perked up when he heard that, "And when exactly is the exact time?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Whenever the Admiral shows up here in Alubarna." He took notice of the looks of shock on everyone's face, "I know what you're thinking but this isn't as suicidal as I'm making it sound. I know what I'm doing." He got a deadpan look from Igaram, "Seriously I know what I'm doing. Don't give me that look, I'm not a stupid as I act… most of the time."

Cobra gave Naruto a long, hard look, "Are you absolutely certain you can get away without alerting anyone?"

"No." Naruto responded honestly, "It's definitely going to alert everyone, but that's the point. It's not going to get traced back to you though, so don't worry about it. They'll just think we were passing through."

Chaka had a sweatdrop on his head, "So you're going to intentionally provoke an exorbitant amount of Marines, because it will actually help you to escape? That sounds very counter-productive to be completely truthful."

Naruto nodded, "It's my only shot at getting all of my people out of here in one piece rather than having them hunt us all over the desert and down the river and try to pick us off piece by piece."

"Can you tell me when you're going to initiate this 'plan' of yours?" Cobra requested to Naruto.

"Not really." Naruto replied, "All I can say is that when the amount of Marines around the city gets bigger that's the indicator that it's about to happen." Naruto bowed to Cobra, seeing as how he actually respected the man for how he ran his country, "We'll make ourselves scarce, remember, we were never here and as far as you're concerned we're pirates just like anyone else once it begins." With that, Naruto shoved his hands into the pockets of his sage coat and left the room

XxX

Naruto walked alone through the halls of the palace on his way back to the rest of his crew to hash out the exact plan for their escape before he simply stopped in place, "Please come out Vivi." He spoke to seemingly no one, "I wonder how much of that you heard."

"All of it." Vivi said as she came out from behind one of the ornate pillars in the palace, "How can you ask us to treat you as enemies after what you've done? That would be like an insult to what Luffy and the others did as well as you. You saved Igaram, brought him back here, and you helped us fight. You've saved us, and saved Luffy from Crocodile again and again."

Naruto looked at her, "Look Vivi, You should know after what happened that you can't protect everyone, you should focus on the people that need protecting. Isn't that why you're here instead of with the Straw Hats? Because your country needs you?" Seeing her look away was all the answer he needed, "The last person that needs someone to put their neck out to protect them is me. I'll get my crew out of here without a scratch on them."

"The admirals are infamous you know. They're all overwhelmingly powerful, the true forces of the Marines." Vivi held herself as she continued to talk, "They're up there, if not higher than the Shichibukai themselves."

Naruto let a small grin finally show on his face, "Well then… And here I thought I had missed my chance for a good fight after Luffy beat Crocodile. Patience is rewarding after all isn't it my dear princess?"

Vivi got angry at him for how calmly he was taking this, "You can't be serious! This is completely different from fighting Crocodile, now your opponent has the full backing of the World Government! We're going to have to be your enemy Naruto! Alabasta is a prominent nation in the World Government!"

Naruto's grin faded to a small smile, "Well I'll just have to make sure I get away without hurting anyone from Alabasta won't I? Besides, the only people in Alabasta that even know about me are you, your dad, and the royal guards. Other than that I'm just some random pirate… although I still haven't really done anything piratey come to think of it. Could I just be labeled as an outlaw or something?"

She wanted to hit him, to just hit him until he understood exactly what was going on, "You're so… so-."

"What other option do I have Vivi?" Naruto said, completely serious, "If I stay here, I'll have to fight, get captured, and your father will be in trouble for letting us be here. If I run I'll have to fight, but I can get away. All it requires in that case is for Alabasta, or should I say you, to treat me like what I really am; an enemy of the state."

"We're supposed to be friends." Vivi said desperately while looking down, "Why can't I ever protect any of my friends the way they protect me? You all, Pell, Luffy, Igaram, Kohza… I can't do anything to help." She turned her attention up when she felt Naruto in front of her with a hand on his shoulder, she hadn't even felt him move.

Naruto looked down into her face, "You can help by believing in us Vivi. You don't have to fight, or even have all of the answers to help someone. Just letting someone know that you're on their side is helpful." Naruto let go of her and continued on, "But you've got a country to worry about. If there's anything I'm used to it's definitely sacrificing myself for the greater good."

XxX

Late night passed as Naruto sat in his usual spot that he had come to enjoy. A place atop the palace overlooking the city as night fell. He felt someone scampering up the side and knew there was only one person here capable of doing such, "Found anything productive while you were out today Soren?"

The man in question pulled himself up the side and sat down on the ledge, "There are going to be way more than you thought. There's going to be 6 ships accompanying the main Admiral's ship."

Naruto took in the information, "Well that doesn't change much, it just means I've got to make a bigger splash for our plan to work. Speaking of which; who are the Admirals anyway? You make them sound like demons or something."

"Or something is appropriate." Soren said as he looked out on the city with Naruto, "I haven't gotten anything on which one is coming, but no matter who it is it's going to be bad for different reasons." He raised his hand with three fingers, "You have 3 possible options, each of them suck for you. Aokiji, Kizaru, and Akainu."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "You make it sound as if you've run into them before."

Chuckling humorlessly at the thought, Soren shook his head, "If I had then I would guarantee you I probably wouldn't be here right now. They don't ever really leave Marineford, the Marine HQ. I warrant a manhunt from lower level Marines when I'm sighted, but I don't make enough waves to get one of them involved thank goodness." He scratched the top of his head, "I don't even know what they can do as far as their capabilities in battle."

Naruto shrugged, "As long as they can't enslave the entire world with the moon then I'm not really sweating it yet."

"What?" Soren said in confusion.

Naruto looked at him, "What, 'what'? You heard me, I'm not sweating it yet."

"No, no, no." Soren clarified, "What was that crap you said before that? That was weird."

Naruto looked up at the aforementioned moon and leaned back, "Don't worry about it. Many, many things have gone on for as long as I've been doing this stuff."

His acid-generating comrade stared at him for a while before following Naruto's example and laying back, "I swear there's something not quite right with you Uzumaki. For some reason I really like it though, God help me, I'm starting to trust your insane ass." He was quiet for a moment before looking over at him again, "Do you wish the Straw Hats were here?"

"For what?" Naruto replied incredulously, "The way you're talking you make it seem like _I'm_ not going to walk away from this. Why the fuck would you think I want them here? I don't even want all of you with me, that's why you're all running at the first chance." He calmed himself down, "So everybody's ready right?"

"As they're ever going to be for what they're going to be doing." Soren said standing up.

Naruto scoffed, "You say that like you're not going to be with them. I'm making you go with them tomorrow when everything kicks off."

Hearing that almost made Soren lose his balance and fall off of the ledge before he caught himself and regained his composure, "So you're going to get into it with the Marines all by yourself. You're not even going to take me with you to have your back?"

"No." Naruto gave him a dry look, "I need you to make sure everyone gets to the ship alright in case you somehow get pursued. I doubt you will be, but just in case."

"Whatever…" Soren sighed, "Don't go getting yourself caught or killed." He smirked at his captain, "Things are just starting to get fun around here you lunatic."

XxX

Naruto came into his own room later that night. He didn't really need the sleep, he mostly did it nowadays because he had discovered what his old friend Shikamaru saw in sleeping; it was actually fun to do nothing sometimes. He also only slept mostly because he wanted to keep all of his mental facilities about him, he didn't want to wind up like insomniac Gaara either, not that he really could.

He slipped back inside and took off his sandals, sage jacket, and shirt to get ready to grab at least a few hours of sleep before the sun came up the next morning and he was required to be attentive and serious.

"You were out there for quite a while Naruto-kun."

Naruto sighed as he heard the familiar voice in the dark, "Go to bed Noji-chan. You've got some serious ground to cover tomorrow. I'm sending you back on my toads but it's still going to be a long ride." Even thought it was pitch dark in the room he could feel Nojiko sitting on his bed with her back against the headboard despite not being able to see her. "Don't tell me you've been staying up waiting for me the entire time."

"No." Her body then took that moment to betray her with a yawn, "Damn it." She let out an 'eep' when she felt Naruto fall onto the bed and lay his head on the pillow next to her, "You're insane."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "So I hear pretty much every day. You'd think you would all be used to how I do things by now."

Nojiko scooted down the bed and lay down next to him, looking up at the ceiling, "So you're just going to send us off to run away again while you risk your neck against who knows what. You need to stop doing that Naruto-kun. It's like you have a death wish, and one day it's going to be granted. I hate people who throw their lives away."

"I don't have a death wish Noji-chan." Naruto tried to assure her. He grabbed her hand and rubbed circles on the back of it with his thumb, "How could you say that? I can't just think like that, I need to keep the rest of you safe. I'm not sacrificing my life here, I'm just risking it."

"Alone. Always alone, you're always doing things like this on your own and sending the rest of us off to wait for you from afar." Nojiko turned over and faced him on her side, "What did you make us train for? Why did we even try to get strong? What was it all for if you don't trust us to fight alongside you?"

Naruto's eyes darted to hers, "No one should ever fight alongside me. You've seen me fight. Stuff gets destroyed when I fight, even when I'm not serious. I taught you how to shoot to keep you safe just in case, not so you could be an active fighter." He sat up on his elbows, "You are all utterly terrified of what's about to happen. I don't know anything about these Admirals or anything at all about your World Government, but from what I've been getting about how people are taking this guy's arrival do you really think that being anywhere near that guy is good for any of us?"

Nojiko flinched, "I…"

Naruto shook his head slowly, "If this guy is really one of the strongest people in the world the way I've been hearing can you really look me in the eyes and tell me that you could stand up against whoever this is?"

Nojiko frowned, "Why does it have to be you?"

Naruto lay back down, "I'm the only one strong enough." He gazed over and saw how upset she actually was at this, "Oh come on Noji-chan. Look, I promise I'll be right behind you when you get to the ship, okay? Just do something for me when you get the ship out to sea. Go into my room and you'll find one thing, just one thing in the entire room. You'll know what to do with it, *laughs* it's only good for one thing."

Nojiko looked at him and her face softened before she put her head down on his chest and sighed, "We'd better get out of this alive Naruto-kun, all of us." She glared at him lightly, "If you die on us I'll drag you back from hell and beat you to death all over again."

Naruto feigned fear, "So scary." He pulled her closer to him, "I promise Nojiko. Now go to sleep, tomorrow's going to be a long day."

XxX

(The Next Morning)

It hadn't taken long for the realization to go down that the time had come for the escape to take place. Clones stationed outside the city tipped Naruto off as to when they had finally arrived, prompting him to evacuate his crew on the double lest they be caught before they even had a chance of getting out of the country.

Marines had centralized all throughout the capital city of Alubarna as soon as the sun had risen. The chaos of all of the men getting themselves in their posts allowed the Foxhound Pirates to slip out of the city with no trouble. Just outside of the back side of Alubarna, Naruto had the rest of his comrades situated upon his toads once more, much the same as they were when they arrived in the city, "You all head straight for the ship and hightail it to the ocean as fast as you can."

Johnny raised his hand, "How the hell are you going to catch up to us Naruto-aniki? You're fast, but you're not that fast. No one is."

"Ha, don't worry about that." Naruto said, "Just make sure you do what I say, alright?"

Miss Valentine smirked, "Do you really think you can divert the ships watching over the coast from here? If you can't then we're going to be sitting ducks once we reach the mouth of the river."

Naruto shunshined in front of her and patted her shoulders firmly, a large confident grin on his face, "Everything's going to be fine. I wouldn't ever make you do something that I didn't have worked out already."

Miss Valentine laughed at him, "This plan is so desperate and completely and totally asinine and out of left field that I actually think it could work. You sure like to keep things interesting don't you?"

Naruto backed up with his hands in his pockets, "Oh you have no idea, and besides, it's better than your last job isn't it? Now everybody move out. You don't want to be around when I make my move." With that said, everyone left on Naruto's summoned toads except for Nojiko, "Something you need Noji-chan?"

Nojiko motioned for him to walk over to her toad and grabbed him by his collar, yanking him into a kiss. She then dropped him and winked, "Just that. Bye Naruto-kun." Finally she set out behind everyone else.

Naruto stared at her until she disappeared with everyone else in the distance. He finally started walking back into Alubarna, laughing loudly to himself the entire way.

XxX

Cobra sat at the head of a long table in what appeared to be a conference room inside of the palace with an astute look on his face, "I would like to thank you for coming all the way here simply to discuss relations between Alabasta and the World Government. Getting assistance from the powers of the world would be invaluable to our country after our period of inner turmoil."

"Yes…" A tall, aged looking man with short black hair, a thin beard, amber-lensed sunglasses, and a Marine coat draped over his yellow striped suit like a cape, "Your country is very important to the make-up of the government." He drawled, "As soon as the news got to Mariejois the order went out to send one of us to go over things with you."

Other than the two men seated inside of the room for the proceedings, there was no one else in the vicinity.

"Mariejois?" Cobra said, "So the Gorousei (Five Elder Stars) got the news of the rebellion ending more or less as well as it possibly could have for us and decided to send you Admiral Kizaru?"

"You've pretty much got the gist of the situation." Kizaru grinned strangely, "They were actually lobbying for Aokiji to come here instead, but the lazy bum disappeared right before the orders reached HQ, so I'm sorry to say that you're stuck with little old me for the duration of the meeting."

Cobra smiled pleasantly at the man, "You say that as if it were an issue Admiral, rest assured we are absolutely elated to have you here with us in Alubarna. Shall we get down to business so that you can enjoy the rest of your stay serenely?" He suggested to his powerful guest.

Kizaru nodded, "As you wish King Cobra." The room fell into silence for a moment. Cobra didn't speak because this was more of a reactionary meeting, he was to hear exactly what the World Government was going to do for Alabasta. Kizaru finally spoke, "I'll simply cut right to the point so that I can *laughs* enjoy my stay in your beautiful city."

Something about that really put Cobra on edge.

Kizaru leaned back in his chair, "Of course the World Government will help Alabasta with its recovery. Your people have been through much due to Crocodile, a man that had the backing of the Gorousei, and to that end of course they will assist in the reconstruction… Although one could argue that you were responsible for some of the damage yourself."

Cobra narrowed his eyes, "What are you insinuating Admiral Kizaru?"

Kizaru put his hands up in a placating manner, "Me? Nothing. The Gorousei on the other hand doubt the validity of your nation's strife. They seem to believe you brought it upon yourself for one reason or another."

Cobra's hands dug into the table, "Really? How may I ask can they prove that?"

"Hmm? It's funny that you should mention that actually." Kizaru fished around in the lining of the Marine coat, "A member of what we now know to be Crocodile's Baroque Works organization, code name: Miss Wednesday, brought some intrigue." He placed a picture of 'Miss Wednesday' on the table, "She seems to bear a passing resemblance to someone in particular." He pulled out a picture of Vivi and slid them over to Cobra.

He tried to hide his shock. Vivi had done a wonderful job of keeping herself hidden for the most part. Only Crocodile, the Straw Hats, The Foxhound Pirates, and the remaining living members of Baroque Works were aware of Vivi, and none of them were really on speaking terms with any government officials.

"It's not a big deal your highness." Kizaru stated absently, "Everything is fine, we just need to bring her to… discuss her involvement with unscrupulous elements. I hear she also had some sort of connection to Straw Hat Luffy as well from Captain- err, Commodore Smoker's report."

Cobra steeled his emotions, "So what would this entail? Where would you be taking Vivi?"

"There's nothing to worry about." Kizaru assured him unhelpfully, "She'll be just fine by the time we get her back to Alabasta, we just need some, well let's just say, sensitive information from her."

This conversation was beginning to steer down a darker path for the king of the desert nation.

XxX

Naruto stood on the outside wall of Alubarna, cracking his fingers and knuckles before forming a cross hand-seal with his index and middle fingers, "Let's get this show on the road, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke, an uncountable number of Naruto clones filled the walls lining the city. Naruto cleared his voice before yelling his instructions out, "Boys you know the drill, make yourselves scarce and go nuts on this place!"

The clones all chuckled mischievously before all jumping off of the walls making raucous noise and making their way to the heart of the city to cause havoc amongst the Marines. Naruto nodded in a satisfied manner as he heard the sounds of chaos ring out shortly after he let loose his lovable self-copies on the unsuspecting capital. He then sat down on the wall and began to meditate.

XxX

(Two Hours Later)

All around town, panic spread through the Marine forces stationed there as seemingly out of nowhere an uncountable force of blonde young men in long red coats descended upon them like a pox. There was no reason as to what was going on, there was not even an inkling of possible motive or actual plan, which made it absolutely impossible for the Marines to launch any kind of counter-offensive against them. It was like the mystery men were all operating off of a different set of rules. Like they were just doing whatever came to mind. Spontaneously all over town, Marines were either pulled aside and beaten senseless before they knew what had hit them or they were set up in horrible traps and pranks akin to something from a child's mind… a demented child's mind.

"Sir!" A group of 3 lower ranked seamen ran up to their superior officer in a hurry, "Twenty-three more of our men are down out around the market district. Something about tiger traps all along the streets and a rain of itching powder. We can't corral them because they're everywhere! They don't seem to be going in any general direction."

Another one nodded furiously, "And when someone actually does wind up taking one of them down they just disappear into smoke! Poof!" He finished with a grand hand gesture, "What are we supposed to do?"

The Master Chief Petty Officer kept his composure for a moment before losing it, "I have no idea! This was supposed to be easy, 'Just report to Alabasta and get your station for protecting the city of Alubarna.' Who the hell attacks a city knowing that there's an Admiral in it! And how the hell do you make a tiger trap in the middle of a populated city?"

Right when he spoke, a group of three Marines were thrown out of the window of a nearby pub forcefully enough to be slammed into a wall on the other side of the street.

"It's bad enough that _this _place doesn't have ramen, I don't need you idiots coming in here and messing with my attitude even more." At the broken window appeared one of the blonde men in question. This one in particular didn't have a smirk, or a grin on his face, he was simply scowling heavily.

A group of two more blonde men, exactly in appearance to the first one only considerably more light-hearted landed in front of the broken pub window, "Yo, what happened? Why are you in there?"

The angry blonde's stomach growled loudly, "Boss missed breakfast today. And guess what, apparently this country doesn't have ramen either!" He took note of the looks of shock on the other Narutos' faces, "I know! That's what my reaction was too!"

One of the others brainstormed, "That can't be possible, there has to be _one_ restaurant in a town this big that has ramen."

The angry one's stomach growled again, "Well what are you waiting for?" He yelled at his comrades, "Get fucking cracking and find some of that holy treasure already! Leave no stone unturned!"

"Hai oyabun!" The clones then jumped off amid the rooftops once more, this time with an ulterior mission while the original angry clone jumped through the broken window and walked down the street, muttering to himself with his hands in his pockets.

As the clones left, all of the 4 Marines left standing let out an anxious breath, "I think I just had my brush with death." One man muttered before flinching at the sight of even more whooping clones flying across the rooftops overhead, "I think we should call for backup."

A random explosion went off in the distance before a large cloud of orange rose up from seemingly a few blocks away, "I think you're right." The head officer replied, "I'm putting you up for promotion, that's good thinking."

XxX

Igaram watched from the palace with a telescope, allowing him to bear witness to the anarchy in the streets, "What is he doing to the city?" He screeched in an uncharacteristic high-pitched voice.

"Calm down Igaram." Chaka replied from his side, watching the events much the same way he was, "He isn't really doing anything. I haven't seen any major property damage. The worst thing he's done was set off that orange paint bomb that covered that whole street on the northern side of the city. He's taking care not to do anymore damage to Alubarna than it's already taken." He then sweatdropped when he saw an abnormally large orange toad with a blue vest, larger than all of the buildings in the town, hopping through the streets swatting Marines all over the place, "Nevermind… well at least the property damage is staying at a minimum."

"How-? What the-? A toad?" Igaram stammered out at what he was seeing, "Where on earth did a toad come from? And is he riding on that thing's head?"

"Ara, what's this?" A curious voice called out from behind them, "Would you look at that, it looks like a party down there." Both Chaka and Igaram paled as they turned to find the disinterested face of Kizaru standing right there behind them.

"A-Admiral!" Both men stuttered out.

He looked at the city with a wry grin, "After all of the damage your city has been through and these careless people use their powers to simply raise havoc, what a nuisance."

One of the Marines guarding the palace for Kizaru's security ran up to him, out of breath from traversing the large palace, "Sir, reports from in town claim that all persons identified attacking are the same person in description. One 'Seed of War' Uzumaki Naruto." He held up Naruto's wanted poster from after the fight with Arlong and the destruction of Captain Nezumi's Marines.

Kizaru looked at the poster, "Ohh." He said with seemingly false enthusiasm, "Well I guess it's up to me to protect one of the nations under the World Government alliance from one of these pirates huh?"

The man that had informed Kizaru spoke up, "Sir we have sent for reinforcements from nearby forces."

"Hmm." Kizaru said as he moved slowly through the hall, "Good initiative, but I don't think this will last that long for any to be necessary." He then disappeared around a corner, followed shortly by the man that was with him.

Igaram and Chaka watched Kizaru leave the vicinity before looking at one another. Igaram voiced his own concern, "That boy had better get moving soon or else he won't be alive for too much longer." Chaka begrudgingly nodded his agreement.

Both men turned as they felt the presence of their king, due to the malevolent feeling he was projecting, "Cobra-sama, what is the matter?"

Cobra looked at them with the utmost seriousness, "Find Vivi and bring her to me, hurry. I believe we may owe Uzumaki-san another favor after this."

XxX

Naruto sat atop the head of a massive toad as it stomped its way through town, "Gamakichi I don't see why you're so pissed off about being here. When was the last time I summoned you or any of the other toads for anything half this fun?"

Gamakichi looked up to the whiskered blonde on his head, **"It's hot and dry out here Naruto-nii. What toad do you know that lives in dry areas?"**

Naruto shrugged, "There's an oasis south of here. Go there genius." He then shot a small glare downward, "If you pick me up and throw me I'm going to get the next generation toads to torment you later." He caught Gamakichi with his tongue out about to grab his body.

The toad sucked his tongue back up quickly, **"You're such a bastard nii-san. How are you not dead yet?"**

Naruto grinned and patted his large friend on the head, "Because nobody's good enough to pull it off Gamakichi! You sound like you want me to pass on."

Gamakichi rolled his eyes, **"Whenever you finally kick the bucket it sure won't be because you 'passed on'. You and I both know you're going to go out in a blast of hellfire and take half of the world with you."**

Naruto chuckled, "Me? Never. It's not about changing the world Gamakichi, it's about doing your best to make sure you leave the world the way it is for the most part."

"**-For the most part you say?"** Gamakichi questioned suspiciously, **"This coming from the guy that-."**

Naruto looked away and scratched his cheek sheepishly as he cut him off, "Well, some things here and there have to change, you know what I'm saying?" He could feel Gamakichi's facial muscles move as he started to smile, "And you can go ahead and shut up 'Kichi. I'll get Gamabunta on you if you keep it up. I have old dirt on you that should be buried and gone."

"**Just like you."** Gamakichi cracked absently.

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, just like m-." He stopped and glared down at Gamakichi who was exuding a victorious aura, "Oh ha, ha. I didn't ask for this you know. I'm simply taking advantage of what's happened to me… though I kind of want Orochimaru to know about me so I can laugh in his face." Suddenly a flurry of memories hit him. His clones were being annihilated in a path in the blink of an eye seemingly, prompting Naruto to turn to the area where the trail was leading.

Looking over onto a nearby building, he saw a man in a yellow, striped suit looking at him calmly. Naruto looked at his toad friend, "Well Gamakichi, playtime is over. I'll talk to you later okay?" Naruto then jumped off of Gamakichi's head as he dispelled himself and went back home. Landing in front of the man he put on a big cheesy smile and placed his hands out, "I surrender."

"You surrender?" The yellow-suited man said in a voice of surprise, but the look on his face didn't reflect his voice, "After all of this you would simply surrender?"

"Yep!" Naruto chirped, "So come on and bring me in 'specs'." Marines were more inclined to capture pirates right? Smoker was always saying he would catch Luffy, or he would capture Naruto, he never said anything about killing them.

"Hmm…" Kizaru mused, "Nope, I think I would rather kill someone like you and be done with it."

Naruto blinked absently… that plan was shot. It didn't matter, it was half-assed anyway, "Oh, well that changes things then." Naruto suddenly lashed out with a punch, hitting him in the face, but his fist went right through when the man's body turned into a burst of light and vanished.

He then abruptly ducked as a beam of light flew past his head. He turned to see the strange man aiming his foot at Naruto as if he had just finished throwing a kick, "How surprising." The man more or less deadpanned, "That you were able to dodge that. That was flying at the speed of light."

Naruto stood back up and turned to face him with a tick mark on his head, "I can't punch you in the face. You must have another of those goddamned Devil Fruit powers, something with light it seems. Can't anyone out in the world fight without one of those things?"

"Ah, but what's the fun in that?" He teased Naruto with his condescending speech, "Have you ever been kicked at the speed of light boy?"

Once he thought about it he really hadn't. Naruto blinked, "No… I actually can't say that I ha- urrk!" In the blink of an eye Naruto was sent flying by a violent impact in his stomach that sent him sprawling about the skies of Alubarna. He eventually landed right outside of the city central square, the area right in front of the palace. The force with which his body hit the ground cracked it, getting Naruto to pull himself up with a serious look on his face, "Okay then. You clearly hit harder than anyone else I've fought so far since I've started doing this whole traveling thing. That puts you up a notch in my book, putting you at notch one."

"I'm so glad I've earned your respect." Kizaru said. Due to the usually placid expression on his face that seemed to be the norm, Naruto couldn't tell whether or not that was sarcasm, "I mean, my ranking of Admiral notwithstanding, getting complemented by a random pirate made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside."

Okay now it was definitely sarcasm. Naruto quickly summoned Samehada who began vibrating wildly in Naruto's grip, "You _are_ strong. Samehada never actively asks me to please hurry up and cut into someone." The sword made noises that seemed to agree with that sentiment. Naruto then pulled the bandages off of the blade's scaly form, "Well what my sentient sword wants, it gets." He held the sword over his shoulder, waiting for a chance to commence his attack, "Now let's try this again."

"Whatever you like. A last request if you will." Kizaru drawled before launching a beam of light at Naruto with another kick.

Naruto brought up Samehada and allowed the blast to hit his sword. The speed and power it hit him with exploded on contact and forced him backwards fifty feet. Naruto checked on his sword, "So how was that?" Samehada made some noise that got Naruto to smirk, "Samehada says 'What was that, an appetizer?' Send something with a little kick behind it next time.'" Naruto looked at his sword, "Wow, you're being a jerk today buddy."

Kizaru feigned interest, "I'm so sorry that my attacks aren't up to your sword's standards, but I'm more concerned with you." With that he seemingly vanished from sight and random beams of light flashed at Naruto from multiple spontaneous sides. Defense to the attacks were given by Samehada wrapping around his body protectively and absorbing the attacks.

Naruto kept his eyes peeled as he scanned around for Kizaru, 'This is great and everything but I still can't hit the bastard. I can't move at the speed of light and he's not going to just slip up and let me catch him with something.'

Kizaru stood back in front of Naruto stroking his beard, "It seems I'm going to have to get a little more serious with you." In his hands formed a very long sword made of light, "Ama no Murakumo (Sword of the Gathering Clouds of Heaven)."

Naruto allowed Samehada to return to its normal form since he was going to have to actively defend now. With the speed his opponent could move at he could be precise and stab through Samehada's defense, it was useless, but at least while moving he would have a chance at avoiding the damage unlike when he was holding still. Well at least Samehada could eat through that sword if he could block it.

Kizaru once again left Naruto's sight with the speed of his Devil Fruit, prompting Naruto to use his instincts developed after years of combat to bring Samehada up to his side in time to block a slice from Kizaru's light sword. However, upon touching Samehada it didn't vanish, it clashed against it much like any other sword.

Naruto saw the look of trouble on Kizaru's confident face right before he vanished from sight again. Naruto sighed and kept his reflexes at the ready, "I have a very bad feeling about this."

XxX

Cobra had taken advantage of the panic that Naruto's presence had brought as all Marines were called around the town square to ensure the area was locked down to keep Naruto from escaping from the Admiral he was in conflict with. He had gotten Chaka and Igaram to bring Vivi to him and at once he had summoned Carue and whisked them to the outskirts of the town under the cover of Naruto's chaos.

Vivi looked at her father in shock and sorrow, "What? Why do I have to leave?"

Cobra, Chaka, and Igaram were securing a little amount of luggage to Carue as she sat atop the duck, "I do not trust the World Government. Today they asked me to allow them to take you into custody for your actions during our nation's time of dissension. The 'Absolute Justice' of the Marines and the Gorousei will not allow you to be left unscathed or to be treated as the dignitary that you are. We are just one country and they are every other one on the planet. Our standing army could never combat the force of the Marines, as we speak this is more or less a glorified occupation of our capital. We are at their mercy for the most part."

Vivi's eyes widened. Even if she had been undercover in Baroque Works they surely had to know that she only did it to stop Crocodile's plot, and she had done as she had intended, the roundabout way surely, "But why?"

Cobra sighed and shook his head, "I don't know. I fear I am just as in the dark about this as you, but you must get away Vivi. Please, get out of the country until I can summon you back. For your sake… I've already had you and our people sacrifice so much just for our nation. It's time that I as the king bear some of it as well."

Tears sprang to Vivi's eyes. She had just gotten back and was now leaving again, not even safe in her own capital. Igaram walked up to her and she threw her arms around his neck, hugging the man tightly, "Be safe princess. You can do this. You are far stronger than you ever give yourself credit."

Vivi released him and turned Carue off towards the desert, sparing one last look back at her father and her guardians.

XxX

Back in battle, the conflict had been dragging on for quite a while due to a very important aspect. Naruto was really getting angry at his inability to hit Kizaru. He was able to block a lot of Kizaru's attacks; it wasn't like he was a stranger to someone vanishing from sight and attacking him at random, nor was he a stranger to someone avoiding his attacks altogether, that asshole Madara Uchiha had seen to it that Naruto ended up getting the real-time experience of dealing with someone that could teleport at will. But there was nothing 'space-time' about this, he was simply faster than Naruto. Not that Naruto was slow by any stretch of the imagination, but the comparison of speed might as well have been a comparison between a state-level high school recreational track athlete and a fully grown, fully healthy, grasslands cheetah. Good, extraordinary actually when compared to normal people and even his peers, but compared to the alternative he just didn't measure up.

Naruto's top speed was simply not the speed of light. Period. There was simply no work around to that. He wasn't a kid anymore that could say whenever someone was better than him he would just train harder until he was just as good as them. It was the speed of light. You don't beat that, ever. And he thought the Sharingan was a cop-out. The Sharingan would get the good old run around against this guy. The thought would have made him laugh to himself if he wasn't currently in a fight for his life.

"Gah!" Naruto shouted, "How do I hit this son of a bitch!" Naruto ducked and swung Samehada around himself in a 360 arc to try and hit something, "It's pissing me off! How do you hit light?" Naruto stabbed the sword into the ground just in time for a flicker of light to bounce off of it before Naruto ended up taking a punch that sent him flying into the side of a building, right through the wall.

Naruto sat in the rubble and wreckage created from his entry. He rubbed his bruised jaw and glared at his sword, "We're getting our asses kicked."

Samehada made its usual noises getting Naruto to respond angrily, "What do you mean 'What do you mean _we_?' You're right here with me, getting your scaly self kicked all over the square as well." Naruto sighed, "This isn't working."

He resealed Samehada and stood up before yelling outside the hole in the wall, "You're the only one making property damage here! Are you going to be paying for all of this stuff when you're done asshole?" He spoke lowly to himself, "Why do I destroy so much stuff everywhere I go?" Naruto randomly picked up debris from the ground, a piece of glass, and looked at his dirty form in the reflection.

He frowned at his slightly haggard image until a glare from the sun on the mirror hit him in the eye, annoying him by slightly disorienting him, "Stupid light… I've had enough of that shit today." He kept looking at his own image until he started moving the mirror back towards the sun glare. With a look of contemplation on his face he started walking further into the ruined store. There was no need to walk back out yet to hurry the fight along. He was just here to cause a distraction.

It wasn't that he was tired of getting slapped around the square at light-speed for the last two hours, not at all.

"Did you get lost boy?" Naruto's eye twitched at the sound of Kizaru's condescending voice, "Our fight was outside, though I guess we could just as easily end this indoors as well."

Naruto kept his back turned to Kizaru, "No I was just waiting for you to come to me. That shouldn't have been too much of a problem, eh Mr. Speed-of-Light? You're the one trying to kill me after all."

Kizaru gave Naruto a laid-back look, "Well you have been rather impressive for a pirate with only a 55 million beli bounty. Most others would have been finished off a long time ago. I've lost count to the amount of times I've hit you… Although we are in an urban area so I had to hold back."

Naruto smirked, not that Kizaru could see it, "My sentiments exactly."

"Oh well." Kizaru lamented, "As fun as it was to meet you I guess it's time to wrap this up and finish things." Kizaru then vanished in a flash of light, however instead of hitting Naruto like he intended to he was sent flying instantaneously out of the building all the way across the square to plow into another building… at the speed of light.

Where Naruto had been standing there was now a full body length mirror that after bouncing the light off of it transformed back into Naruto who was smirking, "Hell yes! Basics are still best! Henge no Jutsu (Transformation Jutsu) for the win!"

XxX

Carue had been running harder than he ever had in his entire life. Getting Vivi out of the country before word got around that she was gone was of the utmost importance. There wasn't any time to stop or get directions. He needed to get her to a coastal town and get her out of dodge immediately.

The princess in question was still utterly befuddled at what exactly had happened. What had gone wrong? Everything was supposed to be over, she did everything right. She discovered the conspiracy that threatened the safety of her people, she went to the source and basically instigated the catalyst that stopped that threat. It was supposed to be over after that. Things were supposed to be okay from then on.

Now the World Government was more or less taking control of her country. They were going to take her hostage and either do who knows what to her for information on the Straw Hats or for their 'Absolute Justice' and imprison her for working with Luffy and the others and for joining Baroque Works, no matter the pretenses. Either that or use her as a hostage to fully force Cobra to play ball for them. Alabasta had little to no influence over it by the Marines and stuck to handling their own affairs. But from the amount of Marines brought in just to watch over Kizaru their sheer numbers were staggering. Almost on par with the amount of imperial soldiers inside of the city. And Kizaru himself was worth a countless number of troops.

"No way, that's the same duck that belonged to the princess!"

Upon hearing a voice identify her, Vivi stopped Carue to look at the person only to widen her eyes at a familiar face, "Soren?"

Soren nodded, seated atop Naruto's summoned toad, "What are you doing all the way out here?"

Vivi raised an eyebrow, "I could ask you the same. Aren't you supposed to have left with the others by now?"

Soren grinned, "I came to the coast to scout ahead for any trouble and wait for the ship to come past and get me from the riverside. Uzumaki drew the troops away from the coast. They're moving closer towards Alubarna, so I guess his plans to divert troops for reinforcements after he caused a ruckus in the capital worked after all."

Vivi smiled as it seemed that they were going to get away before she remembered her own dire straits, "Take me with you." She blurted out suddenly.

"What?" Was the eloquent response she received from the bald man with the red facial marking, "Why the hell do you want to come with us?"

Vivi looked down, "The government may be making a powerplay on my father's reign over Alabasta. He told me to leave for my safety while he handled things here so that at least one member of the royal family could be out of their direct hands."

Soren frowned at the young woman, "World Government huh? And while Uzumaki is gone I guess I'm more or less the captain." He took a moment of contemplation, "Okay why not? We've got room for you and getting in a shot on the World Government is always great to me."

Vivi let out a breath of relief and hugged her duck Carue tightly in reprieve.

XxX

(With the Foxhound Pirates)

Johnny and Yosaku kicked the last of the Kung-Fu Dugongs off of their ship, "Who told you to get on our ship and make yourselves at home you bastards?" Upon getting on the ship and setting it down the Sandora River towards the sea they found that the insides of their ship were chock full of the very same martial arts practicing animals that they had all stumbled across before heading to Yuba.

Miss Valentine and Nojiko had quickly sent the two swordsmen in as the cleanup crew while they navigated and steered the ship down the river. Close quarters were really not the place for them to be using swords, especially in their own home so the effort to get the dugongs out was more or less a battle of attrition. In this case getting their asses kicked by Naruto did good for them, as they outlasted the animals and got them out eventually, however they did take a nasty little beating when the numbers game was against them as evidenced by their busted mugs and bruised bodies.

Nojiko was at the helm with a map of Alabasta in hand as she drove the ship along the large body of water. Miss Valentine floated down from the masts with her umbrella, smiling serenely, "So how goes our escape efforts Little Miss Navigator?"

Nojiko gave her a half-hearted glare, "Things are going well. All that's left is hoping Naruto-kun's plan cleared the coast of Marine ships so that we can get away."

"Speaking of Naruto." Miss Valentine said, "How exactly is he supposed to get back onto the ship once we get to the ocean?"

"Yeah." Johnny asked from where he and Yosaku were keeping watch from the sides, "He really never told us what he was going to do to get away. Are we supposed to double back around and pick him up somewhere Nojiko-aneue?"

Nojiko shook her head in the negative, "All he told me was to keep going to the open ocean and that he'd be right behind us." She tried to think hard for any clue as to what he was going to do to escape. Even for him, fighting his way out of a city packed to the brim with Marines armed to the teeth had to be impossible, 'Didn't he say something about his bedroom?'

Nojiko had no time in particular to think on it as Yosaku shouted out attracting attention to his side of the ship where everyone saw Soren standing on shore, jokingly holding his thumb out like a hitchhiker with a familiar duck and blue-haired girl with him. After sending out Johnny with a dinghy to pick them up and row them back to the ship everyone else, sans Soren, looked at Vivi in surprise at seeing her there.

"Um." Nojiko tried to start before Vivi cut her off.

"I know what you want to ask me Nojiko, but please can we wait until we are safely away from Alabasta first? I would like to ensure all of our collective safety first." Vivi said before looking around, "I thought Naruto would have caught up with you by now."

Nojiko's mind snapped back to the task at hand, "There was supposed to be something in his room he said!" The girl moved past the rest of the crew and ran inside to Naruto's room as fast as she could.

Upon reaching the captain's quarters she found nothing in the room of any importance at first glance. Just some dirty clothes and that was it. Naruto was never really in his own room. She did however see one of Naruto's kunai stuck in the headboard of the bed. She sat down on the mattress and sighed, looking at the seemingly insignificant blade until she inspected it further.

It wasn't one of Naruto's standard fare kunai. It had three blades in something of a prong that made it look more dangerous than normal and on its handle which was thicker and more ornate than Naruto's normal kunai was some kind of marking. Nojiko pulled the strange weapon out of the wood and stared at it intently.

XxX

Henge no Jutsu: E- rank supplementary ninjutsu and a general skill for shinobi of all types. This technique allows the user to transform themselves or another object into the appearance of another person, animal, or object. The technique requires a constant emission of chakra while simultaneously mentally maintaining the form as well as interaction of the user of the jutsu with the environment.

It was one of the three required jutsu necessary for a young Naruto to become a ninja in the first place, however the older he had gotten the less he utilized the technique in the long run. Basics can be a lifesaver sometimes huh?

After getting hit with the glare off of the piece of glass inside of the ruined shop, Naruto prepared to snap off a Henge the instant he knew Kizaru was going to come at him as a beam of light once more. Using Henge did not give Naruto the durability of steel or anything like that, and a good hit could dislodge his transformation, but he did take on properties of what he transformed into, such as weight, general appearance… or the reflective properties of a glass mirror.

Kizaru's body, made of light particles to achieve his light speed, bounced off of Naruto's mirror body and flew across the square where he near instantly hit something that wouldn't reflect his body, forcing him to crash against it.

Naruto emerged from the ruined shop to see nearly one hundred Marines sifting through the rubble of the building that Kizaru hit at top speed.

The underlings of the Admiral all hurried away once they saw the man pick himself up out of the remains and dust himself off in vain as he was now thoroughly grungy from his own move. Kizaru simply walked forward without much of a tell on his face, "What was it that you did? I couldn't see anything but I think myself just now."

Naruto grinned widely, "Maybe you just missed. Ever think of that?"

Kizaru chuckled, "I don't miss. I'm very accurate."

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever you say." With that he rushed at Kizaru who simply stood still, thinking Naruto was going to punch him again, but Naruto simply made his seal for Kage Bunshin and surrounded Kizaru in a tightly knit circle of his fully cognizant clones.

Kizaru let out a sigh, "You can't surround light boy. The Pika Pika no Mi (Glint Glint Fruit) lets me turn my body to photons of light. How do you expect to beat that?" He simply made his way in no particular direction, simply trying to bust through Naruto's formation of clones with his light-speed.

Which was exactly what Naruto wanted. Naruto's clones all turned to mirrors on the double. Kizaru's light simply kept bouncing between the mirrors, as there was no gap in between them allowing the light to escape. Naruto walked over to a random mirror in general and slightly angled it off-kilter, sending Kizaru off to who knows where at the speed of light.

Naruto let a grin roll over his face as he waved goodbye to the now non-existent beam of light that was Kizaru, "The bad thing about being as fast as the speed of light, when you don't know where in particular you're going to end up it kind of makes it pretty hard to find and fight somebody… I doubt he could see me the entire time he was moving like that." If moving with enough speed for the Chidori gave a Sharingan-less Kakashi tunnel vision then what did moving at the speed of light do for your vision? He was certain that Kizaru mostly centered his speed off of the fact that he only had to minutely aim and he could hit his opponents, because who could dodge light?

It took a hell of an asskicking for him to crack that code though. Getting your ass beat at light-speed was a very undesirable experience to say the least.

Naruto dispelled his mirror clones but heard the cocking of guns go off simultaneously in a massive roar. Naruto looked around to see thousands of Marines standing in the streets, blocking all exits of the square, all along every rooftop, hanging out of every window, all pointing rifles directly at him.

Naruto let off a sweadrop and raised his hands over his head, he seriously couldn't beat thousands of people with rifles shooting at him with absolutely no cover, no matter who he was, "Hey… I tried to surrender already." At that moment he felt a tug from a distance away that put the grin back on his lips, "Gentlemen, always remember today as the day that you _almost_ caught Captain Uzumaki Naruto!" As he finished that sentence he vanished in a crack of air and a yellow blur.

XxX

(Moments Before)

They had reached the seas with no problems whatsoever. The coast had never been clearer even when they had first landed in Alabasta. Nojiko had come out to the deck with everyone else and stared at the strange weapon in her grasp. Miss Valentine put her hands on her hips and spoke up, "So what the hell is that?"

Nojiko shook her head, "I have no idea. It's one of Naruto-kun's kunai knives but it looks weird compared to the others." She pursed her lips, "He told me to get something from his room when we were out to sea, but this was all that was there. What the hell do I do with this thing?"

"Well…" Yosaku stated, "He only ever does two things with them; stabs stuff with them and throws them." He motioned with his hand absently, "Why don't you do that and see what happens?"

Nojiko gave him a deadpan look, "What? Is he going to just show up right when I stab it into the ground or something?" She said it jokingly but then looked at the blade before asking herself what she possibly had to lose and stabbed it directly into the deck.

She stood back up and saw that everyone in front of her was wide-eyed and slack jawed. Before she could ask them what their problem was she felt arms wrap around her body and a voice speak into her ear, "Told you so. Miss me Noji-cha-?"

She cut him off with her pistol over her shoulder poking under his chin, but she had a grand smile on her face the entire time, "Yes I did you idiot."

XxX

(Back in Alubarna)

The hysteria of the day reached a fever pitch even as the sun died down once the majority of the servants in the castle realized that Vivi was gone. The word soon spilled to the street and had the citizens in a frenzy as they were desperate for the location of their beloved Princess Vivi.

Cobra stood out amongst his people with a heavy heart but knew what he had to do.

"_-As far as you're concerned, we're pirates just like anyone else once this begins."_

Naruto's words rang out in Cobra's mind as he steadied himself for his address to his citizens. He cleared his throat and began to raise his voice, "We have survived the treachery of one of the infamous Shichibukai, Sir Crocodile, and prevented him from destroying our beloved country. Today we had another such incident. Our noble capital of Alubarna was terrorized by one man of tremendous power and skill. Only the intervention and brave protection of the Marines kept him from damaging our city further. However today was not without loss… loss close to me personally."

He choked down every bit of gratitude he owed Naruto. If Vivi was discovered otherwise she would be in severe jeopardy. There was no other way for him to keep her safe, "My dear daughter. Your princess, Nefertari Vivi, has been abducted by the 'Seed of War' Uzumaki Naruto." The sounds of anger, sorrow, and disbelief immediately erupted from Alubarna and her citizens.

That was it. That was all there was to it. Soon the news would reach the World Government of what had transpired today, permanently blacklisting Naruto from any leniency from the Marines and their most dogged pursuers, especially after his little performance today. Igaram and Chaka flanked him, both giving him hard looks of understanding.

May God have mercy on both of their souls, both his and Naruto's. For infinitely different reasons altogether.

King Cobra watched the hapless Marines scramble about his city in search of one Uzumaki Naruto and all he could do was look up at the sky, 'Stay safe Vivi. Please keep yourself well, for me and everyone in our kingdom.'

'And Uzumaki Naruto. I sincerely apologize, and hope that you have the strength of both body and mind to weather the maelstrom that I have unleashed upon you.'

XxX

(Meanwhile – In Parts Unknown)

Kizaru looked around his new surroundings curiously.

"Now where in particular would I be? I know that this place should be familiar… it's supposed to be famous as a paradise of sorts if I were to remember." He snapped his fingers in realization, "Oh yes. I know what to call this particular place!" He tone dropped off significantly as his face remained largely unchanged, "Hell…"

Kizaru had ceased to be a beam of light after who knows how many rotations of the planet. He let go of his light form after five seconds… which was infinitely too long to go without hitting Naruto's body or anything in particular. He found himself in mid-air and turned to light to come down to the ground where he found himself in a place inhabited by pink, rather effeminate looking animals, pink plant life, and…

Them.

"Yoo-hoo!" A rather manly voice called out nearby, coming from one of five transvestites steadily walking towards Kizaru with an interested look in their eyes.

The wrong kind of interested in his humble opinion.

"We don't get many men around here!" One of the other transvestites said before tittering like a woman, "Welcome to Kamabakka Kingdom. We hope you'll keep us company for a while."

Kizaru sighed rather calmly and took off his sunglasses before wiping them off on his suit and placing them back on, "I think I'm going to kill that boy the next time I see him." He felt a sense of foreboding as even more transvestites came out of the woodwork with equally interested looks at him, "Yes, definitely kill him right off next time."

* * *

**Chapter done. And I've got exams to study for so you bastards better appreciate this!**

…**Oh who am I kidding? This was eating at me to get out before I lost the inspiration and couldn't even study effectively until I finished it. I've got them back out to sea, and the way I had him get Kizaru off of his back is fairly original I would say. What say you?**

**Anyway hope you enjoyed… I'm sure that this was my 3****rd**** consecutive longest chapter ever. As always, any questions not riddled with potential spoilers and I will attempt to get to you about that.**

**Kenchi out… I've got to study for university exams. (Yeah right!) **


	15. All Eyes On Me

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Petition the owners of both stories to hand the rights over to yours truly and I will make you all rich. Well, slightly richer, I'll give you all twenty bucks once my benjamins start rolling in.

P.S. 1000 reviews in 3 months! God that's so awesome. That's right up there with the response for The Sealed Kunai, putting this as my 2nd most read story. Sweet.

**Chapter 15: All Eyes on Me**

* * *

Naruto yawned and made his way out on deck as the sun just began peeking over the horizon. He was always the first on the crew to rise, right before Miss Valentine who was right under Naruto when it came to morning energy. He always picked this time of day to get up and send a few of his clones out as far out on the ocean as they could go so he could train in peace before anyone could wake up. They could only practice for so long before they dispelled but he didn't care, he had more or less peaked long ago in his strength, at this point it was more or a concept of maintenance at this point. He also came to check on the guard clones he had posted.

No one on the ship manned the crow's nest during the night because Naruto could simply make clones and keep them in place on night watch while everyone else slept. He trained everyone so hard that making them take watch as well would have been cruel and unproductive to boot. As he made his way to the helm to go ahead and get the day started he saw Vivi off at the opposite side of the ship, leaning on the railing staring out at the sunrise.

Naruto started to walk over to the princess, 'She didn't even go to bed last night…'

"It is pretty beautiful isn't it?" Naruto said as he made his way over to her. The way she jumped in surprise she must have been thinking very hard since he had done absolutely nothing to mask his presence to her, "You might want to not stare at it so intensely though, it might mess up your eyes."

Vivi turned and set her back against the railing, "Oh, good morning Naruto." She greeted him with a smile that didn't reach her eyes, "I didn't know anyone else would be up at this hour, but with your clones going all about the ship I shouldn't be surprised."

"Yeah." Naruto returned with a toothy grin, not letting on that he could tell she wasn't feeling too upbeat today, "They're such good little deckhands aren't they?"

"Fuck you boss!"

One of the clones shouted in response to its creator, ending in Naruto dispelling it with a roll of his eyes getting a small giggle from Vivi. Alright, at least he was able to make her smile a little bit. He looked at all of his clones, "I don't need the rest of you anyway, the sun's up now." With that, Naruto dispelled the clones he had populating the ship, getting an interesting memory that forced him to abruptly leave Vivi and run up the mast to the very top where he looked at a black flag that he knew for a fact he hadn't put up there and hadn't existed before he had gotten off in Alabasta.

On the flag there was a skeleton with Naruto's blonde haircut right down to the hitae-ate on its forehead. It also instead of having a usual Jolly Roger appearance it had a grin much like one that Naruto regularly wore and it's eyeholes squinted much like Naruto's own eyes usually took. Behind the skeleton were two crossing kunai instead of crossing bones. On the mast in the crow's nest he found a message carved

_Don't be a stranger Mr. Uzumaki. I'll see you again soon enough, I'm certain of it. Stay alive until then alright? You are a very strange person, and I'm holding you and Straw Hat Luffy responsible for my ongoing existence so do not forget that at some point you must take responsibility for your actions._

_Nico Robin_

Naruto shook his head confusedly, "Take responsibility? I wasn't aware that keeping people alive made me responsible for them. Oh well, at least she's super good looking." With that, Naruto jumped down and landed next to Vivi as he pointed up, "Apparently we have a Jolly Roger now."

Vivi looked up at it in confusion. She hadn't noticed it and neither had anyone else. With all that had happened the day before no one really had any reason to pay attention to details like that. They were too busy hightailing it away from Alabasta, "Who made it? Your clones?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, Nico Robin." He saw Vivi's eyes turn angry at mention of her, "Oh what? Miss Valentine used to be in Baroque Works too. She still uses the name they gave her."

Vivi shook her head, "That's different. I got to know Miss Valentine in the way to Alubarna and she really isn't a bad person."

Naruto gave an amused smirk, "How do you know Robin-chan isn't a good person either? Everyone has their own reasons for doing stuff, she might not be nearly as bad as people make her out to be, at least that's what I get from her." His smirk dropped and he put a hand on Vivi's shoulder, "It's over. Crocodile was the mastermind and now he's in prison nursing over some serious Luffy caused bruises. If you ever see her again take it up with her then, but until then don't obsess over it. Obsession makes people do terrible things."

Vivi's eyes stopped holding such rage and she looked up at the ship's captain, "How old are you Naruto?"

Naruto sighed, "I'm already doing this with Nami-chan and I'm not letting anyone else get into the little betting pool. If you started guessing you would be guessing for fun."

Vivi blinked, "I… wasn't aware it was a game of sorts. How could it possibly be a game that was any good? You don't look a day over 25 at the oldest." Seriously, Naruto had to be one of the strangest people she had ever met. Just by himself he was right up there with the entire Straw Hat crew when it came to being weird.

Naruto winked at her slyly, "What can I say my princess? I age gracefully. _Very_ gracefully."

"No one ages that gracefully." Vivi replied, somewhat amused by his cavalier tone, "There has to be some indicator on you that's a clear indicator. Like an ID of some kind-."

"Why would I need ID?" Naruto stated, "What could possibly be an advantage of letting people know anything about me other than my name and that I can kick their ass. Written records are for chumps."

Vivi sweatdropped, "Well maybe we should cut you open and count the rings."

Naruto opened his mouth to reply before he stopped, "No one's ever said that one before." He stroked his chin in thought, "Come to think of it I have no idea if that would actually work or not, it sounds legit. Maybe someone should try it?"

Vivi face-faulted on the deck, "What are you a tree? How could you possibly think that might work?" She pulled herself up and marched inside, "I'm going inside and waiting for someone with an IQ to wake up… I'll be waiting forever for Miss Valentine or Nojiko to get up."

Naruto chuckled as she disappeared from sight, 'At least I was able to get her to stop fretting over what happened to her in Alabasta for a little bit.' Naruto was quick to accept Vivi's passage on his ship upon hearing her situation. He figured it was a stroke of luck she ran into Soren before everyone got out of the country, but one that was more than welcome. Of course Naruto had requested that she be forced to barter passage to stay aboard his ship… in the form of her repeating the dance she did when he initially met her.

Nojiko then clocked him across the back of the head with the butt of her pistol and proceeded to show Vivi around the ship, leaving Naruto to bleed all over the deck. Johnny and Yosaku were not pleased to clean that up. And then there was the case of the late night visitor that Naruto's clones had gotten once everyone was asleep.

_(Flashback – Last Night)_

_A good amount of Naruto's clones had been cut down while hard at work keeping everything running while everyone else slept. Feeling his clones die over and over finally alerted Naruto to wake up and head out onto deck to see what the major issue was. As soon as he got out in the open he immediately dropped to the ground as something flew over his head, almost cutting right through him, obviously how his clones died. This guy had gotten the drop on them._

_Naruto stood back up with a stony expression and cracked his knuckles as he awaited another attack, standing perfectly still with his eyes closed. After a moment the shadow descended at him again, coming at high speed, but Naruto opened his eyes to reveal his eyes had once again taken on the colored pigmentation around his eyes and the bar-like pupils before figuring the figure's trajectory and grabbing it by the throat, stopping in its tracks._

_Naruto looked at what was in his hands with a confused look as his features returned to normal, "You're that Pell guy." Naruto dropped the falcon-man to the ground, letting him grab at his neck and gasp for air, "What are you doing here?"_

_Pell got his breath and growled at Naruto in his falcon-human hybrid form. He got up and slashed at Naruto with his talons, forcing the blonde to begin dodging, "You know what you did! You almost destroyed Alubarna and kidnapped our princess! You bastard pirate!"_

_Naruto sighed and got a tick mark on his head as he continued to keep out of Pell's reach all over the deck of the ship, "First of all, people are sleeping. Second of all, I didn't destroy Alubarna, it was that asshole that could turn himself into light. Third of all, I didn't kidnap anyone so you need to get your facts straight. And finally, and most importantly of all, I'M NOT A PIRATE!" Naruto drove this point home by driving his fist right into Pell's body, bringing the man to his knees and turning him back to normal when he stepped on his head to keep him pinned._

_Pell groaned in effort of trying to stand back up, "You lie. King Cobra gave a speech about your actions today. If only I were one-hundred percent-."_

"_If you were one-hundred percent you'd still be laying there with my boot on your head, you'd just be laying there at one-hundred percent." Naruto said coldly, "Now what did you just say?" Pell glared at Naruto until he increased the pressure on Pell's head with his sandal, "Please speak quickly. People that attack me have a bad habit of dying. You're just lucky that we were allies at one point."_

_Pell struggled to get the words out as Naruto continued to push down on his head, "Today the king said that you had begun to run amok throughout the city and had gotten into full combat with the Marines stationed there to help us."_

_Naruto snorted, "Duh. What was I supposed to do? Let them catch me? That was just a diversion so my crew could escape, I didn't cause any major damage until the Admiral that turns into light showed up and fought me. Bastard was fast too."_

"_You're a pirate first and an ally second. What would you have me believe? You, or the words of my king?" Pell said as he felt Naruto lighten up with his boot. He took that opportunity to draw his saber and swing at Naruto, forcing him off. He stood up swiftly and took a swing at Naruto who ejected a kunai from the sleeve of his coat and blocked Pell's sword._

_Seeing as how talking was getting him nowhere, Naruto was about to resort to his old stalwart tactic of getting people to listen to him; beat the crap out of them so badly that they couldn't move away to _not_ listen to him. It was his oldest tried and true tactic._

_Naruto swung his kunai outward, sending Pell's sword arm to the side with his strength. Naruto spun a 360 into Pell's guard and finished with a hard clothesline right to the throat that flattened Pell, sending him to the ground right on his back._

_Naruto dropped a knee, trapping Pell's sword arm underneath and held the kunai to his throat, "Are we done? I can keep this up all night. I've got 4 hours to sunrise and a whole crate of whoop-ass all for you."_

"_Naruto?"_

_Vivi stood at the doorway leading inside of the ship staring at Naruto hovering over the defeated form of-, "Pell you're alive!" She ran over to Naruto and saw the gleam of his kunai in the moonlight, "W-What are you doing?"_

"_Princess Vivi get away until I can defeat this man!" Pell shouted from the ground, "I'll get you back to Alabasta just hold on! Gah!" Naruto rolled his eyes and bounced the back of Pell's head off of the wood._

"_Stop it! Stop fighting!" Vivi shouted._

_Naruto gave her a dry look, "He attacked me on my ship, called me a kidnapper, and pulled a sword on me. If there's one thing I hate it's people questioning my integrity. I'm no liar."_

_Vivi looked at Naruto and nodded, "Just let him up and I'll explain everything okay? Just stop hurting him."_

_Naruto looked down at Pell and back to Vivi before sending his kunai back inside of his sleeve and getting off of Alabasta's elite guard and taking a place leaning against the main mast. Pell stood up and shook out his arm after resheathing his sword and continued to glare at Naruto until Vivi pulled on his arm to get him to stop, "Princess lets go."_

_Vivi shook her head, "Father sent me away from Alabasta for my own safety."_

"_Your own safety?" Pell said in surprise, "But the rebellion is over, Crocodile is gone. What could there be to protect you from?"_

_Naruto chose this moment to chime in, "How about those guys that run the entire world from their armchairs in that Mariejois place? Those temes."_

_Pell looked confused, "The Gorousei?" He looked at Vivi, "What is he talking about?"_

_Vivi looked down, "The World Government is aware of my efforts to stop Crocodile, right down to me joining Baroque Works undercover. In order to keep me from being a political prisoner my father sent me out of the country where I found the Foxhound Pirates and left with them."_

_Naruto grumbled, "And you're saying he said I kidnapped her? Either he has ridiculous foresight, he can see what Vivi is doing from miles away, or he simply used my gigantic diversion to make me a scapegoat to keep Vivi from being hunted down."_

_Vivi's eyes widened, "He what? But that means that you're going to be in way more trouble now than you were before! That's not fair, all you did was run away. You didn't really do anything."_

_Naruto sighed, "It can't be helped now Vivi… It's my word against the king of Alabasta or against the World Government. Besides, I'm kind of used to being a scapegoat. It will be fine, as long as they don't catch me everything will be okay, right?" He pasted a smile on his face, hoping that Vivi didn't see through it._

_She looked at him sadly, "Do you hate my father Naruto?"_

_Naruto shook his head, "Not really. I mean I'm kind of pissed for sure, but chances are that I was going to get into some massive trouble of my own at some point anyway. This just sped up the process." Being the main man in control he had to hold back the urge to scream curses at the top of his lungs and slam his head repeatedly into the mast… he wasn't good enough to fix that if he broke it._

_Vivi walked up to him and gave him a short hug, "Thank you so much for everything. You just keep helping me and helping me and I just-."_

_Naruto patted the girl on the back comfortingly, "It's alright Vivi. You're a friend of ours and you needed our help, it's that simple. Now go get some rest." Naruto let her go and Vivi pulled away rather reluctantly before heading back inside, sparing one last glance to the blonde shinobi and her country's most powerful warrior._

_Naruto sighed to Pell, "Man, I didn't see this coming at all. It looks like I'm fighting the forces that keep this place together again." A faint smile crossed his face,"All I have to do now is just defeat the world. That should be easy enough right?"_

_Pell kept sharp eyes on Naruto, "I'm entrusting the princess to you. I trust her judgment with companions after what she accomplished against Baroque Works, but I'm warning you. If any harm befalls her under your watch there won't be anywhere in the Grand Line you can hide from me. Understood?"_

_Naruto nodded, "Sheesh. Why is it that for every woman that hops aboard my ship I end up getting threatened by the male figure in their life? First Nojiko and Genzo, then Miss Valentine and Mr. 5, and now Vivi and you. It's like an annoying pattern." _

_Pell didn't rise to Naruto's attempt at making a joke, "I'm dead serious. Keep her safe or you will be hearing from me again."_

_Naruto's joking façade dropped, "You don't have to make threats to me. I was going to keep her safe even if you hadn't stormed my ship. She'll be fine with me until she can come home. You can be sure of that. I promise." _

_Seemingly satisfied with Naruto's answer, Pell turned into his falcon form and took to the skies back towards Alabasta._

(End Flashback)

Having the entire world at your throat was an experience that Naruto wasn't looking forward to experiencing. He needed to get himself back into war shape. Thinking on this, he made a batch of Kage Bunshin and watched as they all scattered out across the surface of the ocean before vanishing from sight. He watched them all before a lithe figure draped over his back and lightly wrapped their arms around his neck, "Good morning Naruto!" The person cheerfully chirped before laughing slightly, dressed in her usual attire she had on before coming to Alabasta.

Naruto smiled at the greeting, "Hello Miss Valentine. You seem to be more chipper than usual today, what's up?"

The blonde woman simply laughed again and shrugged it off, "Well now that Crocodile's been dealt with and I can do whatever I want now I feel way better than I did when we started working together. Thank you for leaving me alive by the way."

"You're welcome Valentine." Naruto said, "But unless I'm given a really, really good reason I don't kill women. Seeing as how you seem to trust me can you give me your real name now? Baroque Works is obliterated, there's no reason to keep it."

Miss Valentine shook her head happily, "Nope, I'm going to keep making you all call me Miss Valentine. My code name was the only thing about Baroque Works that I actually liked."

"Well now." Naruto replied with vested interest, "I sense a challenge there somewhere! Alright, now I'm definitely going to figure out your name by the time our adventures end, that's a guarantee, dattebayo!" He frowned to himself, "Damn it, why is that surfacing again?"

"Kyahahaha! And why would you want to do something like that huh?" Miss Valentine asked as she steadily started increasing her weight with her devil fruit power, "It doesn't seem like anything particularly interesting."

Naruto grinned at her as he had yet to even buckle as she slowly grew heavier, "Because out of everyone here I know the least about you, and maybe Vivi, but she's just here until she can go home, on the other hand you're actually crew. If I can figure out what your name is then that means that we're extremely close for me to know that about you, which is what I want."

Miss Valentine's bright green eyes blinked at Naruto, mirthful blue ones, her objective of teasing him by making him crumple under her weight lost, "Why would you want to get close enough to know my real name anyway?"

"Because when I fight for someone I like being friends with them." Naruto replied, "It helps me fight harder to help you guys out." He simply looked back over his shoulder at her confused expression, "You know this power of yours can do a whole lot more than just let you float and stuff."

Miss Valentine lowered her weight and let go of Naruto, "What do you mean?"

Naruto smiled at her, "The power you have of changing your weight whenever you want, there's a lot of potential there for attacks and defense. Can you control what you change in weight, like just one limb instead of your whole body?"

A look of understanding came over her face before she shook her head, "I don't know. I've never tried it. You mean like making one arm weigh as much as I can and while leaving the rest normal?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah, or making one limb lighter so you can move it faster and then making it heavy just in time to smash into someone. You could tear right through things if you fought like that."

"I…" Miss Valentine started unsurely, "I've never tried before. I'm not much for direct fighting Naruto." She rubbed her shoulder uncomfortably, "Wait, are you telling me to train?"

Naruto smirked at her, "Well if you want to make sure that guys like Crocodile can't tell you what to do ever again then I would. Your power could be scary strong if what we just talked about could actually work. Or were you just planning to sit back and look pretty the next time we end up in a fight?"

Miss Valentine's smile returned as she batted her eyes sweetly at her captain, "Are you saying you think I'm beautiful Naruto? How forward of you."

Naruto rolled his eyes, "I don't think you're beautiful, you're absolutely gorgeous, especially from what I saw with you in that belly dancer outfit in Alabasta… do you girls still have those clothes?" Miss Valentine nodded getting an evil laugh out of Naruto as he headed inside the ship, "Oh Vivi! I think I'm ready to collect on your trade for passage now!"

"What was that Naruto-kun?" A voice called out in a sickeningly sweet voice from the common room when he made it inside, "I wake up and before I can even say hello to you I find you perving on Vivi already. We haven't even had breakfast yet!"

"No! Noji-chan I didn't mean it like that!" He pleaded, "I'd be more than happy to have you dance for me too! You're just as sexy as Vivi is!"

"…"

"…"

"…Seriously? Did you really just say that out loud?" Nojiko's voice asked Naruto in disbelief, "Are you sure you just act dumb?"

Naruto let out a sigh, "Blame my master… He always did say he'd get me too, I just never figured it would be from beyond the grave. 'The pull of perversion would get too strong the older I got,' he always said."

"Well luckily I'm here to keep your deviancy in check, now hold still…" Nojiko said sweetly.

CRACK!

"Fuck!" Naruto shouted, "That seriously hurt! Why the fuck does that hurt so much? Nothing else hurts like that!"

"I really don't like doing that to you Naruto-kun." The inflection of her voice kind of hinted towards the contrary, "But someone has to teach you how to treat ladies."

"*sniff* It's okay I guess." He said, "…Could you kiss it and make it all better?"

"Nope!" Nojiko responded cheerfully, "If I did then you wouldn't learn anything."

Naruto's voice sounded pouty, "Damn… Hey Miss Valentine, can you kiss it and make it better?" A low amount of killing intent could be felt from inside, "Hey, you said I needed to learn, well I _learned_ that if you won't do it there might be another girl on the ship that will… there are three after all." Nojiko's killing intent magnified, but didn't seem to deter Naruto, "Hmm, I think I could apply that towards more than just kissing a bump and a bruise here or there."

*click*… BANG!

"Stop doing that log-switchy thing when I shoot at you! Take the bullet like a man!" The sound of Nojiko reloading her pistol could be heard.

"All I give you is love and all I get back are bullets! What kind of relationship is that?" Naruto howled indignantly.

Miss Valentine laughed to herself all the while Nojiko was chasing Naruto throughout the ship, disturbing the peace of the morning as she herself went on inside to start breakfast for the rest of the crew. These people were really growing on her, she hadn't had so much fun in her entire life.

XxX

Now that they were back out on the sea it was business as usual for the crew. Naruto was manning the helm and keeping watch for anything out of the ordinary that he was either going to avoid or jump right into out of interest. Nojiko was inside making sure they at least knew which general direction the ship was headed in, she wasn't as good at navigating as Nami was, but at the very least she was steadily improving, you kind of had to when going the wrong way meant death. Soren was in his usual place up in the crow's nest keeping a watchful eye… closed, because he wasn't watching a damn thing, he was sleeping. Vivi had no clue of what she was to do on this ship, it was just like when she was on the Going Merry only there wasn't much she could say. There was no major enemy on the horizon or anything like that, she was just there.

Miss Valentine had found something to do to go right along with the group dynamic of doing absolutely nothing. In an effort to help Johnny improve on his speed he was forced (by Naruto of course) to carry her, running at top speed, all around the ship piggyback. Not too difficult, until she started using the Kilo Kilo no Mi to increase her weight. Cruel? Yes. Effective? Yes. Hilarious for Naruto to hear Miss Valentine shouting encouragement as she added on extra weight to increase the intensity of the workout? Yes.

Meanwhile Yosaku had found his own workout instead of waiting for his captain to dole one out to him. Yosaku stood on deck, sweating buckets as he swung a massive stone hammer about the deck in his usual sword forms. His form was very slow, but that was the point of the exercise, to give his attacks more power and to see if he couldn't increase his speed.

Naruto watched from up above where the helm was, simply watching him work, "Yosaku how heavy is that?"

"No… idea…" He grunted out as he continued working out.

"No idea?" Naruto sweatdropped, "How the hell did you even get it?"

Yosaku kept swinging his hammer about through his sword forms, painstakingly keeping his posture and working, "I had some artisan in Alubarna carve it for me while we were resting there." He set the massive hammer over his shoulder like he usually did when he rested his nodachi there, "*pant pant* He carved it from some massive block. I think it's got to be around a thousand pounds."

Naruto's eyebrows raised up past his hitae-ate, "A thousand pounds?" Naruto was sufficiently impressed until he thought of something and made a half-tiger seal, "Hey, wait a minute, I never put your weights back on! Fuuin!"

Yosaku blanched before face-faulting on the deck, hammer slamming down on top of him, "Damn you Naruto-aniki…"

Naruto nodded in satisfaction, "And there you go, it's changed… it's a changeling." He heard Yosaku mumbling curses to Naruto from beneath the training hammer, "You're lucky I didn't turn the weight up, now get up and learn to walk with that hammer again."

Yosaku squirmed from beneath his hammer and started dragging it around the deck, "Hey! Don't scuff the wood! Do _you_ know how to fix a ship?"

"No!" Yosaku snapped right back.

"Then pick that massive son-of-a-bitch up and carry it or don't use it at all!" Naruto finished firmly, "We need to make this thing last! It's my baby…"

Yosaku heaved it over his shoulder to get used to holding the weight for as long as he could, "What are you going to call it Naruto-aniki?"

"Call it?" Naruto asked, "What do you mean what am I going to call it? It's a ship, I'll call it a ship."

"I am infected by your stupidity Uzumaki." Soren called out lazily from the crow's nest. Getting sick of having the sun beat down on his head from up there he took to wrapping a red bandanna around his head to keep the harsh rays off. He looked down at the captain, "Every halfway decent ship has a name. Even the Straw Hats named their ship the Going Merry and this tub is twice the ship theirs is."

Naruto thought to himself, "You're right. My ship stomps theirs into the ground just off of sheer color palate alone." That got a round of sweatdrops from everyone in sight. Naruto made a Kage Bunshin and sent it in to go get Nojiko who emerged a moment later, "I think you might want to be here for this."

Miss Valentine hopped off of Johnny's back, letting the poor swordsman collapse in a heap on the ground in exhaustion, "Yep, Naruto's going to name the ship!"

Nojiko looked up at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "You haven't named this thing in 2 months and you're just going to do it now?"

Naruto looked away sheepishly, "Well I still don't really have a name for it. I was kind of hoping one of you guys did."

All around the ship every single person's face lit up at hearing that. From his spot in the crow's nest Soren gleefully shouted down his answer, "How about 'The Abomination?' Because this piece of shit looks like it got violated by the paint section of a hardware store!"

Yosaku ran up to the stairs leading to the helm where Naruto was, "How about 'Bad-Ass Mother?'"

Johnny quickly recovered and ran right next to his partner, "No, no! 'Bad-Ass Mother 3000!' Twice as fast as your ass, yeah!"

Miss Valentine floated over both of them and landed on top of them, squashing them with her fruit's power, "How about 'The Interceptor?'"

Naruto thought on it for a moment, "Nah, won't work."

Johnny and Yosaku nodded in agreement from underneath Miss Valentine, "Yeah, that name just doesn't scream 'awesome' the way we're trying to get across. You've got to have something better than that." Miss Valentine then increased her weight, slowly squashing both men underneath her.

Nojiko walked past them up towards Naruto and leaned on his shoulder, her face scrunched in thought at the question of the day. Naruto wrapped an arm around her shoulder, "You got something Noji-chan?"

Nojiko turned towards Naruto and looked up at him, a grin slowly spreading across her face, "What about 'The Natural Disaster?'"

Naruto looked at her curiously which just made her amusement larger, "Why that name?"

Johnny and Yosaku moved Miss Valentine off of them and ran upstairs to Naruto and Nojiko, "Yeah why that name? Why not our name?"

Nojiko bopped both of them on the head to get some space, "Because that name doesn't tell people anything about us. On the other hand we have a captain that can literally cause natural disasters or have you not been paying attention to the obscene amount of stuff he destroys on a regular basis?"

Naruto dropped his shoulders, "I don't mean to cause all that havoc regularly. People just attack or provoke me and then the bad stuff happens. Naruto's a good boy."

Nojiko rubbed the whisker-marks on Naruto's cheeks, "Yes I know Naruto-kun is a good boy, but it doesn't change the fact that you destroy 85% of the things you touch. So frankly whenever this ship pulls into your port you can more or less bank on something getting obliterated before we leave."

"Now that's a little extreme." Naruto replied, however he was still putty in Nojiko's hands from her delicate touch, "I'm not that bad."

"Oh?" Nojiko asked, "Well what about how you met Nami in the first place in Orange Town? She told me the story."

Naruto was still defiant, "That shouldn't even count. I didn't even do 95% of that, it was all Luffy."

Nojiko wasn't deterred, "Well then what about the little town where you met Usopp?"

"I was getting annoyed by the cat guys. They were all super-weak." Naruto still had up his defense, "I didn't even do any property damage there!"

Nojiko's grin returned full force, "Well how about the prime exhibits? What you did all over Commi Island to the Arlong Pirates? And then what you did in Loguetown? And then on Starter Island-?"

"Arlong pissed me off, Smoker was an asshole, and on Starter Island Soren did like half of that too! Grill him!" Naruto nearly shouted.

Soren along with the rest of the crew watched in amusement as Nojiko ripped Naruto's excuses asunder, "Hey, this isn't about me Uzumaki. This is _your_ intervention. You have a problem with mass amounts of destruction that you need to address. Let your friends help you."

Naruto flipped Soren off while Nojiko continued listing things off, "-And then you did all of that damage at Whiskey Peak; how I didn't wake up I'll never know. And then you killed all of those snow rabbits on Drum Island-."

"Hold on a minute, I damn sure didn't do that!" He pointed at Johnny and Yosaku, "Those two did that shit. Animals love me, I would never do that!"

Yosaku raised his hand weakly, "Well you did kind of train us Naruto-aniki. That makes you responsible for the things we do." Johnny nodded in agreement. Naruto glared at both men and made a half-tiger seal before they both dropped hard on the deck on their faces.

Nojiko's face exuded victory, "And even if all of that other crap never happened then what did you do once we got to Alabasta? You did more damage there than the entire rebellion!"

Vivi gave Naruto a deadpan look, "Oh yeah, I forgot all about that. You did didn't you?"

"Bullshit!" Naruto let out raucously, "How did I do more damage than an entire rebellion?"

Nojiko placed her hands on her hips, "I remember seeing a huge tornado in Nanohana when we first got there, and then we heard people talking about how it ripped the town up once we got to Rainbase. Speaking of Rainbase you nearly bankrupted the casino, which would have destroyed the city's economy if Crocodile wasn't already subtly doing that. And then you messed up Alubarna in the fight with the Admiral and the Marines. Face it Naruto-kun, you're a walking, talking weapon of mass destruction."

"Fine…" Naruto conceded the point to Nojiko, "You win. The ship is now the Natural Disaster."

"Yatta!" Nojiko exclaimed in victory as she latched a hug on a dejected Naruto, "What's the matter Naruto-kun?"

Naruto sighed, "For the majority of my life I've been trying to get peace to settle over my home once and for all and it was close to actually being pulled off when I left. Now I leave and I discover that my entire existence is a cause of perpetual combat elsewhere. I don't even know what to say about that."

Everyone was silent until Miss Valentine spoke up, "Naruto you seriously have to tell us about the stuff you used to do before you met us at some point."

Nojiko tugged on his arm with a smile, "Well then all you have to do is get the rest of the world to do it too right? If you did it once already then why not in other places?"

Naruto gave her a smile in return, 'Yeah, because the first time all it took to pull it off was a war between every nation I knew of and one man with an endless army… and even then it still took more than 150 years to get peace to even _start_ to settle, with a figure of intimidation and power like me getting things moving in that direction.' He thought sarcastically, 'But Ero-sennin said peace to the world, not the Elemental Nations… I bet he didn't know how big the world really was when he said that.'

Naruto gave Nojiko a kiss on her lips and held her close to him with one arm, "One step at a time Noji-chan. I still don't even know how your world even works. The people I grew up around are pretty much totally different than anyone I've met so far. And the company for the most part is better too."

"You _are_ going to tell us about yourself at some point right?" Nojiko asked hopefully, "Out of all of us we know the least about you, and you're the captain. You need us to trust you."

"You guys don't trust me?" Naruto asked everyone around the ship.

Johnny shook his head, "Me and Yosaku do Naruto-aniki, but Nojiko-aneue is right. We don't know the first thing about you other than that you're the strongest guy we know."

Miss Valentine shrugged, "It's alright with me. We've all got secrets, it's just that some people are better than others at keeping them. Ask the princess who ended up blowing her cover." She finished with a laugh.

Vivi pouted at Miss Valentine's crack at how she was discovered in Baroque Works before speaking, "I don't know any pirate that has a squeaky clean past, but I do know that you're a good person Naruto."

Sounding off next, Soren jumped down from the crow's nest, "I don't care. Who am I to care about what you did way back when after you know what I do. You're still a more decent guy than 90% of the people I've ever met so I could care less what I know about you."

Naruto looked at everyone on the ship and smiled faintly, "You guys all believe in me, so don't worry. I'll tell you about me soon, I just hope what I say doesn't change anything."

XxX

(Four Days Later)

"What the fuck is this?" Nojiko shouted from her room which had been designated as her workstation; walls with maps, ocean currents, and general information on some of the places they might end up. In a matter of moments the doorway was filled by Naruto and Johnny, who had a mop in hand, "Naruto-kun get over here and look at this!"

Naruto did as asked and saw that Nojiko was sitting on her bed reading a newspaper. Where she got a current issue of the paper he didn't know and he wasn't sure he really cared to find out, "What's up Noji-chan?"

Nojiko lifted the paper and tapped her finger on Naruto's picture, "Check your new bounty out."

Naruto's eyes rested on the number and he nodded to himself before walking to the door and yelling, "Soren, get over here and check this out!" Johnny walked over and started reading over Nojiko's shoulder before his eyes bulged out from behind his sunglasses.

Soren walked into the room holding a barrel over his shoulder, "What do you want Uzumaki? I was just about to pop this thing open and here you come yelling for something."

Naruto grabbed the paper from Nojiko and shoved it into Soren's face, "Suck it! My bounty's higher than yours after three months at sea! How do you like that?"

Soren dropped his barrel and pulled the paper out of his hands and paced about, staring at it intently, "You got 245 million? What the fuck? How are you a bigger threat than me? I've done way more illegal stuff than you."

Nojiko's eye twitched while Johnny snatched the paper from Soren and started reading through it himself, "You're actually proud of being a wanted criminal with a massive bounty?"

Naruto and Soren both looked at each other before turning back to Nojiko. Naruto spoke first, "Well if you're going to be a wanted man anyway you might as well shoot for the top right? I mean who wants to be number two… like Soren?"

"Fuck you Uzumaki."

"See?" Naruto motioned towards Soren, "The number two guy is always bitter and angry. Not like number one who's always cool as a cucumber and has a hot girlfriend… and another hot girlfriend elsewhere on the seas. Speaking of which can I spend the night with you again Noji-chan?"

"Focus Naruto-kun!" Nojiko yelled with a blush on her face, "This bounty is massive! Why the hell is it so high?"

"Because I'm awesome?" Naruto said questioningly.

Soren shook his head, "That's half of the reason. You got the best of an Admiral and allegedly kidnapped royalty. While I'm pissed about it I'm surprised it's not higher after thinking it over. I guess that means they really were going to screw Vivi over once they got a hold of her."

Everyone in the room stood or sat in contemplative silence before Naruto snatched the paper back gleefully, "Well that's enough with the tension, I'm going to go gloat to everyone else about how badass I am!" Naruto exited the room, "Yo! Guess who's better than all the rest of you combined!" His voice echoed throughout the ship.

Soren patted Nojiko on the shoulder before leaving the room, "I have no idea why you chose him, but good luck with that. The sex must be killer." He disappeared from sight before Nojiko could reach for a gun.

XxX

Being that he was the captain, Naruto had the most massive room in the entire ship, right under the helm and right next to the common room, however there wasn't really much to take note of. There was a large window that allowed Naruto to look out the front of the ship, a desk across the room that had nothing on it except Naruto's stockpiles of tools. Kunai, explosive notes, shuriken, a 10-pound spool on ninja wire, normal stuff. Naruto had to keep good stock of his things as when he ran out that would be it. He wouldn't have anymore. He had yet to find a blacksmith that sold any tools and it was difficult to stay in any place long enough to get anyone to forge any for him fast enough.

Naruto himself was seated on his bed at nightfall, looking over the 16 three-pronged kunai on a tarp with a frown. He had no way of getting any more made at the moment. He didn't know how to mold the metal to make weapons, all he knew how to do was prepare the markers for the kunai. Returning to a hidden village and having them make more for him was an impossibility. Two of the things that eventually lead to a peaceful understanding between all of the nations was that he was a neutral party in all affairs, and secondly the prepared kunai for the technique that required them were outlawed across the entire landscape so even if he was able to get into a hidden village he still couldn't get a blacksmith willing to touch anything even resembling his space-time kunai.

Naruto was expressly forbidden from having any allegiance to any ninja village, hence he was more or less a tolerated nuke-nin. He was a hero, but he was a wanderer, living like a hermit much like his sensei Jiraiya except with absolutely no allegiance. A small price to pay for the harmony of hundreds of thousands of ninja he would say. It wasn't like there was any reason for him to continue fighting anymore.

No longer affiliated with any ninja villages that could allow him easy rest and without skilled smithies that could create the kunai necessary for the move, Naruto had to use Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu) sparingly. He could only use it when he knew he was going to be able to retrieve the kunai.

His original plan of exploring the world outside of the Elemental Nations was simple, i.e. stupid. He was going to try to tag the places that he found so that there was always somewhere to return to, however he severely underestimated how many islands there were in the world and he eventually had to Hiraishin back to the places he had tagged to retrieve the kunai he had left lest he run out before he found some way to restock. It didn't matter now, with his ship he could go anywhere anyway it would just take longer. Thinking about tagging places he slapped his own face in stupidity; he forgot to give one to the Straw Hats to use, now he had to wait until he found them again before he could even start using it when he wanted.

It still pissed him off that he couldn't freely use Hiraishin though. I mean, he trains and trains to get it just right, killing plenty of boulders, poor trees, and body cells in the process. He reverse engineers the entire jutsu from scratch all on his own. He does all of that and he can't even use it whenever he wants to. Do they know how long it took him to do all of that? A fucking long time! People were born, lived full lives, had children, watched said children grow up, died… and then had their children die for the process to repeat all over again… and he _still _hadn't learned the damn jutsu yet! Hell he still wasn't as good as his dad was at using the jutsu, he needed the pre-tagged kunai and couldn't tag a person or object on the fly or in general, just the kunai.

Naruto was roused from his thoughts from a gentle knock at his door. He rolled up the cover holding the Hiraishin kunai and placed it under his bed before walking over and opening the door to reveal Nojiko in a white robe, unable to meet his eyes, "Can I come in Naruto-kun?"

Naruto grinned at her and ushered her inside before shutting the door behind her, "You never have to ask to come see me Noji-chan, you should know that."

Nojiko walked in with her hands behind her back, feigning interest in the appearance of Naruto's room, "So whatcha' doing? Anything important?"

Naruto chuckled at how Nojiko was trying to play off why she was here. Why else would she show up to his room in a robe? He shook his head, "No not really. I don't do anything important unless it's getting all of us into some kind of trouble." Naruto sat down on the edge of his bed.

Nojiko gave him a smile and moved behind him on the bed, "You're good for way more than causing trouble Naruto-kun, though that does seem to be what you're best at." She sat on her knees behind him and draped herself over his shoulders pressing her bosom into his back. Setting her chin on his shoulder she gave him a peck on the cheek.

Naruto reached up and rubbed Nojiko's cheek gently, "You know you love it." He felt Nojiko's hands roaming his chest with need, "So what, can I ask, have you come to see me for Nojiko?"

"Don't make me say it Naruto-kun." Nojiko whispered in his ear as she felt him loosen the belt of her robe, "Apparently you already know anyway." She reached lower and pulled his shirt off over his head before returning to running her hands all over his muscles. She let out a soft moan when she felt Naruto's hand slip inside of her robe and begin rubbing her breast.

"That was very brave of you… to walk around the ship, even at this hour wearing nothing under this robe." Naruto felt Nojiko wrap her legs around his back, "What if somebody caught you?"

Lemon Start

"Well they didn't." She replied happily before switching to a more sultry tone, "And they won't because I don't plan on leaving until tomorrow morning love." Nojiko shrugged the rest of her robe off, leaving her bare form draped around Naruto's torso.

The hands of Nojiko lowered and unbuttoned Naruto's pants while she started kissing the back of his neck. Naruto finished what she intended and took off his pants and boxers leaving him in the buff just like Nojiko. Her delicate hand found his tool and began stroking him to length, "You aren't messing around are you beautiful?"

Nojiko giggled and kept kissing his neck and working his cock, silently taking into account its size, "Well I know what I want and I'm tired of waiting for it, so go ahead and give it to me." Naruto turned over and stayed on top of her where he softly kissed the tattoo going from her shoulder across her ample chest where he stopped and descended to her dark colored nipples, rolling them gently between his fingers as he watched Nojiko shift beneath him from the sensations she was feeling.

Naruto had enough and began suckling gently on her areola, using his tongue to tease her as he routinely switched sides to Nojiko's delight. She bit her lip tightly and held Naruto's head against her chest as she coaxed him to continue his actions by gently scratching his scalp. Hearing his lover coaxingly coo encouragement to him was like music to Naruto's ears as he let his hands travel south and brush against Nojiko's sheath. Feeling her shiver from his previous action he used two digits to enter and stimulate her most precious place.

'Why is he so good at this?' Nojiko's body was moving in time with each entry and exit of Naruto's fingers as she let out a whimper, "Naruto-kun…" The girl let out a cry of passion as she felt Naruto's thumb brush against her clit and wall of restraint came crashing down. Naruto's mouth and now soaked hand removed itself from Nojiko following her orgasm, prompting the young woman to sit up and look at him inquisitively only to find him sucking his own fingers clean, bringing a bright blush to her face from such a bold action.

He saw her face and chuckled, "What can I say? You taste pretty good." Naruto then leaned down and kissed Nojiko on the lips, tasting the girl's woman's lip gloss and her tongue as she gained entry with it into his mouth. Still not sated yet, Nojiko steadily rubbed her womanhood against Naruto's dick to get herself off. Naruto broke the kiss with her and looked at her as she gazed back up at him lovingly, "Why do you want me Nojiko?"

"Because." She replied slightly out of breath from the kiss, "You're an amazing person. You treated me like someone would treat a girlfriend even before we kissed, and you've done so much for me. You have no idea Naruto-kun, you just don't." She shifted beneath him to adjust his tip right at her entrance, "So… is it because you don't want to? Is that why you asked me that?"

Naruto frowned when he saw the look of dejection in the blue-haired girl's eyes, "That's not it at all. I'm just thinking too hard for no reason. I wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now."

Nojiko smirked at him, "Thinking was never your strong suit." She nipped at his nose playfully, "You said before you're more of a man of action, well there's only one action I want from you right now."

"How can I possibly argue with that Noji-chan? Do you need me to take it easy on you?" He asked half-jokingly.

Nojiko lightly slapped him on the shoulder, "No there's no need, I lost it in an accident years ago. Go ahead."

Naruto nodded and finally entered Nojiko's core with his natural sword, hearing her moan softly as he buried himself inside of her fully to get her used to the length before the fun really started. After a moment of getting used to the full feeling, Nojiko kissed Naruto on the lips, "You can go anytime now Naruto-kun."

Unable to keep himself from doing so any longer, Naruto began working his hips, providing the momentum needed to start making Nojiko cry out in ecstasy. Nojiko was incredibly tight, something he had expected when doing this had crossed his mind in the past, but didn't make it any less mind-blowing to have wrapped around him.

Feeling the blonde shinobi's eyes solely on her, hand's caressing her hips as they held her in place to let him fuck her made Nojiko feel like the most important woman in the world. Even the erotic motion of her breasts jiggling back and forth by the repeated motion couldn't keep Naruto's eyes away from hers, when she could tolerate the sparks of pleasure to keep them open to look at him in return of course.

"Come on Naruto-kun,*pant pant* give me some more." She breathed out heavily, "Show me how much you love me." She instructed him, hand reaching up to lightly scratch his whisker marks, something she had discovered drove him crazy no matter how well he could hide it, and the act of love making with Nojiko left him unable to fight the physical reaction to such an added feeling.

Growling lightly to himself, Naruto grabbed one of Nojiko's legs and placed it over his shoulder, putting her on her side and allowing him to hit her from a completely different angle that made her cry out in delight once his manhood started plunging in and out of her wet, hot center. Hearing Nojiko scream, Naruto increased his tempo and began kissing on Nojiko's calf, also running his hands up and down her well-toned legs. Living with him on this ship definitely kept the lovely girl in fantastic shape, he had to admit as her toned stomach moved rapidly in succession with her breathy noises.

Nojiko felt like he would split her in half from this position and she loved every bit of it. Her heart and body instructed her to sing out her satisfaction for his forceful ministrations, lifting her delicately forceful voice to shout his name, hoping that Marine ships had very thick walls lest she wind up waking everyone else aboard. She didn't really care in the end, as long as Naruto fucked her like this whenever they hooked up they could know whatever they wanted as far as she was concerned, "Don't stop Naruto-kun, I'm so close!"

"Well let me help you finish then Noji-chan…" Naruto set her back on her back and lifted her other leg over his shoulder to begin plunging even deeper inside of her from a different spot. He leaned his head down and proceeded to cover Nojiko's lips with forceful kisses that she returned right back, groaning and crying out into his mouth while their tongues dances and their lower halves met.

Nojiko wrapped her arms around Naruto's neck, holding him close to her as she cried out into his ear her passionate sounds of appreciation for his special attention even as she could hear him lightly groan in the crook of her head and neck while she switched to gently and not so gently biting his earlobe to tease him.

Nojiko felt her limit approach rapidly to bring their experience to an end far too rapidly for her own tastes, disregarding how much actual time they had just spent enjoying one another's body. Her toes curled and her body shivered as Nojiko left scratches on Naruto's back signifying she had reached her finish with a wail of finality. Naruto himself, feeling Nojiko clamp down on him and pulse around his member followed shortly after his partner had, shooting his load inside of his willing lover, hearing her let out a soft, sexy moan as she felt the white jets saturate her inner walls.

Naruto pumped the rest of his load into her, rubbing her thighs and squeezing her pert buttocks, he needed to try that out next time they did this, while trying to not lay down on top of her and keep his weight off of her. Nojiko felt his body pull off of her and sit back onto his knees, keeping her legs up on his shoulder, allowing her to get some much needed breaths while he finished thrusting his seed into her, Naruto could shoot a lot she figured.

Naruto finished firing into her and looked down at his beautiful girlfriend seeing her basically glowing after their raucous session. He pulled out of her, much to her vocal displeasure, not that he could argue as he had missed her soft, wet, snatch as soon as he freed his cock from inside of her and lay down next to her, pulling her close and getting himself underneath his sheets, "Why aren't you getting under with me Noji-chan.

She glared weakly at him, "I c-can't move stupid." Naruto smiled at her and lifted the lower end of her body depositing her underneath his sheets with him to allow her loving warmth to wash over him while he held her against him. Nojiko's head rested on his chest and her legs draped over and around his while she could feel their combined fluids slowly flowing out of her with a small sense of satisfaction, "We're going to be doing this again, a lot." She stated decisively.

"Try to keep me away." He responded, feeling her nuzzle his chest comfortingly, "When I came I was still-."

Nojiko cut him off, "It's okay. While you were doing nothing in Alabasta I was doing some shopping, in a little pharmacy in particular and they had something quite helpful in that department, so you're good. Not that I would have minded."

"So you say now." Naruto quipped feeling Nojiko bite him on his chest in reply, "Sleep well Noji-chan."

A small grin came on to her face as she shut her eyes and yawned before responding, "Oh I will Naruto-kun. Trust me I will." Finally letting exhaustion claim her at last.

End Lemon

XxX

(Marineford)

Sitting in his large ornate office a tall middle aged man with glasses, a long braided beard, and a cap on his head adorned by a life-sized seagull was speaking on a Den Den Mushi with a look of annoyance on his face, "You were where? …Wow, I don't know what to even say about that… What do you mean you'll be able to get back in two weeks? You need to get back to Marineford and see to your duties as Admiral immediately!"

He listened for a moment before palming his face, "I'm sending out a ship to come and retrieve you and then you are to return straight here. I need you to tell me everything you can about this Uzumaki. Someone that can do that to you is too dangerous to be left alone. Be ready soon Kizaru." With that he hung up and redialed, "I need you to get me Dr. Vegapunk."

He waited for a moment, "Yes tell him Fleet Admiral Sengoku has requested that he prepare his new creation for a test run of sorts. If he can spare more than one then tell him that would be just fine." He stood silent for a reply, "Have him program the name Uzumaki Naruto as their primary target objective."

* * *

**And that's that folks. I'm out for Winter Break and my dad tore his quad last month… and picking with him is absolutely hilarious. Him being the former soldier that made sure my ass was whipped into shape as a child and the man that physically dominated me in every single sport or test of physical ability since I could start running in a straight line until I finally choked him nigh unconscious last November to free myself of the stigma, and me being the young, testosterone filled youth with a chip on his shoulder and a decade long grievance has not let the opportunity of his handicapabilty slip away. I have been mercilessly teasing the man and picking with him and while it's fun I need to remember to stay out of range of his crutches… because those things have reach and they hurt like a bitch… and everyone else in the house thinks me getting smashed with one is free entertainment.**

**Alright, Kenchi out. I need to get to shoveling snow. I hate winter so much now. It's meaningless to me.**


	16. The Dark Edge of the Line

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Another year about to end, another year of being a talentless nobody about to begin. I seriously need to get some higher profile fights this summer once classes end so I can get sponsored or get my name out there or I'm going to start white-collar crimes… but we all know I'm not smart enough for that. I'm writing this shit for free aren't I?

**Chapter 16: The Dark Edge of the Line**

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Naruto looked out at sea from the helm as Nojiko leaned on a nearby railing to ensure he was taking them the right way. Johnny was running about the deck with a full bucket so that Yosaku could clean the surface. Soren as usual was up in the crow's nest. Miss Valentine was experimenting with her powers, but in moderation since the first time she abruptly changed herself to full weight she almost sank the ship.

All of this atmosphere changed when Vivi marched out onto the deck and looked up to the helm where Naruto was with a determined look on her face, "Naruto I want you to train me."

"No you don't." Was the unanimous response from everyone on the ship.

Vivi blinked at hearing everyone doubt her, in stereo to boot, "What? Why wouldn't I? I know what I want, and I want to be strong enough to be useful and not a burden to anyone. I don't want to have to enlist strong people to solve my problems like with Crocodile. I want to be able to do it myself."

Nojiko nodded, "I completely understand that. That being said we'll reiterate; you really don't want Naruto-kun to train you. Seriously. It's a bad idea. Just forget about it altogether." She waved Vivi off before returning her attention to trying to assist Naruto in navigating, "We need to make port soon."

Vivi puffed her cheeks out at being brushed off like that, "I'm serious you guys! You're all way stronger than me and I want to be able to fight without you guys having to watch out for me."

Miss Valentine floated across Vivi's back with a laugh, "We understand that honey, but having Naruto train you would be the equivalent of having a lion raise a kitten; it seems like an interesting and somewhat appropriate thing to do, but eventually that little kitten is going to get hurt, badly."

Vivi placed her hands on her hips and shook the feather-light blonde woman off of her, "So you don't think I'm tough enough to take it, is that it?"

Johnny carried a bucket past Vivi on his way inside, "It's not a matter of being tough Vivi."

Naruto chuckled, "Listen to them Vivi. They've all either seen it or experienced it firsthand. And you _are_ going to get hurt Vivi, it's not even a matter of being skilled or tough. It's just how bad am I going to hurt you that's the real question."

Vivi looked at Yosaku furiously scrubbing the deck and at Nojiko who was lazily looking at the Log Pose on her wrist, "They don't look too beat up to me."

Naruto smirked, "That's because Johnny and Yosaku have super-freaky healing skills and I don't do anything to Nojiko that leaves marks. Noji-chan!" Naruto yelled out to the blue-haired girl, "What new exercise do I have you doing along with the other stuff now?"

Nojiko looked up at him with a perturbed look on her face, "You're making me shoot down those stupid shuriken of yours right out of the air coming at me full speed."

Naruto wagged his finger at her, "Don't give me that look. You're just lucky I don't have enough stockpiled to do the surprise version of that training. Man I need to find someone that sells or makes shuriken and other tools like that. I can't keep on rationing them."

Soren poked his head out of the crow's nest, "We need to get to port long enough for a blacksmith to hammer you out a decent set. But your weapons aren't common so who knows how long that'll take." He was aware of the things that Naruto used regularly, but the only thing he could even see as being remotely common would have to have been the metal ninja wire. Other than that he didn't know anyone that made stuff like that.

Naruto frowned visibly, "Well most blacksmiths I know don't know how to make them correctly. They either doubt how useful my weapons are or they think my weapons are good, they just can't seem to get them to come out right. It's annoying."

Vivi stomped her foot on the deck as they seemingly forgot about her and switched subjects, "Hey, what about training me? I can do anything that the others can do, I'm sure of it. They don't have powers either."

Naruto gave her a deadpan look before pointing at Johnny and Yosaku who had just completed their work, "Those two asked me for training before they really knew what they were getting themselves into and I didn't let them back out of it once we started." He then pointed to Nojiko, "I made her train because I'm a dangerous person to be around. You'll see soon enough. Soren trains himself and does a good job of it so I don't bother him, and you can bet that Miss Valentine is going to be getting it sooner or later."

"Aww." Miss Valentine purred as she sidled up to her captain, "I'm going to be 'getting it' Naruto? I'm sure that I can't wait for it."

Naruto grinned at her, "Don't mess with me like that Valentine. And I was serious. Soon enough I'll be training you too, as soon as I can figure out how to do it without sinking the ship so get ready for that."

"You see!" Vivi said, "You're going to be working with everyone else except me. Why?"

Naruto sighed and leaned against the helm, "Because I told Pell I'd keep you from getting hurt. If I trained you I'd probably end up hurting you worse than anyone else you'd ever end up fighting. You aren't a crew member that has to be joined to me like everyone else so there's no need for you to fight Vivi."

"So you just want me to sit back and be a burden… just like before." Vivi said with her face darkening.

Nojiko moved down the stairs towards the younger girl, "No one thinks you're a burden. Why would you think that?"

"Don't lie to me Nojiko." Vivi said with her eyes lowered, "I'm not that persuasive as a princess, I don't have that much political clout all on my own, and I'm not strong enough to protect myself let alone my people. I want to be strong like Luffy, or Naruto."

Naruto chuckled, "No you don't. You don't want to be like me, it's very overrated."

Vivi looked at him curiously, "Yes I do. Why wouldn't I want to be like you? You're very powerful and you're a wonderful person."

Naruto let go of the helm and jumped down before getting face to face with Vivi with a serious look on his face, "To get this strong I've seen terrible things. I've seen the darkest sides of humanity that the world had to offer and I've faced off with men that seemed to be devils in human flesh as well as those that thought they were gods on earth. I've seen too many people around me die and I've caused too much of the same."

Vivi slightly faltered but came right back, "I saw my country plunged into civil war. I've seen death Naruto, right in front of me. Pell, Chaka, and so many others got hurt and I couldn't do anything. I don't want that anymore."

Naruto sighed and ran a hand through his hair, "Do you know what it's like to be so strong it's dangerous for your home to allow you to stay there?" Vivi shook her head, "That's me. You thought the few jutsu that I used were destructive; you haven't even seen my best stuff yet. I _needed_ to get this strong just to keep the people around me safe. You don't have to do that, you don't _want_ to do that."

Soren jumped down from the crow's nest and leaned against the mast, "Wait, you were banished from your home for being too strong? How does that work? Did they think you were too dangerous to be kept around or something?"

Naruto shook his head, "Believe me, by the time that I left if they could have fought a war to keep me they would have. That's why I left. My presence in the Elemental Nations was like that of a super-weapon as long as I was aligned with one nation. Someone like me couldn't be restricted to serving one place so to keep the peace I had to leave and act as a neutral deterrent of sorts. All I really had to do from that point was just exist."

Yosaku was curious about something, "Naruto-aniki you said you needed to get that strong. Why would you possibly need to get strong enough to level half of a city with one attack?"

Naruto looked over at the swordsman with an even glance, "An army larger than the entire combined mobile forces of each major nation on the continent hellbent on taking it over… and they were easily replaceable. They grew like plants, and then you could throw them right in with the rest of your forces. I needed attacks that could get rid of tons of them in one stroke, and like I said, you haven't even seen my best moves yet. Hopefully you never will."

He continued, "By the time it was all over I was the last one left standing with the power to destroy the entire continent. I would never do such a thing, but the threat loomed… especially since I had a temper that was notorious by then. Heh, even the less than scrupulous nations watched their step in case one of their darker activities set me off. Eventually I just left. They didn't need me there anymore." He made a fluttering hand-gesture, "It was just time for me to disappear."

Nojiko narrowed her eyes. No one just disappears, there had to have been someone that cared whether or not he was gone for good. He still wasn't telling them everything about him. The way he was talking it was as if he got tired of just sitting around and waiting for something, but how? He wasn't that old. He didn't look any older than her at all, and to fight in a war the way he did and act as a deterrent towards peace long enough for an entire continent to settle down, something like that would take years, decades ever, and that if it wouldn't take a century or more.

No one knows just how long it took for the World Government to establish control over the globe and Naruto says that he did it with a continent in his lifetime starting with nothing. It had to be impossible. No one does anything like that even if they were able to get started on the day of their birth. Twenty years wouldn't even be enough time and that's how old he looked more or less.

"Anyway." Naruto said absently, "Like I was saying before this all got turned onto me, you don't need to be this strong. You have people that can support you to help shoulder your problems, use that. Don't be like me. Everyone on this ship has somewhere to go home to."

Soren raised his hand, "I don't Uzumaki."

Johnny and Yosaku raised their hands as well, "We don't either Naruto-aniki, we're with you all the way!"

Miss Valentine raised her hand and laughed, "Do you think that anyone that joined Baroque Works had anywhere else to go? I'm your problem for good now Naruto."

Nojiko shook her head, "I'm not even thinking of going home until Nami does Naruto-kun."

Vivi smiled victoriously, "Well I can't go home so how about that? And I have to get stronger so that I can protect my country as everyone there is precious to me. So what's your argument now?" Vivi watched Naruto's face drop into a perturbed mask.

Naruto muttered to himself allowing Vivi to show a victory sign to the rest of the crew. Naruto then turned around and headed inside, "Remind me to stock up on extreme amounts of alcohol when we reach another town. I have a feeling that this little adventure of ours is going to need me to get drunk sometimes to keep going."

As soon as Naruto disappeared inside, Vivi whispered loudly to everyone else, "I think I've got him."

Johnny and Yosaku ran up to Vivi and each took one of the princess's hands while crying anime tears, freaking her out somewhat, "Finally!" Johnny said, "Naruto-aniki takes it easy on Nojiko-aneue! We'll finally have someone to share our pain!" Yosaku was nodding and blubbering right next to him.

Nojiko pulled out two pistols with a tick mark on her head, "He takes it easy on _who_ now?" He finished, cocking them both and aiming them at the boys.

Both of them backed off away from Nojiko before they ended up getting crushed under Miss Valentine who sat on them both, "You do know that Vivi's a girl too right? Why don't you think that he'll take it easy on her?"

Yosaku heaved out his answer underneath the heavy blonde woman, "Because she's making him train her. And he's pissed about it." He then passed out from the lack of oxygen he was getting.

Miss Valentine blinked and got off of them, "Oh, that's a good point. Naruto really doesn't seem like the kind of guy that likes being told what to do." She then looked over at Vivi before breaking into laughter and walking inside, "Good luck honey."

XxX

Vivi was in Naruto's office/bedroom looking over his shoulder eagerly as he sat at his desk while replenishing his kunai and shuriken pouch for when they docked, "So what are you going to teach me?"

Naruto exhaled loudly as Vivi's duck Carue came into the room and started absently pecking at his shoulder while she herself stood over him waiting for him to answer, "I need to fight you first and see what you're good at before I can say anything about it or see how I can help you."

"So let's go!" Vivi said excitedly, "We can fight right now can't we?"

Naruto turned around in his chair, "No we can't. You've seen and heard about what happens when I fight, and I'm not destroying the ship just to figure out what you're capable of against me. We'll get to an island with lots of room or something and then we can fight. Just be patient, we've got time." Naruto then grabbed the beak of Carue who was still blankly pecking away at him, "Is he going to fight too?"

Vivi shrugged, "He can. Why?"

Naruto looked at the large duck that was staring at him curiously before letting out a quack, "Well if you say whatever Vivi does, you're doing too then you'll need to be ready for a little bit of pain yourself." Naruto patted the duck on his head and looked back over at Vivi, "He really wants to help you out."

"You can understand him?" Vivi said questioningly.

Naruto nodded with a grin, "It's a nature thing." Naruto rubbed the duck's head, "Don't try to figure it out, I'd probably suck at trying to explain it to you anyway."

"Naruto-kun!"

Naruto and Vivi both had their attention caught by Nojiko running to his door frantically, "What's the matter Noji-chan?"

Nojiko pointed outside, "You really need to see this." She ran back outside, followed closely by Naruto and Vivi.

Naruto reached the deck quickly amid the setting sun of the late afternoon and looked out from the front of the ship to see smoke rising from the port town on the horizon, "Soren! Binoculars!" His response was a set of the ocular device being thrown from the crow's nest into his hands. He grit his teeth at the sight of seeing the place half razed to the ground, "What the hell is going on here?"

Soren yelled down from the crow's nest, "So what's the plan Uzumaki? Are we going to run or what?"

Naruto thought for a moment, "Johnny! Yosaku! Get up here!" In a mere moment the two were right at his side, "You two want to go check this out or are you staying?" He handed off the binoculars to them.

After looking through them and nodding to each other, Yosaku spoke up, "We're with you Naruto-aniki."

Naruto looked up at Soren, "What about you? Are you in?"

Soren jumped down from the crow's nest and landed at Naruto's side, tightening his bandanna around his head, "Yeah, why not? Let's go."

Naruto made a Kage Bunshin and had it man the wheel, "Noji-chan go get your rifle and get up to the crow's nest. How close do you need to be to give us decent cover?"

Nojiko squinted and made an aiming motion with her hands at the town, "A quarter-mile out. What about the cannons? I know how to fire those too Naruto-kun, you might need it."

Naruto shook his head, "Don't do it unless I send you a signal. We want this to be as subtle as we can be. The rifle should be enough."

Nojiko ran off to grab her guns and ammunition while the others all kept looking out at the town, "Who did this?" Johnny asked, he already had his fingers creeping towards the handle of his sword in anticipation.

"I couldn't tell you." Naruto responded with his eyes coldly looking at the destruction, "But we're going to find out in a little bit."

XxX

Naruto's Kage Bunshin got everyone close enough for Naruto himself to get them all ashore with separate uses of Shunshin no Jutsu (Body Flicker Jutsu), leaving Naruto, Soren, Johnny, and Yosaku on their own.

As soon as they reached land the smell of blood mixed with ocean air permeated through the air, filling their nostrils. It didn't take long for them to begin finding bodies littering the streets. Soren kneeled down by one and felt it's body heat, "We missed whatever happened by a few minutes Uzumaki. Whoever did this should still be here."

Naruto nodded silently as they kept walking around the destroyed city. There wasn't a single building that they could see that didn't have damage done to it. They were either set ablaze or outright destroyed. Johnny and Yosaku had never seen anything like this before and he could tell it was getting to them. Soren on the other hand didn't show any outright emotion towards what was being seen, but he was unusually quiet.

Eventually they came to one building that was completely untouched, the town bar. Naruto led the way inside where they found one man ruthlessly dissecting the other people inside. The man was thin and lanky, wearing a full-head helmet covering his face that was light blue and white with many holes in it and headphones on the sides. Long wild blonde hair descended from the back of the helmet down to the man's thighs. He had an open collar long sleeved black shirt with polka dots, a red sash around his waist, and jeans that were frayed on the side. On his wrists were a pair of hand guards that had long detachable scythes connected to them. Scythes that he used to ruthlessly cut down everyone in the bar.

After finishing off the last man inside he turned to face the Foxhound crew members present. Soren stepped forward, cracking his knuckles, "Yeah, I call this guy."

Naruto shrugged and led Johnny and Yosaku out of the bar before they could do something stupid like jump into the fight instead of Soren. Naruto could see that guy was out of their league, even if those two had fought together and had a level head they still would have lost. Soren on the other hand could beat him, he was sure of it.

Soren rolled the kinks out of his neck as the guy he was facing off with just stood ready to fight, "I don't suppose you can let me get a drink before we do this could you?" The man didn't say a word, "I didn't think so. So can I get the name of the guy that I'm about to run through?"

"Killer." Was all that the man said.

Soren let out a light chuckle, "Wow, that's really creative." He dropped into his tiger stance, "Alright, let's do this then."

XxX

"What the hell was that Naruto-aniki?" Yosaku snapped at Naruto once they were a decent distance away from the bar, "That was the guy that did all of this and you aren't even going to let us fight him?"

Naruto didn't turn back towards the bar, "That wasn't the guy that did this." Naruto pointed in a direction where a plume of flame went up, "The guy that did this is over there." He didn't even have to turn around to know that Johnny and Yosaku had taken off in that direction at full speed, "I didn't tell them to take their weights off before we left... punks."

Naruto simply walked down the street slowly until he came across another man standing directly in his path.

The man was pale and muscular with bright red hair resembling flames. He had dark circles around his eyes and dark red colored lips along with dark colored fingernails and no eyebrows. He wore black pants covered in yellow spots with red strips hanging over his boots as well as a blue sash around his waist below a bandolier where he held a dagger and a flintlock pistol. He had a pair of square goggles on his head and a large fur captain's coat with no shirt underneath. His right arm was in the sleeve while the left was outside and under the coat.

The man glared at Naruto who was simply staring right back impassively, "What do you think you're looking at?"

Naruto didn't blink, "I don't know yet…" He looked the man over before raising an eyebrow upwards, "You know the lack of eyebrows thing kind of reminds me of someone I knew a long time ago."

A sneer crossed the man's face at how Naruto absently commented on his appearance, "People that look at me like that die."

Naruto kept his hands still inside of his sage coat pockets, "Is that what happened here? People looked at you and you decided to turn the place inside out? Maybe you should try wearing more normal clothes then. I mean look at me, I look cool and I don't attract attention by looking like… whatever it is you're trying to look like."

"You idiot." The man stated, "I didn't destroy this town because of that. These idiots didn't take me or my dream seriously. Well I wonder how seriously they take it now. They're all dead!" Naruto bristled at hearing that everyone in the town was dead, "Eustass Kid, the future King of the Pirates! The man that will find One Piece! Anyone that doubts me or my goal don't deserve to live."

"Another psychopath I see." Naruto said as he finally took his hands out of his pockets, "Apparently the Grand Line is full of them… or is it just me that keeps on attracting all the crazies?"

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

The two men were sprinting through the streets until they found a man with long shaggy blue hair standing in front of a building that was freshly set ablaze. There were people running out of the building fully ablaze before collapsing in the streets, dead.

"You son of a bitch!" Johnny quickly rushed at him and drew his uchigatana in a horizontal slash. The man dodged the attack easily and turned to face both men who had their swords drawn and at the ready.

This person had on a strange sleeveless shirt, red pants, brown boots, large thorn tattoos on his shoulders, arms, and neck. He had deep, black sunken eyes and stitched scars all about his face, most notable on his mouth line. He drew two swords and gave both men a haughty look, "It looks like we missed a few. I guess I'll finish you off as well before Master Kid calls us back."

Yosaku gripped his blade tightly, "What makes you think you can do this and get away with it? What did these people do to you, huh you bastard?"

The man simply stood in a ready stance, "It doesn't matter. We can do whatever we want. If these people were too weak to stop us or do anything about then that's their problem. The weak simply die, just like both of you are."

"The only one that's going to die here is you! For all of the people you slaughtered today!" Yosaku jumped into the air at the man, "Inryoku Tsukamidasu (Gravity Grabber)! Die!" Yosaku smashed his large nodachi sword into the ground with incredible force letting loose a fissure that ripped through the ground towards the mystery pirate. The man moved aside with a jump and allowed it to hit the flaming building, forcing it to fall to burning rubble.

"Yosaku I want his head damn it!" Johnny called out as he crouched low and resheathed his sword to prepare an attack, "I don't care what we have to do, put him down!" Johnny then dashed from his position, keeping low and trying to time his attack with his opponent's exact moment of contact with the ground to keep him off balance, "Yosen Ikssen (Primary Flash)!" Johnny unsheathed his sword so fast it looked like a flash of white light from his scabbard.

The man from Eustass Kid's pirate crew landed with both of his swords immediately poised to block Johnny's strike. The sound of the blades clashing let out a loud noise of steel ringing against steel. Johnny cursed in his head as he felt himself immediately get pushed back. So the guy was stronger than him, no big deal, that was what Yosaku was for. Speaking of which-.

Yosaku attacked from the man's backside to take advantage of his distraction. The man ended up kicking Johnny off of his twin blades and dodged Yosaku instead of trying to block, which was a great idea since Yosaku's downward swing ended up gaffing into the ground.

Johnny rolled across the ground and got back to his feet to rush his adversary once more. The man ducked a swipe from Johnny and traded one right back that the sunglasses-wearing swordsman barely got his sword back to block. The man then used his free sword arm to take a swing at Yosaku who also blocked, leaving both of the man's arms occupied keeping both of his enemies at bay one way or another.

Johnny grunted as he was barely able to keep him back, "Who is this guy?"

"I don't know." Yosaku replied while taking one hand off of his sword to cock his fist back, "Don't really care either." With that, he nailed the man in the face, sending him sprawling back down the street.

Standing up and cracking his jaw back into place, the eerie looking man spoke, "My name isn't very important to a pair of idiots that are about to be dead."

"We may be idiots-." Yosaku said with a grin.

Johnny picked up where his partner left of, "-But you're not man enough to kill us." Johnny sheathed his sword and flicked it up slightly with his thumb, "Now let's see how you handle people that can actually fight back."

XxX

(With Soren)

Soren ducked behind the bar just as a lightning quick slash cut down every bottle on the counter. Soren immediately jumped up and breathed in deeply, "Ibi Ibi no Danmaku (Rot Rot Barrage)!" A flurry of acid spit flew from Soren's mouth at Killer.

Killer dodged every shot sent his way, allowing them to fly past him and hit the walls of the saloon, melting through the walls and leaving holes. Soren watched Killer finish his elaborate dodging before busting out in a big grin, "Fast aren't we? But too bad for you, this is the wrong place to fight me." He picked up a bottle of whiskey, "I shouldn't fight drunk, but there's just so much acid around here I can convert." He spit on the bottle top, melting it off, "Cheers." He knocked back a decent amount and cringed at the taste before shrugging and throwing the bottle at Killer.

The helmeted warrior moved aside to avoid the thrown bottle effortlessly and rushed back in at Soren, slashing at him again before the bald pirate ducked behind the bar again for cover from Killer's wicked twin scythes.

"Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Knife)!" Soren's hand, now glowing green, was shoved through the front side of the bar, with smoke rising from it, signifying the strength of his acid. Killer dodged the lethal appendage and attempted to sever it from Soren's body with his scythe, missing when Soren jerked it back through the hole he made. He jumped back over the bar and attempted a sweeping kick at Killer's head that he dodged and avoided with a spinning, contorting motion.

Jumping back into the open was Killer's opening to attack. Now that Soren no longer had any cover or platforms to launch any surprise attacks, he could finally begin to overwhelm him up close with his blades. The first swing of Killer's blades got so close Soren could feel the air get cut by them. Killer followed through and kicked Soren in the chest sending him against a table before he rolled out of the way of another bladed attack from his strange enemy that turned the table into firewood.

Soren stood and pointed at Killer, "You are a real pain in the ass to fight in an enclosed space, you know that?" He and Killer circled each other, clearing out the wreckage left behind from their battle and Killer's slaughter prior to Soren's arrival.

Killer said nothing and continued to stare Soren down, not that Soren could really see the expression on his face through the helmet covering his head. Soren knew that with those blades on Killer's person he couldn't really risk getting close and trading physical attacks with him. He might get cut to ribbons before he could even muster a good defense against his edged weaponry. The guy was also fast. He didn't have enough time to charge up any high powered attacks either since his opponent was so fast. Maybe fighting Killer inside wasn't such a good idea? He chose to fight Killer because it was happening inside of a bar, a bar where he had all of the potential to replenish his stores of acid necessary for a prolonged conflict. However Killer was really fast, faster than him even, too fast for him to hit with the current speed of his ranged attacks.

'Let's see.' Soren said as the speed of the fight slowed to a crawl as the two fighters appraised one another, 'Ibi Ibi no Hifu (Rot Rot Skin) is useless here. There's no way he'll ever let me get close enough to let it take effect after he sees the smoke flying off of my body and if I don't prepare it before going in to attack he'll dice me up before I can get it to its most potent level.'

It didn't help either that using that move took up a lot of his bodily fluids and acid stores. He had to make sure that it worked or else he would only have so many shots left in him for any other moves. He was better off keeping that little trick hidden for when he needed a moment to think and had to get Killer off of him. This was starting to get fun. He hadn't had anyone worth fighting since he faced off with Naruto when they first met.

"Right then… Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws)!" Soren's fingernails glowed green, showing that his cuticles were now coated in his corrosive fluid, "Let's see how fast you really are."

XxX

(With Naruto)

Ever since he first started out as a young genin level shinobi in his village of Konohagakure no Sato there had always been something of a hero complex in Naruto's head. Before he ever became a ninja all those years ago he used to dream about going out and fighting bad guys, saving princesses, and taking down fortresses full of evildoers. Now while he actually ended up doing that stuff he learned that the reality was darker than he ever dreamed it could have been.

The bad guys were more depraved and capable of things he hadn't imagined the human psyche capable of conjuring up.

The princesses were sometimes under a yoke of oppression set up over the course of years and opposed by forces that sometimes dwarfed his own village's amassed military might. A lot of the time he ended up taking down the big boss directly but if he hadn't he might have ended up caught in a bloody, long civil war multiple times.

And the fortresses that Naruto got used to storming and taking down were usually filled with the darkest secrets the world of shinobi had ever produced.

The entire process eventually wound up somewhat jading Naruto over the whole hero thing. The older he got, the less clean victories he ended up getting in the long run. It seemed once he hit puberty the world figured that making everything so cut and dry such as the good guys win and the bad guys lose was for kids. Every victory started coming with a cost, and the cost was usually with the blood of good people. Every defeat took its toll and the toll was more often than not even more blood of even more good people. For every victory he seemed to get there seemed to be three more issues that arose in the wake of his success. By the time he finished the last great war in the Elemental Nations he had his fill of being a hero.

However that still didn't mean he didn't have a sense of right and wrong. He still hated when evils and atrocities happened around him, because if he had to notice it himself chances were that nobody was planning on doing anything about it. He liked to save the pretty girls when he could because the rewards were… rewarding, both in the spiritual and physical sense.

He couldn't help himself. When there was something going on that he knew he could stop or deal with himself he liked to do so. Which is why he chose to face off with Eustass Kid, because somebody had to do it, so why not let that somebody be him?

"You killed an entire town because they didn't think your dream was possible?" Naruto questioned, "That's the stupidest excuse for killing anyone I've heard in a long time, right up there with this guy that believed that causing explosions was a work of art."

"It doesn't matter what you think." Kid said, making a grand gesture with his arms, "What kind of dream is worth having if it's easy to attain? The thing you need to reach your dreams is the determination to achieve the impossible! If you have that then what's the use in having a life goal that isn't big?" He then looked at Naruto with disdain, "But someone like you obviously doesn't understand. And anyone that has the nerve to laugh at me and my ambition… I'll just slaughter them."

Naruto shook his head, "The thing is, I do understand. More than you'll ever know. But the killing innocent people just for having an opinion that you don't like… I can't really say that I like that attitude." If Naruto had that mindset growing up then he would have had a body count that read out like an attendance list.

Kid just shrugged, "Then I guess I'll just kill you too."

Naruto opened his kunai pouches on both of his thighs, "Kid, you take life _way_ too seriously." With a blur of his fingers he reached inside and unleashed a torrent of shuriken and kunai right towards Kid.

Kid smirked as he lifted a single hand, "Riperu (Repel)." Naruto's barrage of sharp, metal death stopped in mid-air, getting his eyes to widen in surprise. Naruto then stopped to think; if he could stop his weapons in mid-flight then… oh shit.

Purple electricity sparked around Kid's hands before he sent Naruto's weapons right back at him at a blistering speed. Naruto ducked and leapt out of the way of his own tools. Even if he had brought his Hiraishin kunai for this fight it would still be useless as long as this guy's power was active. Anything metal would never even get close. That was okay with Naruto though, he didn't need a weapon, his hands were his weapons.

Still, getting close was a bother. He threw about fifteen weapons at Kid, and each one was currently buzzing around the battlefield like an angry hive of metal hornets, darting in and out at him at random intervals. Screw getting close, who had to get close when he could just blow this bastard away from afar? Naruto came to this conclusion when he suffered a cut on his cheek right before his body wound up riddled with all of his own weaponry.

Kid smirked until he saw Naruto's body burst into smoke and a log fall to the ground in his place. He then felt the sting of Naruto's fist collide with his face and send him flying into the remains of a building. Naruto shook out his hand and dabbed at the wound on his cheek. The cut had already healed.

Kid picked himself up out of the rubble, wiping some of the blood away from his lip, "That's not a bad punch. And you're fast. Too bad we're just getting started though." Kid extended his arm as the purple electricity crackled around it wildly. Naruto watched until he saw his own weapon supply drifting out of his holsters and towards Kid's arm along with all of the spare metal in the area. Scraps of iron, cooking pots, swords, anything metal drifted towards his arm and encased it to form a massive giant arm comprised of everything he had gathered.

Naruto watched all of this transpire with an intrigued look on his face, "That's interesting."

Kid started laughing to himself as he flexed the fingers of his metal golem arm, "Anyone that gets in my way or doubts me is dead. And you're next. I won't stop until I become King of the Pirates!"

Naruto sighed, "You know, most of the killers like you that I've met are usually mostly whiny losers with low self-esteem. Guys like you that think that just because of your own personal stuff it entitles you to do what you want, and while that works for a while you eventually run into a guy like me… that can make you look stupid in three moves."

Kid sneered at Naruto, "I don't even know who you are and you think you can go up against me?" He lifted the massive hand into the air and attempted to crush Naruto underneath his fist, "You're out of your league here!"

Naruto stood still and let the gigantic hand smash him into the ground, or so it appeared until Naruto appeared on top of the metal hand standing in place. Kid's eyes widened, "What? I know I hit you! How did you survive that?"

Naruto grinned, "There's never just one me running around when I fight." Naruto made a few hand-seals before kneeling and sticking his hand onto the giant metal arm, "Raiton: Seiteki Dengeki (Lightning Release: Static Shock)." A small burst of electricity gave a small static jolt to Kid before all of the metal amassed around his arm fell apart, "That's one."

Kid looked at Naruto in shock, who was this guy? He clinched his fists and yelled angrily, "What the hell did you do? Who are you?"

Naruto grinned and stood up straight, "I neutralized your magnetic powers over the metal around your arm with that jutsu. That little shock disrupted the charge you had going. And who am I?" He lifted his foot to begin his pose before standing back up straight, "You know what? No, I'm not going to summon anything this time for the introduction because that would technically count as a second move. I'm Uzumaki Naruto and that's all you need to know about that."

Nothing pissed Kid off more than guys like Naruto that didn't seem to take him seriously, but he had to say that in this case discretion had to be the word of the day. This guy didn't have a mark on him. It would have taken his best moves to even get a rise out of this guy and if his crew hadn't shown up yet he knew that they were currently occupied, probably with Naruto's crew. He really hoped the rest of his crew wasn't on Naruto's level or they were all in serious trouble.

"You think this is over? This isn't over by a long shot! I'm just getting started here!" Kid shouted as his entire body crackled with purple electricity, "There's no way I'm gonna lose to a guy like you! I'm Eustass 'Captain' Kid, the one that's going to find One Piece!"

This guy had determination, Naruto had to admit that. Most guys would have started begging by now, but he was still willing to stand against him, he had to respect that. Hell, Soren wasn't back yet, that had to mean that his crew was good too. Naruto kept himself loose and prepared for anything Kid could throw at him because he believed his when he said that he wasn't even close to being done yet.

XxX

(Meanwhile - With Johnny and Yosaku)

Johnny grunted as he was thrown across the ground, landing next to his best friend Yosaku, "Ugh, he's stronger than me." He said as he pulled himself up with his sword.

Yosaku did the same, just as shakily as his partner did, "He's faster than me, not that that's saying too much." Both were covered in scuffs and visible marks of battle. Their opponent was too, but from the looks of them all it was evident who was winning the fight, "What are we going to do? Should we use that move that you need my help with?"

Johnny shook his head, "There's not enough to rebound off of in case I miss the first attack. It would be a waste and put me out of the battle, it still messes my legs up after I use it."

"Then what are we going to do?" Yosaku growled, "I was expecting this guy to be good, not good enough to take us both on at the same time and still wear our asses out."

The man with stitches all on his face could hear them talking from where he was but couldn't hear what was being said, "Are you done making your useless plans yet? You're too weak to do anything to anyone on my crew. I've already taken too long with you all as it is. It's time I finish this for good."

Johnny and Yosaku prepared themselves for him coming in to attack with his swords again, he sounded completely serious with that last statement even though it was highly boastful. Their surprise ran through the roof however when he inhaled deeply and let loose an intense blast of fire at them.

Both of them widened their eyes and dodged it before the flames could lick their bodies. Johnny dodged it just fine, but Yosaku could feel how intense the heat was from when he was forced to move aside, "What the fuck was that? Was that a Devil Fruit power?"

"I don't know!" Johnny replied, he didn't know how prepared for this they really were. They had never fought a user of the fruit before, they had no experience. Even Naruto's freaky skills weren't really a legitimate substitute for some of the weird powers that existed on the seas, "But at least we know how all of these fires were set now right?"

Yosaku was sweating from constantly dodging the harsh flames as the guy seemingly picked him as a target, "I'm so happy that the mystery is solved." He said sarcastically, "Now could you get this asshole to stop shooting fire at me before I end up a human flambé over here?"

The man heard Yosaku say that and felt he had generated enough distance between him and Yosaku. He turned his head towards Johnny and fired at him to keep him away as well as try to finish him off with his fire attack. Johnny had been getting closer while Yosaku was his diversion, but he had gotten too close when the fire began to be focused on him, forcing him to have to concentrate to get away unscathed back where his partner was, "I need to get faster. That wasn't good enough." He said angrily to himself, "It hasn't been good enough all day."

The man inhaled again, planning to attempt to roast both of them once more. Yosaku was about to speak when a blast rang out and he saw something flying through the air behind their enemy coming at him quickly that brought a smirk to his face, "Nojiko-aneue is a hell of a shot."

XxX

(A Few Moments Prior – On the Natural Disaster)

Vivi followed Nojiko around the deck of the ship frantically as she directed Naruto's Kage Bunshin to turn the ship so that the cannons were facing the town, "Are you sure this is a good idea Nojiko? I don't want anyone from the crew actually getting hurt or anything else bad to happen to that town."

Nojiko heard the concern in the voice of the young princess as she adjusted the cannon and loaded in a cannonball, "I understand Vivi, but first of all there isn't anything that this cannonball can do to that town to destroy it more than it already is. Second of all, we're only a quarter of a mile out. That isn't even hard to hit at all, especially with these things. I keep them in great shape."

"Yeah but-." Vivi was cut off from saying anymore when Nojiko placed a hand on her head and gave her a reassuring smile.

"Hey no more of that." She said soothingly, "This is nothing. Everything is going to be alright, okay? Now cover your ears." She lit a small wick on the cannon and ducked them both down, both women covering their ears, "Fire!"

BOOM

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

The man turned around to see a cannonball flying at him at top speed. Fear was etched on his face as it seemingly got closer to him in slow motion. However he felt a tug on his blades that freed them from his hands, the same tug that seemed to stop the cannonball just short of nailing him and putting him six feet deep. The man had a smile on his face, "Master Kid has saved me…"

"What the fuck!" Yosaku shouted indignantly, "What the fuck was that? That shot was dead-on! Nojiko-aneue didn't miss so what just happened?"

The man turned towards Johnny and Yosaku, now disarmed, "My captain happened. This battle is over. You two should count yourselves lucky it ended when it did. Next time I'll definitely kill you both." He then took off, leaving the two disgruntled swordsmen there.

Johnny grit his teeth, "Get back here motherfucker! This isn't over yet!" Both of them went right after him in hot pursuit.

XxX

(On the Natural Disaster)

Nojiko's jaw stood quite slacked as she had yet to hear a boom from her cannon shot hitting, "What the fuck? I didn't miss. That was right on the money! Even if it was a dud I should have heard something."

Vivi had binoculars up, looking at where she fired the shot, "I saw something pull it away from where you fired. It was moving so fast from what I saw."

Nojiko groaned, "Great… That means that Naruto-kun is fighting another guy with freaky powers." She slid down to the ground with her back against the railing of the ship, "Why does this happen everywhere we go? Can't we just go somewhere without a huge fight kicking off somehow?"

XxX

(With Soren)

Soren and Killer were engaged in a lethal dance pitting Soren's acid coated nails against Killer's twin scythes. The two had completely wrecked the bar, not a single square foot of the place was left untouched by the collateral damage of their fight. There were deep slashes from both a blade and grooves in the walls and floors made by something with corrosive properties as well.

Killer's shirt was slightly melted off around the top side of the shoulder, almost having the sleeve fall completely off. He also had a quite visible mark made from Soren's Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws) carved into his helmet. Soren on the other hand had a few slash marks cut into his shirt and chest, on his arms, and a cut above his eyes that trailed blood down the side of his face over his red facial marking that trailed down his arm.

Soren rushed in and took a slash at Killer who ducked and lashed out with a swipe of his own at Soren's torso, intent on spilling his guts all over the floor. Soren hopped back and narrowly avoided getting sliced open. It was a fact that Killer had the reach advantage and he had been exploiting it the entire time thus far. Soren got his footing back after jumping away and kicked a chair at Killer who cut through it and came forward rapidly. Soren spit a single acidic loogie at Killer who rolled aside and launched himself at him, spinning like a drill.

Soren leapt and rolled out of the way, letting his enemy fly past him and carve deep cuts into the ground before he righted himself and faced off with Soren once more. He spun his scythes around his hand guards and readjusted his grip on them.

Soren was sick of being dodged so effortlessly. It wasn't that Killer was so much faster than he was, it was that he was way more dexterous than him. Speed-wise they were similar. Soren felt he would be faster if they weren't in an enclosed space, but Killer was quick to get himself moving. His reflexes were incredible and his reaction time was second to none. He couldn't take a shot at Killer without expecting some form of retaliation in return.

Soren cocked his hands back and breathed deeply, "Okay Mr. Mute, dodge this why don't you? Hyaku Higyou Yama (Hundred Mountain Strike)!" Soren came forward and threw his tiger claw strikes at Killer, full speed. Killer ducked and swayed around his hands, getting Soren to hit everything behind him when his attacks missed, 'Come on! One hit! Give me one hit damn it! He can't dodge them all!'

However that was exactly what happened. The only thing on Killer that got touched were his clothes, as they now had new burn marks from Soren's acid claws coming up just short of making contact with him. Soren was starting to feel a lack of fluids from keeping his claws active for so long to go with the rest of the fighting. He hadn't had a chance to replenish any since taking his eyes off of Killer for a moment could have been fatal. He turned off the caustic technique to save acid and fluids, "So circus-freak has the moves. You can sure run away can't you?"

Killer remained quiet, still staring Soren down. The former thief sighed, "You sure don't like to talk do you? You're no fun to fight, I like banter with my battles." Suddenly the sounds of metal shaking rang out inside of the bar. Everything with metal in it started being drawn out of the doors and busted windows, "What the hell is going on?"

Killer disconnected his scythes from his hand guards and placed them on his hip as he looked outside at all of the metal being drawn towards a single spot, "Captain Kid." He looked back at Soren, "We're done here." With that, he rushed out the door and towards where all of the metal was going.

Soren watched him leave before frowning, "Well that was rude. He didn't even say goodbye or anything." Soren walked outside of the bar towards the center of all of the activity to see what was going on himself.

XxX

(With Naruto)

"This is bullshit!" Naruto said to himself as he found himself caught in a storm of metal hodgepodge. Everything with even a trace of metal to it was getting pulled and moved about by Eustass Kid's powers. The random attacks of anything caught in Kid's magnetic field was wearing on Naruto's nerves.

"What's the matter?" Kid taunted from a distance as all of the stuff he had attracted towards him swirled about wildly, "What happened to all of that tough talk of yours? Weren't you going to finish me off? Where did that bravado go?"

"Someone has their confidence back." Naruto muttered to himself as he dodged a barrel, being kept in flight by the iron rings holding it together. He started making hand-seals once again to set up a jutsu, "Fuuton: Taifuu Kougeki (Wind Release: Typhoon Attack)!" Naruto whipped his arms in a wide propeller motion at Kid, sending a body-sized tornado spinning out at Kid and pushing through his debris.

Kid moved much of the flying metal objects around to form a wall in front of him that blocked Naruto's jutsu, albeit creaking and groaning loudly under the pressure of the attack. Kid smirked to himself as the sounds died down. Naruto hadn't gotten him with that one, "That's two moves loser!"

"Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" Kid didn't know what that meant and kept his wall up for whatever Naruto had planned until he heard a grinding noise.

'No way.' Kid thought to himself as his eyes widened, 'Is he actually-?' Naruto's hand burst through his defensive wall and hit Kid right in the chest, sending him flying backwards in a spiral before harshly slamming into an intact wall with enough force to crack it and crumble it.

"Damn it my arm is stuck." Naruto said to himself as he tried to free it from the hole he made. The wall of debris dropped, allowing Naruto to get his arm out. Naruto looked over at where Kid was shakily picking himself up and coughing up blood, "You're not dead. You're so lucky that my arm got stuck or I would have run that right through you."

"Captain Kid!" Kid's blue-haired crewmate arrived at his side and helped him steady himself on his feet, "Who is this person?"

Kid spit out some more blood before giving Naruto a grim smile, "You know, we're not that different when it comes down to it. You and I both know what we want and we're both strong enough to reach out for it and take it. I don't see a reason why we couldn't have been friends." He touched the angry red spiral mark on his bare chest where Naruto's attack hit home.

Naruto stared back at Kid, "I might have considered it… maybe if you weren't so twisted we could have had a drink or two. But we do have one big difference between us; you can settle for killing the people that doubt you, I would rather prove them wrong and watch them live with seeing me succeed where they said I couldn't. Honestly I think that's a sweeter way to go about it."

Kid chuckled to himself as more blood dribbled from his lips, "Well to each his own I guess." Killer appeared at his side, holding him up on that side as well, "We'll meet again Uzumaki Naruto. Don't get yourself killed out there on the Grand Line, I aim to do that myself." Lifting one hand, Kid generated enough power to make a platform for his crew to stand on that carried them away, presumably to wherever their ship was waiting.

Naruto watched them leave with a solid face before a small grin appeared, "That was three… Hmm, his crew stepped in so I'm not sure if he could have kept going or not." He turned around and started walking back towards the edge of town, "Alright Kid, I'll give you that one."

"Naruto-aniki!" He saw Johnny and Yosaku running towards him, "Where did that guy go? He ran away before we could finish fighting."

Naruto kept on walking, motioning for them to follow, "They got away guys. There was an entire crew of them… there were probably more watching their ship just like what we have. Don't worry about it. You'll have another shot at whoever it was again. I'm sure of it."

Soren landed at his side, "What about the people Uzumaki? No one here survived." He asked, "What do we do?"

Naruto had a grim look on his face, "I'll handle it." He made a cross hand-seal with his index and middle fingers, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)." Fifty clones popped into existence that went off solemnly around town. Naruto pushed his hands into his pockets and kept walking, "Come on, they'll take care of the dead."

Yosaku had a look of pure anger on his face, "What is wrong with people like that? Why would they do something like this?"

Soren's face was stone serious, "It's the Grand Line. Every freak, murderer, villain, and fucked up piece of work worth talking about is out here doing God knows what to just about anyone. This is just the beginning, you haven't seen anything yet." He walked ahead of the group as he spoke darkly, "You'd better get your mind right, because you haven't seen anything yet. This world gets a whole lot worse, trust me."

Johnny's fists were tightened, "We need to train harder. We can't let this happen anywhere else again goddamn it! I'll get faster. I'll get so damn fast I'll be able to finish off any bastard that even thinks of doing something like this again!"

"And you will." Naruto said, "Now let's go back to the ship… and you don't need to tell the girls what we saw here, understood?" Both men nodded, "Good. You did good today. A few months ago you both would have been cut down before a fight even got started."

Both Johnny and Yosaku took some pride in that, but still, they still felt like they could have done more to win. Naruto on the other hand was thinking hard to himself, 'Another place locked in turmoil and mortal combat… only this time it really is the whole world. Can I even make a world where people truly understand each other and can live in peace when there are people like this all over out there?'

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**Chapter done. I've not got much to say on this occasion. This is just the first of things that Naruto's crew will be dealing with for the next while. I figured meeting a few of the Supernovas was long past due so I decided to do this one. Well until next time folks, stay frosty and don't get thrown in jail tonight for something stupid because it's New Year's Eve… I might be there myself to bail someone out and I'd better not see you because I don't have money for you too.**

**Kenchi out.**


	17. Divine Intervention

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece… so those of you out there that can change that for me, get to it. Come on, chop chop. I'm waiting.

**Chapter 17: Divine Intervention**

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As the day on the Natural Disaster dragged on, things were business as usual. Johnny and Yosaku were training with one another in their own ways, Soren was keeping watch in the crow's nest, and Vivi was trying her hand at helping out on the ship by keeping it on course. Nojiko came from inside the ship and ran up to Vivi frantically, grabbing the young woman's arms, "Have you seen Naruto-kun?" Nojiko shook her frantically, "I haven't seen him on deck all day!"

"Calm down Nojiko! You're making me dizzy!" Vivi said, prompting Nojiko to let go of her. The princess stumbled around on the deck momentarily before regaining her balance, "Someone had to have seen him today. Why is it such a big deal anyway?"

"Because." Nojiko insisted, "If he's not out here, or in the kitchen, or messing with one of us I don't know where he would be."

Miss Valentine stuck her head out of the door and addressed that, "Naruto is trying to sleep in his room."

Nojiko turned to her, "How do you know? And I looked in there earlier this morning, he isn't there. It didn't look like he had been there all night. I even threw his Hiraishin kunai he sticks in his headboard and he didn't show up."

Miss Valentine shrugged, "I don't know what to tell you about that, but he is now. He poked his head out of his room in the common area a few minutes ago and asked me to bring him something if I cook. He looked half past dead too… it's actually kind of creepy. I didn't think he could look like that."

Nojiko and Vivi looked at each other before heading inside and going into Naruto's room to see him for themselves. Upon opening his door they saw him in his bed under the sheets all covered up. His blue eyes panned towards them and he gave them a smile that seemed rather weak to them, "Hey girls. You guys need something?"

Nojiko walked over and sat on his bed, "Are you alright Naruto-kun?" She placed a hand on his forehead, maybe he was sick?

"I'm fine Noji-chan… just exhausted. I just got back not too long ago." Naruto said in reply, getting some surprise from the girls. Naruto was never tired, ever, not that they had seen.

Vivi walked over and mimicked Nojiko's action to see for herself if he was sick, "What do you mean 'just got back?' How did you just get back? You were here when we left the last island, where could you have gone after we left the island, we're at sea."

Naruto pulled his bedsheets up to his neck, "No, you saw a Kage Bunshin get on board and shut itself in my room. Did anyone check the room after that?" No one had. Everyone had gotten back on board in a bitter mood after the encounter with the Kid Pirates. All they did was tell the girls about the people they had fought, but no one told them what exactly had happened there, and judging from their mood none of the women pushed the matter at all, "I had something to do on that island before I left… and it put me in this condition. I'm lucky I had enough chakra to Hiraishin back here before you missed me."

Johnny walked into the room, "You stayed on that island Naruto-aniki? I thought you were going to have your Kage Bunshin handle… all of that."

"I did let them handle a lot of it." Naruto agreed for the most part, "But there was something that I needed to be there for that a Kage Bunshin can't do."

Johnny's sunglasses reflected in the light of the room, "Like what?" He asked.

_(Flashback – The Previous Night – The Destroyed Island)_

_The full moon provided enough light for Naruto's Kage Bunshin to sift through the remains of the village and find all of the bodies that had been concealed by the destruction of the village. Eventually his Kage Bunshin had scoured every inch of the place and had placed all of the bodies on the ground neatly in rows._

"_That's all of them boss." A Kage Bunshin remarked to Naruto who was sitting on the rooftop of an unruined building over top of the scene with his eyes closed. His body was seated in a meditative stance as he had a serene look on his face. Naruto sighed, "Thanks. You guys can all dispel now. I'm going to need every scrap of chakra I can get and I can only keep five of you around at a time when I do this anyway."_

_The clone took one last look at the deceased villagers and saluted Naruto before disappearing in a puff of smoke._

_With that being done, Naruto stood up and opened his eyes as orange pigment bordered his eyes, but as for the eyes themselves they were no longer a deep blue, but now a light purple with a ripple pattern around the iris. Naruto cracked his neck to the side and rolled his shoulders out, "The things I do for this world… __Gedou (Outer Path)__." _

_A large figure in the form of a massive head with its mouth open appeared from the ground in a spectral purple light. "Okay, let's do this already…" He muttered as he formed two hand-seals and held the last one, "__Gedou: Rinne Tensei no Jutsu (Outer Path: Samsara of Heavenly Life Jutsu)__!" A green light engulfed Naruto's body and emerged from the mouth of the Outer Path Naruto had summoned._

_As the light continued generating from the mouth of the figure, it began to encompass the bodies of the dead villagers, "Come on…" Naruto said, straining visibly, "Hurry up." Naruto's hair began to grey and his features started weathering over and wrinkling. Eventually the glow stopped and faded from the bodies of the people, cuing Naruto to let go of the hand-seal and drop to his knees on the roof, breathing heavily, his features slowly regenerating back to their previous youthful state, his hair slowly returning to its usual bright blonde color._

_Naruto let his body drop on top of the building as his eyes slowly closed with a smile on his face before he began snoring loudly._

_The villagers all slowly began to stir and look around as they were all certain that they were dead. They all took note of their ruined town and knew that what had happened wasn't a dream when they took notice of a young blonde man sprawled out on top of one of the still intact buildings._

_One of the village men shook their heads ruefully at the mysterious blonde before his attention turned back to his fellow villagers and their own current and pressing issues, "Some people will sleep anywhere."_

(End Flashback)

Naruto met Johnny's sunglasses covered eyes with his own and spoke firmly, "Don't worry about it. Now enough about me, the ship isn't going to run itself. I'll be up and about before you know it. You all need to keep things together until I get up."

Johnny gave Naruto a long hard look before finally saluting him, "You've got it Naruto-aniki." He turned around and left the room. If Naruto-aniki didn't feel like telling him, then that was that. There was nothing he could do to get it out of him.

"Good man." Naruto said to him before he got out of sight and earshot. He didn't need anyone knowing that he could do that. If they knew that he could bring the dead back the dynamic on the ship would change dramatically. They already knew he was stretching the borders of things that humans could do as it were. If they knew about everything he could do without reason for them to find out who knew what would change? As long as his crew learned a lesson from the fight with the Kid Pirates he didn't need to tell them unnecessary things.

The events from yesterday resonated deeply, especially with Johnny and Yosaku who were downright miserable when they realized that even with all of that hard work they could still fail. But the setback was a learning experience for them as they hadn't been forced to feel helpless like that in any fight since he had started working with them.

If they had strong character they wouldn't let that break them and they would work harder to prevent anything like that from happening again. As evil as it was for him to keep the fact that he had brought them back to himself, he had to or else the two swordsmen might lose their edge, and after seeing people like that existing on the Grand Line with his own eyes he could not afford that to happen.

Nojiko stood up and crossed her arms while looking down at Naruto, "Okay, what exactly happened on that island? Johnny and Yosaku got up before dawn and haven't stopped killing themselves training until just now when Johnny came to see you, and Soren hasn't said two words to anyone since you guys got back yesterday."

Naruto didn't really answer her, "All you need to know is that I need to get you stronger quickly. Both of you." Naruto said, switching his gaze to Vivi.

Vivi's face lit up, "So does that mean you're going to help me?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah. I feel like crap but for what I need to do I don't need to be at full power anyway. The next island we reach we're going to see just what you've got."

Vivi was kind of put off that he didn't think he had to be in peak condition to handle her, but she was still too excited about possibly getting trained by Naruto, "That's great! Where's the next island?" She asked Nojiko.

Nojiko tapped her chin in thought, "If we keep this pace we should be to a small outcropping of islands in the next few hours… Who's manning the helm?" She asked. Vivi paled and quickly ran back outside as it was her own self-tasked job to learn how to control the ship. With Vivi gone, Nojiko's focus rested solely back on Naruto. She pointed down at him firmly, "You. Stop hiding things."

"I will." Naruto said, resting his hands behind his head, "I'll stop hiding things when you need to know about them." Naruto stared right into her eyes and realized she wasn't going to back off about this. And he didn't feel like getting up and walking away with the condition he was in at the moment, "Fine Noji-chan you win. If I tell you one thing will you just acknowledge that there are some things that you can't push out and just have to let gradually surface?"

Nojiko sat in Naruto's nearby office chair and gestured her arms inviting him to proceed, "Convince me then."

Naruto sighed, "Alright then. To save my home continent I had to mow through an army of grown and harvested human beings, fight off a bunch of undead people that held a power similar to my own, defeat my former best friend who turned to the brink of lunacy and tried to eradicate all life on the continent because he wanted them all to feel his 'hatred', stop a madman directly related to my insane former best friend who tried to enslave the entire world with the fucking moon, and that 'power' I alluded to has the potential to end all existence at naught but a whim if I were to let it loose." He then gave Nojiko a dry look, "So what have _you _done lately?"

Nojiko just sat there staring Naruto with wide eyes not knowing how to respond to that. All he had said thus far before this was that he had fought in a war… what the hell kind of war was this? "Um." Nojiko said vacantly, "What? How?"

Naruto rolled over and shut his eyes, "I didn't say I would tell you how all of this happened, I didn't even say I'd go into detail on everything. Do you know how long that would take to tell you? I just said I would tell you one thing… I lost count of how much I actually alluded to, but I was on a roll. Still, I think I made my point."

Nojiko nodded dumbly, "Well, yeah. Point taken I guess."

"And there you go." Naruto said, "You'll learn more when it actually needs to come up. Now either leave me to sleep and think about everything I just said for the rest of the day, or climb into bed and keep me warm Noji-chan." Naruto didn't expect her to actually do the second thing so when he felt her arms wrap around him and pull her into his back all he could really do was smile.

XxX

(Several Hours Later – Unnamed Island)

As the day began to wind down, everyone disembarked to see Naruto's test of Vivi. The island chosen for her little test was basically a rock that was large enough and flat enough to be considered an actual landmass. Naruto was kind enough to wait for Vivi to find a spot that was not entirely inhabited by jagged rocky upcroppings and he let her do such so that he didn't wind up having her skinned by the rocks by the time they finished.

Vivi was rather excited for the test Naruto was going to make her undergo. She was dressed white shorts that came right to her thigh, white heeled boots that stopped just short of her knees, and a light green long sleeved button up blouse with thin blue diagonal stripes. All in all she didn't really look too ready for a fight, but Nojiko never did either to be fair because right now she was wearing jean shorts and a deep v-neck sleeveless pink shirt with heeled sandals on. The only thing that ever really indicated that she was ready for a fight was the ever present holster belt she always had around her waist that kept her side-arms with her and the sometimes presence of the leather strap she would have over her shoulder that held her shotgun and rifle crossed up on her back.

Naruto was still looking rather pale and out of it by the time they got there, but he was assuring everyone he was good enough to see what Vivi could do. All he really needed to do was to pay attention to see what she was capable of. Naruto stood across from her as she stroked Carue to prepare him for the fight.

"Okay Vivi." Naruto said, holding a bell in his hand, "The name of the game is to get this bell from me any way you can. I don't care what you do, I don't care how you do it. I just need you to take this from me one way or another got it?" The blue haired princess nodded, it was straightforward enough. "Are you ready to do this?" He asked her as he tied the bell to a divot on his orange sash.

"Absolutely." She replied as she finished petting Carue, "Okay Carue, let's get him." The spot-billed duck let out a determined quack to go along with Vivi's confidence. The princess got on Carue's back and pulled out her small sharpened jewel weapons attached to wires that she placed around her pinky fingers, "Alright, time to show him what we've got!"

"Quack!"

"Damn it Carue, don't sit down! Stand back up!" Vivi shouted at the duck underneath her that took that moment to be a good time to sit down on the battlefield.

Naruto picked his ear with a bored look on his face, "Yeah… do you want to postpone this until you and Carue get your stuff together?"

Vivi, having finally maneuvered Carue to his feet, looked at Naruto with determination, "No way! We're ready… Carue just needed to warm up first, right?" Carue let out a quack backing her up, "See? We're ready for this."

Naruto pulled his finger out of his ear and flicked what he mined out to the side, "Well then bring it before my feet start growing roots here, and remember." His eyes hardened on her, "Come at me with the intent to kill."

Vivi narrowed her eyes and growled at Naruto, "Alright, you asked for it, Kujakki Shinrei (Peacock Slasher)!" Vivi and Carue picked up steam and ran across the field at Naruto who simply stood still and watched them rush him down. As she charged Naruto atop her speedy fowl she began rapidly spinning her weapons, making them deadly slicing weapons.

All of the others were sitting on the side watching the fight from a distance. Nojiko pointed at the sight of Vivi charging Naruto on Carue, "Does she know that this is a terrible idea that doesn't have the slightest chance of working? Didn't she fight him before already?"

Miss Valentine laughed as she sat on a boulder to get a good seat, "She didn't really fight him. He didn't even have to move and she never really got to attack him so he doesn't know, he's never actually seen Vivi fight."

Yosaku was leaning against the boulder Miss Valentine was sitting on, "Yeah, but we've seen her fight. Couldn't he have just asked us and saved some time? Naruto-aniki looks rough. He's all pale, he should be resting."

Soren shook his head, "If we explained it we would have to do it three times for him to actually get it. This way he knows right off the bat her fighting style and how to fix her. Seeing things firsthand always works better for guys like Uzumaki."

Vivi bore down on Naruto atop her duck and unleashed an attack intending to take Naruto's head off. Hey, he said to fight to kill, well she was coming at him full blast right from the start. Naruto simply stood in place and ducked under her slash, watching strands of his hair float down in front of his face as she passed by him, "Well she's very accurate."

"Damn it we missed him." Vivi said to herself and her duck companion, "Let's try this again then. It seems like the weaker ones won't work on him." She discarded her regular slashers and from around her waist brought out a pair of long chains that looked like Vivi's jeweled belt that also had a place for her to hold them on the ends with her pinky fingers.

Naruto's eyebrows rose when he could see from the angle the sunlight was hitting them at. They were seriously sharp, "Didn't see this before. Now we're talking."

"Try this on for size Naruto!" Vivi shouted at the blonde captain as Carue rode at him again, "Kujakki Mojiretsu Shinrei (Peacock String Slasher)!" Before she even got close she swung the chains out at Naruto who spun through the attacks, keeping them from cutting into him, when he realized she wasn't going for him. He looked behind himself to see that she had managed to sever the rope he had for the bell, 'Okay, she's really, really, _really_ accurate with those things.'

Vivi rode past him swiftly to grab the bell, "Come on Carue, we've got it!" Carue placed his beak down and scooped up the bell, turning his head to the side to try and face Vivi to hand the bell to her when all of a sudden the bell was jerked out of his mouth.

It flew back into the air right into Naruto's hand, "Whew. That was close wasn't it? You almost got it that time." He said with amusement in his voice.

"What?" Vivi was shocked. How did he get the bell back? She had it right in her grasp, almost in her clutches, "How did you do that?"

Naruto dropped the bell from his hand with his tongue sticking out teasingly and revealed that it was dangling from some of his metal ninja wire, "You didn't think you were the only one that hooked wires to their fingers did you?" He snapped it back up and snatched it out of the air, "Come on, you got so close once, try it again my dear princess." He said, swinging the bell around in a wide circle by the wire attached to it.

"Damn you Naruto stop messing with me, take me seriously!" She said angrily, prompting Carue to charge him again, "Get him Carue!"

'She's sweet, but prone to outbursts of anger, especially in situations like this.' Naruto thought to himself, shaking his head as he saw her come forward. Did she think that would work three times in a row? "Don't get upset Vivi." Naruto said to her, "It takes a lot to make me get serious."

Vivi swung her enhanced chain slasher at him and gasped in shock when she saw it actually hit, however when he burst into smoke and revealed a log that had been cut in half she looked around for him.

"Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu)!"

A single shuriken flew from behind a field of rock formations before turning into twenty in mid-flight that Vivi and Carue desperately maneuvered out of the way of before Vivi started swinging her slashers about rapidly to bat the rest away. Both of them were sweating bullets and breathing heavily at the prospect of the weapons hitting them and riddling their bodies once the salvo died down.

"What the hell!" Vivi shouted indignantly to the entire area as Naruto was nowhere in sight, "That could have killed us!"

"You said take you seriously." Vivi's eyes fearfully panned to the side to see a grinning Naruto leaning on Carue, "Well your wish is my command!" He kicked Carue in the side and sent both of them spilling to the ground, with Vivi flying off of him.

Seeing her partner down and out, Vivi crawled over to the duck to find him knocked unconscious with swirls in his eyes, "Oh Carue…" She said, "You did your best."

"You want to quit?" Naruto yelled across the field, still nonchalantly swinging the bell around tauntingly.

Vivi stood up and dusted herself off, "No way. You're not getting me to quit until I get that bell."

Naruto grinned and caught the bell again, "Good. Because if I heard you quit after that one fall there was no way I was going to have anything to do with training you at all. Now come on, what are you going to do without Carue to maneuver around? Let's see what you've got Vivi!" To Vivi's eyes he blurred from sight he was moving so fast and she instinctually ducked in time to avoid an open palm to the face before also cartwheeling away avoiding Naruto's sweep to follow up. She stood back up and stared at Naruto in disbelief who gave her a look of equal surprise, "Wow. I didn't expect that one."

Vivi blinked, "Neither did I honestly."

Naruto nodded but got a smile, 'Well at least I know what positive of hers I'm working on strengthening first.' That was damn good agility and defensive mobility especially for someone that seemed even more surprised than he was that it actually happened, "Let's try that again!" Vivi let out a short scream when she saw Naruto blur from plain sight again and quickly spun in a circle with her twin lengthened weapons, swinging them outward, "Holy shit!" Naruto shouted as he hopped out of their range before they could cut him in half, "Are you sure you don't know what you're doing?" The expression on her face showed him she didn't. She just did that on the fly, 'Oh yeah, this is going to work out just fine.'

"I'm getting that bell Naruto!" Vivi said, snapping herself out of awe at actually still standing at this point. She swung both of her slashers out at Naruto but they both missed on both sides of him. Vivi smirked and pulled hard on them, forcing them back at him from behind, "Kujakki Mojiretsu Shinrei Runback (Peacock String Slasher Runback)!"

Naruto felt them coming and jumped in the air over the first one, contorting his body in a barrel roll over the second one before landing back on his feet and patting his person down to make sure he still had all of his body parts, "Damn it!" He said, turning around and grabbing the bottom back of his long red sage coat that was now missing a segment, "I just got this fixed not too long ago!"

Vivi furrowed her brow and attacked again. Naruto dropped his coat with a serious look on his face and brandished a kunai that he used to block the two weapons. He then threw the kunai right at Vivi who hit the deck to avoid the projectile. When she retook her feet and stood back up, Naruto was right in her face. Vivi reflexively lifted her hand to hit him, or attack him in some way and Naruto grabbed before throwing her over his shoulder hard, sending her flying and sprawling on the hard ground.

Naruto frowned when he saw how disheveled she looked as she slowly stood back up, 'Pell would kill me if he knew this was happening right now.' However when she got up he saw a smirk on her face, kind of out of place for the situation she was in.

Vivi started unbuttoning her blouse, "You're even more powerful than I could have imagined… I've never seen you fight in person but everyone keeps assuring me I didn't have a chance. You aren't even fighting for real at all are you?"

"Nope!" Naruto said, but he was interested in what she was unbuttoning her shirt for, "But what are you doing? Not that I'm not liking the way this is going."

"My secret weapon Naruto." Vivi said before throwing off her blouse and skirt to reveal a skintight bodysuit with alternating swirl patterns on it. It had no sleeves and revealed much of her cleavage. It also stopped at her thighs, just short of where her white shorts had stopped at, "The new and improved Miwaku no Memaii (Captivating Dizziness Dance)!"

Naruto's tongue lolled out of his mouth as he watched her with hearts in his eyes, "Oh hell yes it's improved! As captain I recommend that that be your permanent attire for the duration of your stay on my ship!" Naruto started patting himself down as she continued, "Damn it where is my camera? I need pictures!"

Nojiko yelled at Naruto from her spot off of the battlefield, "Naruto-kun stop perving on Vivi! You're in the middle of a fight!"

"Oi!" Naruto shouted back with a trickle of blood running down his nose, "I perve on every woman on the ship to a certain extent! And this is a completely legitimate attack she's using, let her finish!" Naruto turned back to Vivi, "Go ahead, I'm paying attention." He said eagerly.

Vivi stopped and turned around with a raincloud over her head, "It didn't work again… You aren't dizzy or disoriented at all. That was all I really had left."

Naruto appeared behind her and placed a hand on her shoulder, "No, sorry it didn't work on me, but you know how you can fix that? Practice, and lots of it. And for you I am willing to be your test subject for that technique anytime you want." He said with a thumbs up.

Miss Valentine laughed loudly while Nojiko just stood shaking her head at the antics of her captain/lover. Nojiko turned to the side to see how the others interpreted the fight when she saw all three of the other men stumbling around dizzily.

Soren steadied himself on a rock before sniffing up a small trail of blood from one nostril, "Holy crap that move actually works?"

Yosaku gave up trying to keep his balance and simply sat down on the ground holding his head, "I guess she wouldn't have tried it if she didn't know it would work. Wow." Johnny slumped against a boulder and slid to the ground.

"Okay we're done." Naruto said to Vivi, "You can get dressed and we can get back onboard the ship now. I've seen all I needed to see to come up with something for you." Naruto handed Vivi her clothes and began walking away, "I'll have something for you in a few days. I'll work on it later, right now I'm tired. It's been a long 24 hours."

XxX

(The Next Day – Out at Sea)

Miss Valentine frowned as she looked through the cupboards, "We still need to make for land soon. We're running low on food again!" She yelled from the kitchen that sounded all the way through the common area to Naruto's room.

"Got it!" Naruto's voice echoed back, "Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" A few seconds after he said that, a Naruto clone walked out of the room and went looking for Nojiko so he could get info on their current bearings.

"Why didn't you just go yourself?" Miss Valentine asked him from the kitchen.

"Meh." He replied from behind the door, "I'm lazy today. Besides, I'm working on Vivi's training program. I already have yours finished."

Miss Valentine walked over through the room and stood in front of Naruto's door, "You do? Can I see it?" She asked curiously before sticking her ear to the door to hear his reply.

"Nope, sorry." Naruto said, getting Miss Valentine to pout on the other side of the door, not like he could see it, "I'll introduce you to your first exercises when I figure out how to train you without sinking the ship."

"It wouldn't be that bad. Just let me have the instructions already." Miss Valentine said with a roll of the eyes.

Naruto scoffed from inside of his room, "Do you really think this ship can withstand suddenly gaining 10,000 kilograms? Do you really think this ship can hold 10,000 kilograms period? You can't swim Miss Devil Fruit-User so do you really want to risk it?" Silence was his only answer, "That's what I thought. Though I do wonder how far you can float for with that umbrella you carry."

Shivering at the thought of slowly falling into the sea while floating above it, Miss Valentine leaned against the door, "Ugh, please don't say things like that. That thought isn't funny at all." She let out a cry of alarm as the door opened and she fell through into Naruto's arms, "W-What was that for?" She said testily with a blush as she saw the serious look on his face while he held her there against his chest.

Naruto let her go and walked ahead, "My clone saw a ship outside and we're nearing an actual town as well."

"A ship?" Miss Valentine repeated, "Marines?" She said as she followed him outside.

Naruto shook his head as they made it outside, "No, not Marines. It didn't have the insignia, or any insignia at all, but it might be pirates. The ship looks weird."

Miss Valentine laughed a bit, "Weirder than a ship painted orange with blue trim?"

Naruto grinned wryly, "I don't know. Do you think a ship that looks like a floating dessert tray looks weirder than this?" He gestured back inside, "Go get some of the others to meet me out here just in case. I don't know what's going to happen so they should at least know what's going on."

Miss Valentine gave him a playful fake salute, "You've got it Naruto." She disappeared back inside to fetch some of the others as instructed.

Naruto walked up to the helm and hopped on the railing at the very front of the ship before making a clone to steer, "So who would you be?" He said to himself in question of just who this ship was and why they were heading towards him. A quick smattering of footsteps told him that others were quickly making their way up to him.

He felt Miss Valentine drift over his back and wrap her arms around his neck, light as a feather, "I've got a few of them up here Naruto." Her light voice danced in his ear as she held on to him.

Naruto smiled at her, "Thank you Valentine." He said appreciatively. He turned around, still standing on the railing with Miss Valentine on his back and began pacing along the rail as he saw all of the ship goers up on deck, "Okay, there's a ship getting closer to ours as you can tell so I'm just saying to be ready for anything."

Johnny punched the palm of his hand, "Maybe it's those assholes from the other day."

Naruto shook his head, "Nope. Do you really think Eustass Kid and his crew would sail around on a ship that looks like a bunch of sweets?"

Johnny sweatdropped, "Okay, nevermind then."

"Yeah." Naruto said, "Either way, I'm going over there by myself." When a unanimous chorus of whys went up from the others he elaborated, "Because out of all of you only four out of the six of you I can trust to fight over there if it comes to it and two of those four have powers from the fruit, making going over there and fighting unnecessarily dangerous, especially with the majority of you being hotheads, especially the guys on the ship."

Soren frowned and pointed at the ship getting ever closer, "So you're just going to go over there all by yourself and leave us here while you deal with a ship of possibly fully hostile and powerful people."

Naruto grinned at the man, "Aw come on. When you say that it makes me sound stupid." Naruto motioned to Nojiko, "You know the deal. You in crow's nest, cover me on the deck with the rifle. Keep Johnny and Yosaku on the cannons. Soren is here in case they board somehow. And we've got Miss Valentine to make sure Vivi's alright." Naruto ignored Vivi's yell of indignation at being written off like that, "I'll give you a signal if I need you to start firing."

Nojiko nodded, "What signal?" She asked for the sake of knowing her cue.

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know. It'll probably be something violent. Alright Valentine, off my back." Miss Valentine did as she was asked to, leaving Naruto standing on the railing by himself, "I'll be back in a bit." With that, Naruto jumped onto the surface of the water, channeling chakra to his feet and sprinted out at the other ship.

Nojiko took the rifle from off of her back, "Alright, everyone get to your positions."

Vivi blinked as everyone took the spots that Nojiko had indicated. She herself climbed to the crow's nest to spot Naruto from above. Johnny and Yosaku rolled all four cannons onto the same sides of the ship and took aim with them per the written and drawn instructions for dummies Nojiko had posted on one of the cannons. Soren just leaned against the mast and stared out at the other ship, waiting patiently. And Miss Valentine grabbed onto Vivi's arm and took her inside, "You all have positions on the ship? What's yours?"

Miss Valentine looked at the princess with her normal sunny expression, "My job is pretty much to ensure that parcels of interest are kept safe in certain situations."

Vivi's brain processed that thought for a moment, "Wait. You're here to protect me?" She said with an odd look.

"Kyahahaha!" Miss Valentine laughed, confirming her previous statement, "I know. It's weird isn't it? I was just trying to kill you not too long ago."

XxX

The crew on the ship opposite of the Natural Disaster's crewmates all stared in interest at the trail leading through the water coming towards them, "What the hell is that?" One of the men asked the others as it got closer.

"I don't know." Replied another, "Someone should get the captain though. We were supposed to get her either when we got close enough to that ship to check it out or in case we were attacked."

Before any response could be given, the trail in the water ended when a figure in front of it jumped into the air and landed right on board their ship. A slightly soaked blonde young man in a open red coat with short sleeves and black flames along the bottom was grinning at them, unnerving the entire crew with what had just happened, "Hi. Can I speak to whoever's in charge here?"

One of the crewmen nodded and ran off inside of the ship to do so while Naruto leaned against the railing, looking over the crew. The all had clothes that were seemingly too small for them. Mostly clothing that consisted of small singlets, sweatshirts, suspenders, etc. A strange crew uniform he had to say, "So is there a reason you guys were coming in hot at my ship just now?"

"Who's the guy that got onto my ship?" A voice called out as the crew cleared the way for the origin of said voice. A young woman with long pink hair, purple eyes, bright red lipstick, and a piercing under her right eye came forward and stared at Naruto with her hands on her hips. She wore an open brown jacket, and underneath that wore a white top that revealed her stomach and a fair amount of cleavage. She also wore an extremely short pair of orange and black striped shorts with a buckle and suspenders worn over her shirt along with black high-heeled boots reaching her calf and brown and pink stockings with yellow suns on them.

Naruto looked her over appraisingly before smiling, "I've got to say; I already like you a lot more than the last person I met on the Grand Line."

The woman stared at him with an underwhelmed look on her face, "I'm going to ask you again. Who exactly are you?"

A grin spread over Naruto's face, "I'm glad you asked me that!" Naruto bit his thumb and made a quick series of hand-seals, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" In a puff of white smoke, Naruto was now standing atop a large human sized toad that was waving two fans about as Naruto did a series of one legged hops on its head and stood still in a grandiose pose while kabuki instruments played in the background, "I am the man that brings the both the men and the ladies to their knees… for completely different reasons mind you, the man that bends the very will of nature to his own, the greatest shinobi in existence, the immortal toad sennin, Uzumaki Naruto."

The entire crew that had just born witness to the spectacle stood there with their mouths wide open.

XxX

Nojiko had a large sweatdrop on the back of her head as she watched Naruto's introduction pose for the first time through her rifle before pulling away from it, "I seriously can't believe he just did that… What the hell? I can't even imagine what he said to those people just now." She looked back down through it in case he needed help, "You are so weird Naruto-kun."

XxX

The crew remained silent as Naruto sat down on the large toad's head and patted it with a grin, "Well Gama I would say that worked out perfectly. Look at them." He gestured at the crew, "I either shocked and awed them or terrified them into silence. Good job." And with that he dispelled the toad, "And you too clones, the timing in the instruments was perfect this time."

The crew turned to where Naruto was looking and saw that he had replications of himself set up with instruments on the ship that bowed before disappearing in puffs of smoke. One man pointed at Naruto, "What the hell is this guy? Toads and body doubles? That's not possible!"

Another spoke up, "What kind of fruit gives someone either of those powers? This guy is unnatural!"

Naruto frowned, "Hey, I am very natural thank you very much. Superhuman feats of greatness don't make you inhuman you know."

The female captain walked forward looking Naruto over, "Uzumaki Naruto huh?" She said as she paced around him a few times, "That name is weird. I'm Jewelry Bonney. You look awfully familiar."

Naruto shrugged. He assumed that he did look slightly different from his wanted poster especially since he wasn't covered in someone else's blood at the moment, "I just have one of those faces I assume. You know; dashing, breathtaking, ruggedly handsome features. You can stop me when I describe whichever one I am." He said with a toothy grin.

Bonney kept walking around him, observing him until she stopped directly in front of him and placed her hand directly on his face running it up and down his cheek, confusing him "Give me a second to think about it." She said softly. Her crew smirked knowingly at the unfortunate blonde.

After a minute of this, Naruto grinned at her, "Okay, I give. What are you trying to do to me?" His proclamation made Bonney recoil, but she still kept her hand on his face, "I know you're doing something, I can feel you putting chakra into my body, but I don't know what exactly you're doing. All I know is that it isn't working."

"What? The captain's power didn't work?"

"I'll say it again; what the hell is he?"

Bonney's face went back to normal, "Well if it doesn't work that way then I'll try the other way." She said to him.

Naruto's grin got wider, "You have another way to get your powers to work? If the first way you used was to touch my cheek like this I hope the other ways are more fun!" After a few more seconds and a frown crossing Bonney's face Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "This is the same exact way you used them the first time."

Bonney removed her hand from his face, "Damn it! Why aren't you changing ages? I had my powers active long enough to turn someone your age into a senile old man or a drooling baby!"

Naruto's eyes lit up in realization, "Oh so that's what you were doing! Yeah, if you're trying to turn me into an old man we'll be sitting here all day if it ever even happens at all, and even trying to turn me into a little kid would take longer than you could even imagine."

"How?" Bonney pouted, stomping her foot on the deck in a fit, "All it should have taken was ten seconds to turn you into a five year old! You can't be any older than twenty!"

Naruto furrowed his brow in thought, "Hold on, so that would mean that you would have needed… like three hundred seconds to turn me into a five year old." He then grinned and rubbed the back of his neck, "But I suck at math, and who knows how many years you already put on with your hand on my face as long as it was the first time?"

Bonney backed away from Naruto before slumping her shoulders in defeat, "Oh fine… whatever. Take what you want… we can't beat you, just don't kill us."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Why were you all gunning for my ship?"

Bonney looked up at him to see a look of curiosity on his face, "Well we thought you were Marines and we were getting ready to fight with you because it was just one. Your ship looks just like a Marine model ship… just painted funky colors and with a weird flag."

"That's our Jolly Roger apparently." Naruto admitted, "And apparently I need to get someone who can help me change the way the ship looks so this kind of thing can stop happening." He then looked at the crew who seemed scared of him, "Why are you all afraid of me?"

Bonney gave him an 'are you stupid' look, "Why are they scared? They're scared because you're Uzumaki Naruto. The 'Seed of War' that can cause tornadoes, whirlpools, and tidal waves out of nowhere, the guy that singlehandedly kidnapped the princess of Alabasta and destroyed entire cities all over the country. The man that singlehandedly destroyed an entire company of Marines by himself. Why wouldn't they be scared? You're going to kill us."

Damn lying newspapers… so his face isn't that well known, but his name is well known enough for other pirates to be wary of him. He could only imagine what it would be like when he got to town, "I'm not going to kill you." Naruto said, "Why would I kill you? You didn't really do anything to me or my crew." Naruto turned back towards his ship and gave a gesture to calm down, signifying that everything was fine. He turned back to Bonney and opened his mouth to speak when his stomach growled loudly.

The crew looked at him strangely while Naruto just looked down at his stomach and held it with a weak look on his face, "Damn… I haven't fully recovered yet and I didn't eat today. We were almost out of food."

Bonney blinked at him before a smirk crossed her face.

XxX

(Moments Later)

The crew of the Natural Disaster gathered on deck as Naruto came running back across the open water before coming to a stop on board the ship. "Well?" Nojiko said to Naruto, waiting for information on what had happened.

Naruto shrugged, "We're invited to a party with the crew I just met. There's supposed to be tons of food, I'm hungry, we're going." With that he walked back towards the helm and took over control of the ship with a casual look on his face.

The others waited for him to speak on the matter further and were left waiting as he simply steered the ship with purpose and focus in his eyes. Vivi placed her hands on her hips and looked at the blonde steering the ship, "That's it?"

Naruto nodded, not bothering to even look, "That's it." He said simply.

"Wait, wait, wait." Soren said, speaking up for the majority of the Foxhound Pirates, "What crew?"

XxX

(Hours Later)

"Holy crap…" Johnny said as the inside of a restaurant on the island they had docked at was full of raucous noise from the crew of pirates they had met along with the sound of ravenous eating.

Yosaku rubbed his eyes and continued watching the spectacle, "I know… I didn't know a woman could eat so much." He was speaking of Jewerly Bonney who was swiftly clearing plates faster than they could be set down in front of her.

Nojiko, Vivi, and Miss Valentine were watching her enviously, "How can she possibly eat so much like that and stay so thin?" Nojiko wondered, "It's totally not fair… Why does she have the killer metabolism?" The other women nodded in agreement.

Soren was watching as well with a sweatdrop on his head, "My question is; how in the hell is Uzumaki keeping up with her? I swear, both of them have to have bottomless pits for stomachs."

Naruto was sitting right next to Bonney, eating just as quickly as she was, but with a far more perturbed look on his face, "Oi!" Naruto suddenly shouted with his mouth full before grabbing a nearby chef that was putting more food out for them, "This is an all you can eat buffet, so where's the ramen?" He asked, giving himself time to swallow his food, "I haven't seen one drop of the stuff since I've been in here!"

The chef looked at the blonde fearfully, "Sir I don't really know what ramen is." He said shakily.

Naruto let the poor man go and dropped his face on the table, "Noooo…." He replied desperately, "I was all excited to come here because Bonney said it was the best restaurant in the whole region. How can it be the best place in the region when they don't serve Kami's personal divine dish itself, ramen?"

Bonney chewed her food and looked over at Naruto, "Ramen? I don't know what that's all about but the only divine food I know is pizza." The young female captain said.

"Blasphemy and I call you out on that!" Naruto immediately replied, "Until you've imbibed in the greatness of ramen you haven't tasted real food!" He shouted, "You would throw all of this other crap away if you could even taste ramen!" He loudly assured her.

"Fuck ramen!" Bonney shouted back at him, "Pizza!"

"Don't fuck with me about this!" Naruto stood up pointing a shaky finger, "It's been months since I've even smelled the stuff and I can tell you right now… I would kill someone with a plastic spoon in front of their own mother for a bowl of ramen, right now!"

Bonney got right in Naruto's face, "Do you want to fight about this?" She threatened.

"Sure let's go!" Naruto replied back hotly, "Your powers don't work on me remember? I'd kick your ass from here to the Red Line before you could even blink!"

Gritting her teeth at realizing that he had a point, Bonney shot back, "Yeah, well if you weren't using your powers I'd beat those stupid whiskers off of your cheeks! What are you supposed to look like anyway? Some otter of the sea or something?"

Taking offense to someone calling him out on his whisker marks because no one talked shit about the marks, they were sexy; Naruto pulled the sleeve of his sage coat up, spoiling for a fight, "I'll show you an otter of the sea bitch!"

Before the situation could escalate further an explosion rocked the front of the restaurant, taking out the wall and knocking everyone inside to the ground. Recovering from the blast, Naruto stood back up rubbing his head, "What the hell just happened?"

Bonney was still on the ground with anime tears pouring from her eyes, "My food…" She said sadly, "Who's the dead son of a bitch that ruined my meal?" She asked angrily.

From the smoke generated by the initial blast, a set of three figures were seen standing at the opening in the wall. All three of them were massive, standing twenty feet high with strangely proportioned bodies; large protruding chins, massive upper torsos and skinny by comparison legs. They had strange solid white eyes, grey hats with the impression of bear ears, curly black hair, black jackets with what appeared to be a crosshair on the front, brown gloves and white pants with brown spots on them,

All three of them had a red glow in the centers of their eyes momentarily, "'Seed of War' Uzumaki Naruto. Bounty: 245 million beli. Orders: immediate execution."

* * *

**Chapter complete.**

**Yeah. He has Rinnegan. My reason is that my overall theory is that I believe he's somehow going to actually end up with it. Kishimoto has a hard-on for all of these eye-based kekkei genkai and I believe Naruto's going to end up with Rinnegan at the end because a shitload of signs are pointing that way that I don't feel like listing here in an author's note but there are quite a few. The series is going to end with Naruto having to use that damn move to bring back every person on the planet after Madara's apocalypse happens, and then he's going to die himself in the process and that will be that. No matter how it ends, even if I'm wrong here, it's most definitely going to end with Naruto dying. I'm calling it here, and in three years when the series finally ends I want to laugh at myself for being so damned right.**

**Anyway, that's why he didn't tear Eustass Kid a new asshole (yet). Because at the time he could solve the problem, it had just happened. He isn't good and rightly pissed off as he will be when I get the story to the part where I want it to be, and you'll all know when I'm there, I guarantee it. Naruto, no matter how much time passes and what he's seen, will keep his base character at heart, and thus far in the series he's only actually killed one person, hell he didn't kill the guy that eradicated his whole village with one move. He also knows that there are worse things that you can do besides kill someone… which is another point of me alluding to him going off on something later in the story.**

**Remember; everything I do is with purpose and intent and the things that I cause to happen have reason and purpose. I don't do things just to do them, in any story.**

**Alright, I'm done. I hope you enjoyed. Kenchi out.**


	18. Pacifista  Pacifist

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I challenge Oda to a drag race for the rights to One Piece. My 98 Ford Taurus will straight smoke whatever piece of crap he can put on the road. I mean what can the income from a successful manga franchise afford anyway? Nothing better than the powerful power of a used, family-sized, late 90's four door sedan I'm certain. Hallelujah holla back!

**Chapter 18: Pacifista Pacifist**

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Jewelry Bonney pulled herself to her feet and looked at the three hulking, massive figures that had crashed the party and busted into the restaurant without warning or provocation, "Hey Uzumaki. I think these guys are here for you."

Naruto was already on his feet wiping the dust from the explosion off of himself, "Gee, whatever gave you that idea? Was it the calling out of my name and bounty like we had a problem, the glowing red eyes, or the part where they said 'immediate execution?'" Naruto looked at them all, "Man they're huge."

Bonney looked at most of her crew down for the count after the surprise attack, "Can you beat them all?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Woman, I'm Uzumaki 'fucking' Naruto. There's not a single creature on this beautiful blue ball of water and dirt I can't beat, and if there is then I'm just not trying hard enough." He got a good look at their attackers, "What are they, brothers or something?"

Bonney's eyes widened once she was able to get a good look at who they were, "Kuma? The Shichibukai Bartholomew Kuma?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Shichibukai? Which one, they all look alike?"

"All of them!" She exclaimed, "They're all Kuma! We can't take them on, they'll slaughter us! What do they want?"

Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "To kill me. You can run if you want to, just make sure when you get your crew you get mine up as well. They're not here for you Bonney, just me. Aren't I special?" She didn't even bother giving it a second thought, hightailing it away from Naruto's side to avoid any conflict and letting him focus on the task at hand, "Well it looks like I'm going to be tearing another town apart. Kami, Noji-chan was right, I do destroy things everywhere I go." With a sigh he left the restaurant and prompted his opponents to follow him in pursuit.

XxX

(With Foxhound Pirates)

Soren threw a sizeable chunk of debris off of his body and looked around. Noticing that everyone else had been knocked senseless by the first attack he quickly made his way over to them and woke them up, "Hey, where's Uzumaki?" He then got a dry look on his face, "Wait, I don't even need to answer that. He's obviously fighting whatever did this." He looked at Miss Valentine, who was the fastest to recover, "Make sure you wake everyone up and tell them me and Uzumaki are fighting. Who knows what it's going to be this time."

Miss Valentine nodded, holding her head, and Soren left the ruined building. She then went around making sure that everyone had their awareness about them, "Come on, you guys are alright. Nothing even hit any of you."

Nojiko and Vivi were still sitting down, disoriented from the first blast. Johnny and Yosaku were standing up, albeit barely, "What just happened?" Vivi asked, "Who did this?"

"Bartholomew Kuma." Bonney said from nearby as she was getting her own people together, "Uzumaki is fighting him right now." She saw their faces pale, "Yeah, exactly. And I haven't even gotten to the kicker yet. Apparently there's three of them, all gunning for him."

Johnny immediately clutched the sword at his hip, "What? We've got to go help fi-!"

"No you aren't!" Miss Valentine snapped at him, catching everyone off guard as she was never one to yell at anyone in anger, "Everyone here would just get themselves killed if we tried anything. We'd just get in Naruto's way." She said.

Yosaku wasn't having any of that, "He'd help us! Naruto-aniki would be right there helping us if we needed it!"

Miss Valentine narrowed her eyes, "And how much stronger than you is he?" She said, getting them both to calm down, "The same rules don't apply to him that they do to you. Just because he can fight and beat anyone doesn't mean you can as well. A Shichibukai would slaughter you all. That would mean that he would be at least as strong as Crocodile. Do you think you'd be any use in a fight with Crocodile?"

Nojiko frowned at how she spoke to the two swordsmen to keep them from running off to fight, "You didn't have to put it like that. You made it seem like everything they've done is for nothing."

Miss Valentine didn't look the least bit apologetic, "Well it would have all been for nothing if they'd run off like idiots and gotten themselves killed. All that would have done would be to put Naruto in more danger than he already is. Soren shouldn't even be going there, but if he's outmatched at least he can run away fast enough. You all act as if you don't know the food chain by now. It's Naruto, Soren, and then all of us."

Vivi looked at all of the destruction around them, "So what do we do now?"

Nojiko looked at the younger princess and then at Miss Valentine, "Ship?"

She nodded, "Ship." An explosion sounded out from not too far away, "Let's not go that way to get to the docks either."

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto watched as one of his massive enemies turned a building to rubble, "Okay, so they can shoot laser beams. That's fun. And they don't really care about causing property damage either." Naruto cracked his knuckles, "What the hell are they though? I know what a human feels like and this isn't a human feeling I'm getting."

A 'Kuma' came running forward at Naruto with a speed belying its massive size and attempted to punch Naruto into the ground, but his agility was too much for it and it ended up smashing the ground with its fist. Naruto delivered a punch right to the side of his face in response that he had to jump into thanks to the towering size his opponent had over him. However, Naruto's punch barely made the thing slide back over the ground. That punch should have lain out someone even of that size, and his fist didn't feel like it had hit a human jaw.

The 'Kuma' he had been fighting turned its head back towards him and fired another laser attack from its mouth at him that Naruto was forced to again jump out of the way to dodge. He wound up jumping right into the trajectory of another 'Kuma' that had his hands extended as a light shone from its palms, "Shit." Naruto said as he made a series of hand-seals just as the second 'Kuma' fired.

The blast engulfed Naruto's body, leaving ashen remains behind, until a group of at least thirty Naruto Kage Bunshin leapt from the rooftops behind the 'Kuma' that had just attacked and formed Rasengan in one hand each, "Rasen Chou Tarengan (Large Group of Spiraling Spheres)!"

Naruto's clones landed on their target and drilled it into the ground in a massive cloud of dust that filled the air. The other two remaining enemies looked around with glowing red eyes before launching laser attacks at a nearby building. As it was destroyed from the reckless attack, Naruto jumped from behind it, an angry look on his face, 'I need to get these idiots out of town or they'll end up killing people. Even if my clones evacuated the area, this is still a terrible place for a fight.' Taking that thought to heart, Naruto once again took off in tactical retreat to find a better place to fight. The two other 'Kumas' once again, single-mindedly went after him.

Moments later, Soren appeared in the area and looked for Naruto in the wreckage that had been freshly caused, "Great… I just missed him. Why is he so hard to chase down when I actually need to find him?" A sound of something stirring in a nearby crater got his attention, "Uzumaki?" As he stuck his head over the side he almost got it taken off by a blast of a laser, "What?"

The 'Kuma' Naruto's clones had bombarded with their joint Rasengan salvo climbed out of the crater with multiple spiral marks cut into his clothes and carved into the surface of his flesh, but underneath the marks was blood and a silver substance that Soren couldn't identify, but didn't look natural in the least, "Soren 'The Plague'. Bounty: 200 million beli. Orders: secondary objective. Capture or immediate execution."

Soren looked at the battle damaged 'Kuma' with anger and set himself in a ready stance, "Well it may not be the one I'm looking for, but until I find the right Shichibukai, Kuma, killing you will have to do. Capture or execution my ass!" He then ran at Kuma and jumped up on a fist that was thrown at him, proceeding to launch off of it at his enemy's chest and hit it flush with a palm strike, "Ishitora Kyuukei (Stone Tiger Break)!" Soren's face twisted in pain after hitting his mark.

Soren jumped back to dodge a retaliatory punch and held his right hand gingerly, "What the fuck was that? It felt like I just hit pure metal." He seethed in pain as he watched 'Kuma' open up his fist to show his palm that was glowing before he fired a laser beam at Soren who hit the deck to avoid the attack, "I didn't know Kuma could do that." Soren said tentatively as he stood back up testing his injured hand out, "Shit, I can't even make a fist."

'Kuma' sprinted forward, catching Soren off-guard at how fast the big guy was and smashed the ground in front of him with a punch that Soren barely stepped back from. 'Kuma' then loaded his opposite arm up and smashed Soren to the side with a hard backhand that sent him rolling along the ground. He stalked towards the fallen Soren slowly.

Soren picked himself up, holding his ribs, "What a monster… but I'm not done yet, because I can't lose… not until I kill that guy, now get out of my way! Ibi Ibi no Jakan (Rot Rot Hose)!" Soren channeled his acid into his arms and blasted a forceful stream of acid at the massive figure, coating him in the corrosive fluid.

Soren watched 'Kuma' go still and figured he finally got him as he heard his acid eat through with a hiss, "There you go. Shichibukai my ass, I knew I could beat him." He started walking away until he heard the sounds of acid die down to nothing, "That shouldn't have finished so quickly…" He turned around and his eyes widened at what he saw.

All of the clothing on what he had first thought to be Kuma had completely disintegrated, along with a large majority of the skin lying under it, but underneath there was a metal frame that, while smoking from Soren's attack, wasn't being eaten through. The metal monster continued to walk towards Soren and steadily pick up the pace until it was outright charging at him with glowing red eyes. It opened its mouth and fired another beam at Soren that he dodged, but he still wound up being plowed into by the juggernaut that sent both of them crashing into the side of a nearby building and out the other side where Soren was not so neatly deposited on the ground.

Coughing at the damage done to his body at getting driven through a building, he rolled on the ground in pain as he looked at the advancing metal creature come at him steadily, "What the hell are you?"

XxX

(With Foxhound Pirates)

Nojiko was standing on the dock between Bonney's ship and the Natural Disaster, "I don't understand. How can there be more than one Bartholomew Kuma? You said there were three. No one's ever seen more than one ever before and he's never been stated as having any family."

Bonney watched as her wounded men were placed aboard the ship, "I'm just telling you what I saw. I'm no fool. I know what Kuma looks like, and I'm saying that I saw Kuma, Kuma, and another Kuma. There wasn't anything that could tell them apart. Take it any way you want to, all I know is I'm getting the hell out of here. I'm no match for one Kuma, and your boy is taking on three."

Vivi poked her head over the side of the ship, "Nojiko should I prepare to leave? Maybe Naruto can do that thing he always does to show up when we leave him behind?"

Nojiko shook her head, "We're not leaving him behind again, Hiraishin or not. And Soren's here to you know? We can't just let them both stay here by themselves. We'll wait."

Bonney shook her head, "I don't know if that's brave or stupid. I don't have any reason to stay here and die like you all do apparently so I'm out of here, I have my own skin I need to save." She got aboard her ship and turned back with a grin, "If Uzumaki survives tell him I still owe him for covering my escape. We never got to finish our little contest back there either."

Nojiko rolled her eyes, "Yeah sure. I'll tell him when he gets back here in fifteen minutes. We might even catch up to you if we're going the same way."

Vivi watched the banter between the two, "Do you think Naruto will really get back here in fifteen minutes?" Vivi asked.

Nojiko shrugged, "Not really." Vivi gasped, did she not think he could win this time, "It might take twenty. I don't know it's up to him." Vivi almost fell off of the ship from the misinterpreted signal she had been getting, "Where's Miss Valentine?"

XxX

(With Naruto)

"Stop shooting at me you idiots!" Naruto yelled as lasers flew past him while he continued to run away, "You're going to blow the whole town up at this rate!" Naruto saw a turn coming and saw one of the opponents charging up another laser from its mouth. Naruto quickly sprung off of the wall and jumped back at the attacker, connecting with a kick planted right under the chin. Naruto got him to slide back with his head turned up from the force of the kick, but saw him lower his head with a loud crack noise, "This is ridiculous… I am dropping one of you right here right now!"

He moved out of the way of a kick from the second 'Kuma' and slammed his shoulder into his body while he was still off balance, managing to knock one of them down at last. Naruto jumped into the air off of his chest and came back down with a Rasengan between both of his hands coated with a jagged outline, "Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Spiraling Sphere)!" Naruto carved into Kuma's chest with his Rasengan and gritted his teeth at the sound of his wind scraping against… metal? Once he actually paid attention he realized that he was drilling straight into metal, metal tougher than steel because the Rasengan was meeting with some serious resistance, it shouldn't have taken nearly as long to get through to this thing's innards even if it was made of regular metal. He finally punched a hole through it and drove his hand through to the back.

'This thing isn't human after all.' Naruto thought to himself, "I don't have to hold back anymore." Naruto jumped off of the Pacifista as he wasn't doing anything but leaving himself open for a counter attack that almost happened when the other inhuman assailant missed its laser attack, "I don't really like the whole killing thing. But you guys aren't human, and you're trying to kill me so you're just out of luck today."

He then sweatdropped when he saw the one he had just punched a gaping hole into with the Rasengan stand back up, but something seemed off about it. It located Naruto and fired off another laser, and then another, and then another. Naruto was dodging laser after laser from the wounded golem while the one he had hardly injured came towards him to fight up close. Whenever Naruto dodged a close range attack and went in to counterattack he would end up getting shot at by the other one that was standing back and twitching uncontrollably. What was wrong with that thing? It seemed berserk because it wasn't waiting for the other one to clear the way before firing, and it seemed to fire every five seconds.

'I have an awesome idea!' Naruto looked at the 'Kuma' that was firing every few seconds and then at the one that was trying to attack him close. Naruto made three Kage Bunshin that all scattered in different directions, drawing the laser shooting Kuma's attention and giving him time by getting him to waste a shot to take one of his clones out before they could all get away.

Naruto waited to dodge another physical attack and latched onto that Kuma's face, right on cue the other one fired a laser blast prompting Naruto to jump off of the first one and allow him to take the shot intended for him. Naruto let the thing get a full on blast from its comrade.

"Worked like a charm!" Naruto shouted as he watched his adversary get blasted into a building as it crumbled around him. However he let the five second rule slip his mind for long enough that the remaining Kuma got a shot in on him from behind. As the laser blast exploded on his body and sent him sliding along the ground he saw his enemy loading up another one to hit him with before he could retake his feet. That shot actually hurt quite a bit. A few more like that and he might not be walking away from this one. Naruto's body stopped moving along the ground and gave him a chance to assess his damage, yeah he couldn't take much more of that. It felt like his spine wanted to punch through his belly and he knew the back of his coat no longer existed.

"10,000 Kilo Press!"

Miss Valentine landed on the laser shooting combatant and crushed it, cracking the ground deeply and causing a significant tremor. Miss Valentine sat in place for a moment, blinking before jumping up, holding her backside, "Owowowowow! What the hell is he made of? Metal?" She looked down at the crushed remains of what she just landed on, "Oh. Yeah… he is." She rubbed her rear absently until she saw Naruto picking himself up off of the ground, "Naruto!"

Naruto saw her running towards him as he stood back up, "Damn it Valentine, you do not come find me while I'm fighting!" A hard shot to the top of the head deposited him back onto the ground, "What the fuck?"

Miss Valentine yanked him back to his feet and lifted him off of the ground by his collar, "You dumbass! I was worried about you! You can hear the explosions all the way from the docks, and then I saw you get hit, I thought you were dead!"

Naruto saw tears that threatened to gather in her eyes, "I'm sorry. But it's going to take more than one lucky shot to finish me off, so don't worry about that. Nothing's going to kill me alright?"

Miss Valentine looked away and before he could comment she pressed her mouth to his. He flirted with her all the time, yes, but he never really expected her to take a shine to him like that. She broke the kiss abruptly, unable to meet his eyes with a light blush on her cheeks.

"Um…" Naruto said, trying to come up with something to say until the sound of rock falling caught his ear. He grabbed Miss Valentine and Shunshined out of the way just as a laser flashed past where they were standing. A clang sound rang out as Naruto's foot smashed into the side of the underlying metal head of the still moving figure that had its upper body clothing blasted away from the dead 'Kuma's' laser blast.

Naruto landed on his feet as the body of the strange golem went tumbling away. He had Miss Valentine held at his side and his eyes were outlined with an orange pigment and the pupils looked like that of a toad. He had a visible scowl on his face as he let go of her body and glared at his attacker, "We were having a moment." He wordlessly formed two Kage Bunshin and lifted his right hand into the air, forming a Rasengan. Both of his Kage Bunshin were manipulating chakra around the Rasengan and eventually formed a large shuriken shape around the Rasengan center.

Miss Valentine held her ears as a loud screeching noise rang out from the formation of Naruto's attack. The golem charged up laser blasts from both of its hands and from its mouth and took aim at Naruto who still had a look of cold indifference on his face, "Let's see if this doesn't tear you into pieces. Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)!" He let the jutsu fly from his fingertips just as the lasers were fired.

Naruto's jutsu cut across the landscape in one second flat, cutting right through the laser and hitting his target flush. Naruto turned to shield Miss Valentine's body as the attack expanded and created a massive wind sphere that swept up much of the surrounding area in a torrent of destruction.

The effects of the jutsu faded, leaving nothing of the body it hit behind. Miss Valentine watched as Naruto's clones dispelled and Naruto's eyes went back to normal. He grabbed her hand and walked forward as she took note of the ruin caused by the battle. Naruto let out a sigh, "I was getting sick of those things, and then it attacked you. It may have been overkill, but I don't care."

"What was that?" She asked, "You've never used that before."

Naruto looked back at her, "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken). You saw it. But it's actually strong enough to cut through a mountain if I wanted it to. Like I said, overkill. And I've still got worse moves than this."

They both looked at the epicenter of where Naruto's jutsu hit home. The only thing left was the head. It had all kinds of equipment sticking out of its neck. Miss Valentine frowned when she looked at it, "A cyborg."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "A what?"

"A cyborg." She repeated, "A human turned into a machine with metal mechanical enhancements to improve on the human form."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "Like a human puppet." Miss Valentine gave him an odd look, "Don't worry about it, it's a long story. I get the point though, no problem. And by the way, since all of this is done with-." He turned her towards him abruptly and kissed her, surprising the blonde woman who finally started to return it.

When they broke away, Miss Valentine had a flustered look on her face and swayed in place slightly, "W-What was that for? What about Nojiko?"

Naruto shook his head, "She and her sister Nami said they were going to share me even when I said being with me was a horrible idea and they said they were going to be greedy and not give me a choice. If that's the case, and you really do care about me, it would be greedy to not give you the same chance Miss Valentine. Do you care?"

A smile crossed her face as she let out a slight laugh, "If I cared I wouldn't have done it in the first place Naruto." She kissed him again before pulling away, "What about Soren? He said he was coming after you."

Naruto looked around, "I never saw him. Are you sure?" She nodded, "Fuck. Where is he?"

BOOM

XxX

(With Soren)

"Ahh!" Soren was held up by one limp arm by the now identified cyborg he had been stuck fighting. No matter how hard he hit the damn thing it wouldn't even flinch, show pain, anything. He couldn't melt the metal hull with his acid, no matter how much he pumped into it. He had refilled his liquids twice so far and he was running low again.

'I am not going out like this. This thing isn't even a person. It's not even Bartholomew Kuma. It's a fake. A damn tough fake, but the real thing is stronger than this… and if I can't win here then I can't beat the real Kuma, and if that's the case I'll never be able to face off with _him_.' Soren thought as the cyborg opened its mouth, 'It's still just a machine in the end. All it can do is follow the same patterns over and over again. A default proxy program…'

He saw the light beginning to form in the back of its throat, "You lose… Ibi Ibi no Kouzui (Rot Rot Flood)!" Soren's cheeks puffed out widely before shooting a torrent of acid directly into the mouth of the battle-ready cyborg. The light in the back of its throat faded and everything stood still for a moment before sparks started popping off wildly from the inside of its mouth. The eyes glowed red before the light slowly faded to dark and its head slumped over.

Soren stayed hanging in the defunct cyborg's hand, "Ow…" He said weakly as he swayed back and forth.

Naruto and Miss Valentine appeared on the scene to see the wounded bald bounty hunter caught in the grip of the damaged golem. Naruto walked close, "Soren are you alive?"

"Get. Me. Down." Soren said with his teeth grit tightly. Naruto and Miss Valentine looked at each other and shrugged, with her jumping onto the arm to pry its fingers free and Naruto pulling down on Soren's body, "Ow! Damn it, I meant get me down _gently_!"

Naruto slung Soren's good arm over his shoulder and helped him stay upright, "Sorry Soren. I thought I killed that one. Are you alright?"

Soren gave him a dry look that lost its impact when you had to look through all of the injuries, "My arm is as limp as a hanging noose Uzumaki, I can taste blood welling up from my throat, and if I can even walk right now without you holding me up I'm taking your spot as captain right now. I'll live… I just need to rest."

Miss Valentine shook her head, "No, you need a doctor."

Soren sighed and looked at her, "Well if you can manage to scare one up after this little ruckus we raised then feel free, but if not I think we should get the hell out of here before the Marines come checking on exactly what happened here." He looked at his limp, unresponsive right arm, "I'm going to have to gut it out until we can get someone to fix me."

Naruto patted him on his good shoulder, "You're going to be fine, they're just baby scratches right?"

Soren chuckled humorlessly, "Yeah, right. Baby scratches."

XxX

(Three Days Later)

Nojiko walked out of Soren's room with Naruto, sans sage coat, in tow behind her who yelled back into the room behind him, "You don't have to be such a punk-ass about it, I had to pop your shoulder back in eventually! You put it off for three days, that only made it harder to do!"

Soren's voice echoed out of the room down the hall, "You warn somebody before you do shit like that Uzumaki, I wasn't ready!"

Naruto smirked as he and Nojiko walked away, "If I said something you would have tensed up and made it worse! It's not my fault you screamed like a little girl! Just lay there and heal like a good boy, you'll be fine!" Naruto toned his voice down to speak to Nojiko, "He's going to heal up fine right?"

Nojiko nodded, "Nothing he has requires surgery thank goodness. After you popped his arm back in everything else will just take time to heal. We dodged a bullet this time Naruto-kun, if he had been any worse and actually needed surgery on something, none of us know how to do it."

It was times like this Naruto wished he didn't have such an obscene, limitless amount of chakra. It was what kept him from learning medical ninjutsu no matter how much he tried out of boredom in his later years. He never got any better at it. All he had managed to pick up after all these years was basic battlefield medicine that he used to patch Soren up once they got aboard.

Nojiko continued speaking, "We need a doctor Naruto-kun for the crew to stay alive. You've kept us out of trouble for a while now and did a good job of making sure we never got extremely hurt, but any more damage and Soren might have ended up crippled." She shook her head, "If we're going to keep going we're going to need a doctor. I don't even know how you've been getting along all this time, especially after Miss Valentine told me you wound up taking a pretty nasty hit from one of those cyborg things."

He waved off her concern, "Don't worry about me, it's almost impossible to kill me outright." Naruto sighed, "But where the hell are we going to find a doctor Noji-chan? I mean, we can't all luck out like Luffy and find a doctor willing to travel with us. Especially not one that doubles as a reindeer/cute little mascot of awesome."

"Well we need to do something." Nojiko said as they made it back to the common area, "Or do you plan on holding everyone together with duct tape and super-glue when the going gets tough Dr. General Store?" She said jokingly.

Naruto sat down on a couch and pointed at her, "Hey, using super-glue to hold wounds shut it a legit emergency medical practice."

Nojiko sweatdropped, "God, I was actually joking about that. Are you-? Are you actually serious? Nevermind, I don't want to know." She said waving him off before sitting beside him, "And just so you know, Miss Valentine and I had a very interesting conversation while Soren was out of it and you were getting us out of the last island in one piece."

Naruto looked at her giving him a curious look, "There's no pistol under my chin and I'm not currently dodging bullets. What does that mean?"

Nojiko laid her head down on his shoulder, "It means go ahead." When she tilted her eyes to the side and saw him looking at her incredulously she smiled, "Yes, _that_ go ahead. You're a big-time powerful pirate aren't you? Can't you handle more women or what?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes and spoke with a mock growl, "First of all, I can handle you, your sister, and Miss Valentine back to back… twice each I might add." Nojiko giggled at that, "You want me to show you?" He gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Second of all, and most important. I can't state this enough, I'm not a pirate. I haven't done anything piratey at all. Fighting Marines doesn't make me a pirate. Having a ship doesn't make me a pirate. Having a bounty- mmph." Naruto was cut off by Nojiko kissing him.

Nojiko broke away, "I get the point. Now go outside captain, you have a job to do. I'll figure out where we're going to next and I'll tell you, just keep us on course and don't get us lost… or put us onto the Calm Belt." Nojiko got up and walked back deeper into the ship.

Naruto stood up off of the couch and went back outside. Once he was on deck he found Vivi sitting patiently with Carue, watching Johnny and Yosaku spar against one another to go over technique. Miss Valentine draped herself over his back, "Hello Valentine."

"Hello Naruto." She replied brightly, nuzzling his neck.

"I'm glad to see you actually. I figured we can start slow with your training." Naruto said, getting a look of surprise from his fellow blonde as he made a Kage Bunshin to steer the ship, "Yeah. And you're going to hate me after we start too."

Miss Valentine held herself against him tightly, "I doubt that Naruto. You won't main me with what you do so it won't matter."

Naruto laughed, "I'm not going to hurt you Valentine. And this has nothing to do with how tough you are. Now set yourself in the middle of the ship so we keep our equilibrium when you start." Naruto turned towards Johnny and Yosaku, "Guys, take it elsewhere right now. Go fight inside, you need the experience in close quarters anyway."

The voice of Nojiko sounded out from inside, "Naruto-kun if I see them fighting in here I'm going to pull out the shotgun and blow them away."

"Nevermind." Naruto said with a sweatdrop, "Come here." He said to Miss Valentine. She did as she was told and stood in front of Naruto, "Now can you control how much weight you put into any particular limb or is it just all distributed evenly?"

Miss Valentine gave him a lost look, "I don't know."

Naruto smirked, "Well let's try it. Put your arm out." Miss Valentine did as told once again, "Now focus on it, nothing else. Now think about whatever you think about when you use the Kilo-Kilo no Mi, just focus on that arm." After about five seconds Miss Valentine dropped face first on the deck, "That's what I thought. The only reason you can even hold yourself upright when using your fruit is because the weight was always distributed evenly around your entire body and all of your muscles adjusted with it."

He leaned down at her as she picked herself up off of the ground onto her knees. He poked her on the forehead, getting her to turn her green eyes onto his blue ones, "Your first exercise, you're going to learn how to channel weight to every limb in your body, and then you're going to learn how to lift that body part without fully distributing the weight. And you're going to keep doing it, and keep doing it, until finally you can channel and lift all 10,000 kilograms of what your fruit will let you use to one body part and one body part only, as if you weren't even weighed down."

Miss Valentine's eyes widened, "Is that even possible?"

Naruto shrugged, "I don't know, but we are going to find out aren't we?"

She waited a moment after he stopped speaking when he didn't continue, "And then what?"

Naruto's face put on a massive grin, "That's when the real fun will begin. Your fruit is good for more than one thing, and I can tell you right now we're going to find out just what you can do with it." He helped her up, "Start small. Figure out exactly what your body can handle and start from there. Adding even 500 kilograms to a punch is still better than throwing one at your normal weight."

"How do I do that?" She asked.

Naruto grabbed her arm and held it out like before, "Keep trying with a lower weight until you can keep your arm held up. Once you have that for each of your limbs come get me and I'll give you your real workout schedule." He turned to Vivi who was still sitting and watching, "Now you're with me. Come on."

Vivi's face lit up and she got to her feet swiftly, Carue following. Naruto turned to Johnny and Yosaku, "Go fight near the helm, but do not dispel my Kage Bunshin." Naruto smirked as he felt the ship shake, a sign that Miss Valentine still hadn't found a good weight to start using for her arm yet… and she still had three more limbs to go when she got that right, "Why don't you start low and work your way up instead of doing it backwards, unless you like falling down?" He felt her killing intent on him but he just shrugged it off.

Vivi was noticeably excited. She had wanted to get started for just about well over a week now, "So what about me Naruto? What's for me?"

Naruto smiled at how eager she was, "Well I've been over your fighting style in my head over and over and I've got something. First of all-." He grabbed her belt which doubled as one of her weapons, "I like this. Keep using this. This is your primary weapon. Keep the smaller ones on you and I'll get you better with those in case you need them, but this is what you use first and foremost. This has range, and using two at the same time the way you did against me could really catch some faster opponents off guard."

Vivi nodded dutifully as she took all of this in, "Yes, I've got it." She reached to draw her weapon when Naruto stopped her hand, "What's wrong?" She asked a grinning Naruto.

He shook his head, "You're not doing that first. Yes, learning how to attack is all well and good, but I made a promise that you weren't going to get hurt on my watch and that means that if you're so dead set on learning how to fight you're also going to get good at dodging. Really good. _Really_ good. You're going to be able to dodge in your sleep." That made Vivi start laughing at how absurd that sounded until Naruto's face and voice turned serious, "I'm not kidding. You're seriously going to learn how to dodge in your sleep. Pell, Chaka, Igaram, your buddy Kohza, and your old man Cobra are going to try and kick my ass if I bring you back with even a mark or a scuff on you, and while I could beat them all with my eyes closed and both hands tied behind my back, I have enough enemies and your country already thinks that I kidnapped you, I don't need them thinking I abused you either."

"What?" Vivi said, slightly afraid now at the way Naruto had said all of that, "In my sleep?"

Naruto nodded sagely, "Vivi by the time I'm done with you, you will have the awareness that can only be obtained through years and years of combat and people trying their hardest to kill you… most of the time without you even looking when they try. Which leads us to your first exercise!" He said with a grin as he pulled out a blindfold.

"What are you going to do with that?" Vivi asked as she started backing away.

Naruto took up a lecturing posture, "From what I saw in our little scuffle, you and your duck have the best natural sixth sense when it comes to dodging I've ever seen firsthand from a novice. I should have taken your head off at least twice when we were sparring, and you should have been riddled with shuriken at one point. Add that to the fact that-." He grabbed her foot, lifted her leg and set it on his shoulder without so much as a single complaint of discomfort from her, "You are very flexible. Now there's a much more fun way we can teach you to use that, but for now we're just going to stick to teaching you evasive skills for now."

Vivi let him put her leg down, she was with him so far. She already had attacks for the time being, and being able to stay out of harm's way would be useful, "So what am I going to do Naruto? You haven't given me an exercise yet."

Naruto frowned, "I was trying to make sure I gave you good reasons for what I'm about to do, because when I'm done you're going to hate me too." He lifted both of his hands and tugged sharply on some ninja wire tied to all fingers on both hands that revealed a maze of tangled wire running along the length of one side of the ship, "You're going through this blindfolded." Naruto let some slack into his fingers to reveal that he had full control over the wire with just his fingers, "You're going to go back and forth up and down this course and I'm going to pull wires randomly to mess you up. For now all it will do is trip you, but eventually I'm going to come up with stiffer punishments for getting caught up, and I'm going to make the whole process harder and progressively more elaborate."

"You're not training Nojiko like this." Vivi said, not really looking forward to this.

BANG

"Damn it Naruto-kun, if you don't stop blindsiding me with your clones I'm going blow you up when you get in your bed tonight!" Nojiko shouted.

"That's what she said!" They all heard from a male voice inside.

BANG

"Shut up and go back to sleep Soren!"

Naruto watched Vivi sweatdrop at hearing Nojiko unknowingly contradict her from inside, "You're going to be getting that too eventually. That's a long ways away now though. Now get to it!"

Vivi stood still until Naruto directed her towards where he wanted her to be. Carue pushed her towards the starting point and sat down to watch her, "What do I do now?" She asked tentatively.

Naruto smiled, not that she could see it, "Start walking. You'll know when to dodge… or maybe you won't. That's the whole point, now get to it."

Vivi gulped and started tentatively walking. From Naruto's earlier display the wire was incredibly thin, but powerful. And while she saw it when they were all up and out she couldn't see them on the deck no matter how hard she looked. She looked back at Naruto who didn't have a single tell on his face as to what he was going to do. He was seated up by the helm on the railing with his eyes closed in the lotus position.

'What is he doing?' She thought to herself as she lifted her leg and took a dramatic test step. She turned around abruptly to see that Naruto hadn't even budged an inch, so she took another step, nothing again. She sighed in relief and lifted her leg to make another step when Naruto smirked, eyes still closed, and twitched his pinky. Vivi then found herself snared in a mess of wires.

"Wah!" She cried in alarm, "How'd you do that?" She asked, trying to wriggle herself free before she remembered who she was talking to, "Nevermind. Just get me down!" Naruto's smirk grew and he loosened up his pinky, letting the wires go slack and dropping Vivi on the deck. She picked herself up and blew her disheveled blue bangs out of her face, "How am I supposed to do this?"

Naruto started moving his fingers, snaring Vivi back up in the wires in all kinds of positions to tease her, "When the sun hits the wire the right way you'll be able to see them vaguely. Not very well, but good enough to get a good idea of where you should be going. Also, your reflexes will get better so that even when I actually trigger the wires you should be able to avoid them. Practice, practice, practice Vivi. I'll be right here all day. Now back to the start and try it again."

Vivi went back to the start and this time made it five steps before Naruto pulled up one lone wire and tripped her up, causing her to fall flat on her face. He laughed slightly and looked over at Miss Valentine, "When you've found the weight you need to start with I want five hundred punches per arm, and two hundred fifty kicks per leg, and no slacking. Johnny, Yosaku!" Both of them crashed into the railing Naruto was sitting on, clashing blades, "Tell Miss Valentine what slackers get."

Yosaku, who was pushing Johnny against the railing, one hand on his sword, and one hand on Johnny's face, pie-facing him bitterly, "Slackers get their asses kicked by Naruto-aniki until they get their asses in gear."

"Or?" Naruto said as if expecting another simple answer.

Yosaku didn't let him down on that front, "Feeding time for Samehada." He said as he continued to bully Johnny. Johnny then proceeded to bite his fingers that strayed too close to his mouth, "Ow you son of a bitch! No biting!"

Johnny mumbled as he continued to bite down on his friend's fingers, "You ain't cheating, you ain't trying." With that he placed the bottom of his boot on Yosaku's face and kicked off to free himself before charging back into battle.

Naruto didn't look at the two battling men, as he kept a watchful eye on Miss Valentine and kept tripping up and ensnaring Vivi in his wires without really looking at her, "It's no holds barred sparring Yosaku, no real rules. Feel the burn. If it doesn't hurt you're not doing it right."

"That's what she said!" Soren yelled from inside.

Nojiko responded from inside as well, "For God's sake Soren, shut up before I pistol-whip you to sleep!"

XxX

(Nightfall)

"So…" Naruto said, standing in Soren's room leaning against the wall, "Cyborgs huh? And you're saying for sure that what we fought wasn't Bartholomew Kuma like what Bonney said?"

Soren was lain out on his bed, bandaged up from his single bandaged leg to one of his shoulders which was held in a sling, "Nope. Kuma's not a cyborg, he's a human. He really is that big though, but he's definitely stronger than those things. Do you even have any damage from the fight at all?" He asked testily.

"Hell yeah." Naruto said, turning around and lifting his shirt to show his back, red and with skin peeling, "That damn laser blast cooked my back like a fryer when it hit me, and it fucked up my coat! Have you ever been beaten up by an elderly toad that you swore should have died back when you were a kid? Well I did when I gave my coat up to be repaired again. Who the hell sent those things?"

Soren looked out his window, "Beats me. But those things will never mess me up like this again. I know how to beat them now. So they can keep them coming if they want, it's no problem to me at all."

Naruto looked at Soren and chuckled, "Yeah, you look like you're ready for a fight right now. You couldn't beat up a cockroach the way you are now."

Soren glared at him, "I don't need to be able to move to melt you where you stand, so keep talking Uzumaki, please."

"Easy killer." Naruto said jokingly to pacify him, "Heal up fast Soren. I'm getting them up to speed the best I can, but it might not be enough the next time trouble kicks up."

Soren looked at the captain strangely, "You think something's going to happen?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well… yeah. Do you really think _nothing's_ going to happen? Our track record for bad things happening to us sucks. I wouldn't be surprised if we run into a Sea King migration trail or something tomorrow."

Soren paled once he realized that Naruto was right, "Seriously, don't say things like that. You know something worse is probably going to happen because of it you bad luck bastard. But you're right."

Naruto got off of the wall and walked over to the door, "So get better, because like I said we're going to need everyone in top condition soon."

"Will do Uzumaki." Soren said as he watched Naruto leave, "What are you about to go do now?"

Naruto stopped at the door and stroked his chin in thought before breaking into a grin, "Going to see if Noji-chan wants to play or not."

Watching Naruto leave and shut the door behind him, Soren palmed his face with his good arm, "That guy has got to be the most insane, most aggravating, strongest, laziest, and baffling son of a bitch I've ever met in my life."

"Naruto-kun! Your bedroom, not mine!"

Soren placed a pillow over his face and punched the wall of his room repeatedly, "Damn it, again? They need to make these damn walls thicker before they do this again. Fucking pervert…"

* * *

Omake: In Need of Ramen 1

Naruto stood in the kitchen with Miss Valentine leaning against the counter, slamming his head against it, "Okay Valentine…" Naruto said calmly, "I've been calm, I've been cool. I've never asked you for anything ever, right?" She nodded, smiling at him sweetly, "Okay, I need you…"

"You need me…?" Miss Valentine said, trying to get him to coax his words out, "Come on Naruto. Tell me what you want."

Naruto sighed, "Fine. I've never asked you to make anything in particular. You're awesome and everything you make is absolutely great. But it has been an untold amount of months since I've had ramen. Nowhere I've been since I left the Elemental Nations has ramen, it is slowly driving me insane."

Miss Valentine pinched his cheek, "You mean you're not insane already?"

Naruto chuckled as she pinched his cheek, "Well… more insane, heh." He shook her off to pick up where he left off, "Anyway, I need you to do your absolute best to make me some ramen."

Miss Valentine's smile dropped slightly, "I'll try, but I've never seen ramen before. I never even heard of it until you started talking about it. Do you know how to make it?"

Naruto started listing things off on his fingers, "Okay we need dough, flour, fresh water, something to make the broth with, dry seaweed, green onions, some kamaboko, and if we have it corn I guess."

Miss Valentine was making a mental checklist of everything that Naruto had said. She finally gave him a beaming smile, "Sure thing Naruto. I don't know how well I'll do, but you're counting on me, and I'll give it my best shot." She finished with a laugh.

Naruto grinned at her and pulled her close in a hug, "Thank you Miss Valentine! I swear, if you can pull this off, and make me ramen good enough to put months and months of ramen deprivation into the back of my mind I will give you anything you want. Anything in the world. Seriously, I don't care what it is, I will make it happen or get it to you."

Her green eyes shone brightly with delight… and something else at hearing that, "Anything? Anything I want?"

Naruto was oblivious to what was in his female resident cook's eyes as he continued to hug her, "Yeah, totally. Anything you want. I'm Uzumaki Naruto woman, I can do anything! I can move mountains if you needed me to!"

Miss Valentine's smile grew and a faint blush grew on her face as she continued to hug him, 'What I want from you isn't nearly that difficult to get Naruto. I was going to just get you to give it to me the hard way, but when I make this dish of yours I'll have actually earned it, and from the sounds that Nojiko makes all the time I think it'll be worth the effort.'

* * *

**I'm so tired… Can you believe I sat down and punched this out in one sitting that didn't even start until 9 p.m.? I'm straight going to bed. It's 1:45 a.m. EST and I've got places to be and people to see on the morrow. **

**As always reviews are encouraged. But whatever, Kenchi out. I hope insomnia doesn't feel like striking me tonight.**


	19. Past Transgressions

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece… I'm hungry. Luckily, in this economic recession of ours, 20 bucks can buy you a lot of instant ramen cups… time to chow down people, ghetto superstar style.

**Chapter 19: Past Transgressions**

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* * *

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"Wah!"

THUMP

"Do it again…" Naruto said as he sat on the railing overlooking the deck in a meditative pose. Vivi pulled herself off of the ground and dusted herself off, glaring at Naruto, "You can give me that look all you want to. Scarier people than you have tried to stare me down princess. Now get back to the start and do it again."

Vivi huffed but did as she was told. The other day she tried fighting Naruto again out of anger at not progressing very much in her training and wound up getting a low-key beatdown from Naruto who didn't even open his eyes to do it. From that point she realized that the only reason Nojiko ever hit him with her pistol was because Naruto let her. If he was really trying, she would never have hit him.

Vivi took a deep breath as she tried to get herself ready for another go-through of Naruto's wire obstacle course before turning back to him, "Can you even do this?"

"Yes." Naruto said without opening his eyes or even moving, "even if I was controlling this with my eyes open I could send a Kage Bunshin and he would still get through this course. You think it's hard now? I haven't blindfolded you yet Vivi. You can't complain yet, it's only been a few days."

Vivi frowned and took her eyes away from him to focus on the course layout. She could barely see the sunlight shining off of the metal wiring and started stepping through carefully. She quickly learned a loophole to Naruto's training that she believed he left on purpose; he never said how fast she had to go, just that he wanted her to get through it. Therefore she was just taking small thought out steps, trying to outwit Naruto. It didn't matter how patient she tried to be though, Naruto was always attentive without even opening his eyes and was always ready to ensnare her.

Accidentally stepping on a wire, Vivi felt it try to tighten underneath her feet. Vivi, deciding to go for broke, jumped forward only to see the sun glare off of a set wires in midair meant to trap her. She managed to contort her body through and land in a front handspring and get herself back upright before a wire could catch the hand she had planted onto the ground. Standing straight up she came face to face with a web of wires that stopped her in her tracks as well as a wall of them behind her.

"Well it looks like someone had a breakthrough." Naruto said with a smile on his face as he opened his eyes to look at Vivi. He let the wires drop so that she could relax and he could reset them, "You do your best work evading when you don't think about doing it Vivi. You have reflexes like a cat, and even though you have no idea where a threat is coming from you still know something is going to happen and your muscles are already prepared to respond well in advance." Naruto then blinked, "Speaking of threats…" He then tossed out a shuriken at the crow's nest where Nojiko was.

The weapon angled around from her side to her back stealthily. In response to that, Nojiko whipped around suddenly, pulled out one of her pistols and let off a shot that hit the shuriken and knocked it from the sky, "Naruto-kun that one wasn't fake!" She yelled at him angrily, "Why are you throwing real weapons at me?"

"To keep you sharp Noji-chan!" Naruto yelled back. Nojiko shot at him and hit him before he burst into smoke and a log dropped to the ground in his place. Nojiko pointed her pistol back over her shoulder in time for Naruto to appear behind her in a shunshin, placing the barrel right under his chin, "I'm really getting sick of you doing that. I even waited. There was no way you sensed my presence." Nojiko smiled cheekily getting Naruto to grin at her before he burst into smoke again.

This time Naruto appeared in front of her and wrapped his arms around her, about to squeeze her tightly when he felt the barrel of her pistol again, this time on his junk. Nojiko's smile was massive, "I saw that coming too. You can't surprise me anymore Naruto-kun."

Naruto paled at the fact that Nojiko had not removed the gun from his most blatant weak point, "I swear I am going to find out how you can do that. Does it only work when I attack you? Is it some kind of sixth sense?"

Nojiko blinked in his arms, "Can't Vivi do it? You were just talking about something like that with her."

Naruto shook his head, "No, you know exactly what I'm going to do when I attempt it, the look on your face says that you had me pegged the second I threw that shuriken. Vivi can't do that, you can see it in her eyes when she dodges or does anything that she can't. She doesn't know what I'm going to do, but her reflexes make sure that it doesn't matter, she can still for the most part avoid most things that are way faster than her. If I want to hit her with anything I have to really focus. You would too."

"I still can't shoot you yet, can I Naruto-kun?" Nojiko whispered to him softly.

Naruto grinned and pushed his forehead against her as he pulled the barrel away from himself, "Maybe one day soon you'll hit me, but you know you wouldn't have pulled the trigger there anyway. You like that part of me too much to blow it away." Naruto finished wrapping his arms around her and shunshined back down to the deck, "I have something new for you to learn how to do."

A confused look came onto Nojiko's face when Naruto stood her directly in front of the first mast and placed a bullseye on the second one, "What is this? Learning how to dive from behind cover and hit my mark?"

Naruto shook his head, "No, you can already do that. I told you all that the training I was going to make you all do would piss you off. Well this is going to piss you off. I want you to hit that bullseye with a shot from your pistol."

Nojiko shrugged, not seeing what the point was all about and moved to the side when Naruto called out to her and motioned for her to step back where he had initially put her, finally getting th point to dawn on her, "No way. That's impossible. Unless you want me to stretch my arm like Luffy does I can't hit it."

"No such thing as impossible Noji-chan." Naruto said, taking her pistol away from her, "Give me a day with one of your guns and I'll make it possible."

Nojiko let him take a pistol from her and walk away, "What are you going to do? You'd better not mess it up. I'm used to that one, it's like an extension of myself by now."

Naruto turned around at the door of the ship to the gun-toting girl and gave her a wide grin, "I know what I'm doing Nojiko. This is a test. If this works I'm going to use it on our cannons. Just give me a day."

Nojiko watched him shut the door behind him, "If you mess up my pistol I will shove a live grenade down your throat and make you swallow it. I love that gun." She sighed, not knowing if she had been heard or not before speaking to Vivi, "He's going to break my gun. I just know he is."

Vivi let out a sigh of relief as she saw Naruto head inside, "This training is really working my nerves. I feel paranoid even when nothing is happening. I always think the next step I take is going to end with me strung up in midair."

Nojiko walked over to Vivi and put a hand on her shoulder, "You know, Naruto-kun training you makes you a member of our crew." Vivi smiled until Nojiko continued, "A probationary member of the crew."

"What?" Vivi said, "Well how do I get to be a full status member?"

Nojiko laughed slightly, "You need an actual job that needs to be fulfilled on the crew; I'm the navigator and den mother to this boat of psychopaths, the cook is Miss Valentine, and Johnny and Yosaku are the chore boys, but don't let them hear you say that."

"What does Soren do?" Vivi asked in return. She really didn't see him do anything except sleep and fight and hang out in the crow's nest from time to time, "He doesn't have a real job."

Nojiko sweatdropped, "Well he doesn't really do… anything actually. He knows of every famous pirate worth mentioning on the Grand Line so that's one thing, the only person out of all of us that can beat him would be Naruto-kun, and he seems to follow Naruto-kun's orders, the few that he actually ever gives so I guess just off of strength he's a crew member. Naruto was the one that gave you the probation title thing, I think he's messing with you, but I'm going with it."

Vivi sat down, taking the time to go on break for a moment, "You know you guys keep this ship in really good condition for all of the fighting you guys get into." She then looked closer at the deck and saw all of the slash marks, minor cracks on the ground, and bullet holes strewn about, "Nevermind. You keep the hull in really good shape at least, but the rest of the ship... you guys tear this place apart."

Not sure how to actually receive that, Nojiko simply shrugged, "It still floats and we haven't fallen through the floor yet so I'd say we're good. It's better that we destroy the ship ourselves than someone else. We haven't even taken any battle damage yet. We do a good job of avoiding fights on the water which is good, because two of the people on this ship can't swim."

"Soren and Miss Valentine right?" Vivi asked, getting a nod from Nojiko, "And that's probably why Soren follows Naruto's orders, because otherwise he could just blast him with ocean water and beat him that way."

"Whatever works." Nojiko said offhandedly as she also went inside.

XxX

"Let me go outside Uzumaki!" Naruto was standing just outside of Soren's door, leaning against the wall beside it while the sound of Soren scratching on the door itself like a dog trying to get outside rang out, "I've been in here forever, I'm going stir crazy! If you don't let me out I'll-!"

Naruto cut him off, "If you try to burn through the door with acid, or knock it down, or do anything that breaks anything in there at all I'm going to beat your ass, tie you to the bed, and have a Kage Bunshin throw seawater on you every twenty minutes to keep you powerless." He rapped on the door to ensure he had Soren's attention, "You're still hurt. And unless you get magician-like escape capabilities the way I did when I was a kid in the hospital you aren't getting out of there until the week is up or we get somewhere where you can stretch out on land."

Soren stopped scratching on the door, "Well how close are we to some land?" He asked aggressively, "I could walk around yesterday if you didn't have your guard dogs Johnny and Yosaku watching the door. I need to get back to training!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "How _do_ you train anyway? Because I never see you do it. I think I would notice if there were burned through spots all over the ship."

"I can control how potent my acid is genius." Soren said derogatorily to his captain, "I can make it strong enough to eat through most metals in a few seconds or make it as weak as simple sweat. You don't see it because it isn't dangerous when I train and I train on top of the crow's nest and fire all of my attacks out at the water. You're usually too busy tormenting, I mean training… everyone else that needs the help. Why would you worry about what I'm doing to train? I know what I'm doing… I've been training myself for years."

"Yeah, to kill some guy." Naruto said as if he had heard it a million times before, "What guy? And why do you want to kill him? You haven't been very forthcoming with the information. I had to find out from a poster what your bounty was, I don't know who this guy is that you want to kill, I know less about you than you do about me."

Soren was silent for a moment, "The less you know the better Uzumaki. I never asked you about anything. I understand that there are some things that other people don't need to know about you, give me the same courtesy at least."

A frown crossed Naruto's face, "Fine… But this better not supersede everything. If you can find the guy and our paths cross I will give you your shot at him. But you better not lose your head. I need you able to think and reason. You're too important to just be some revenge-driven berserker."

"I can't make any promises." Soren opened the door, still covered in bandages on every visible part of his body and under his clothes, and looked at Naruto, tracing the mark on his own face that trailed down his arm with his finger, "He was the one that did this to me."

Naruto squinted and looked hard at Soren. It looked like some kind of tribal marking. He thought it was something like what the clans in the Elemental Nations had, "How in the hell did he do that to you? You're too strong for anyone to do anything like that to you without you getting them back."

A humorless laugh came from Soren, "There's a time in everyone's life, no matter how strong they are at some point, when they are completely and utterly defenseless. Yep, I couldn't fight very well when I was seven… I didn't even have the power of the Ibi Ibi no Mi either… I didn't get that until later."

Naruto shook his head, "Don't let it consume you Soren. If you do, and you get your revenge you'll just find something else that you need to get your revenge on, something worse, something bigger. And it'll turn you into a monster. Trust me."

Soren gave him a dry look, "And what would you know about getting revenge Uzumaki?"

Naruto backed away, "Me? Nothing. But I've seen someone with a bigger desire for it than you for a better reason, and he got his revenge." With that, Naruto walked away, leaving Soren standing in his doorway.

"And?" Soren said impatiently.

Naruto stopped halfway down the hall and turned around, "And what?"

Soren got a tick mark on his head, he knew Naruto wasn't really that stupid, "Don't give me that crap! What happened to the guy that got his revenge? You can't just cut something off like that in the middle of making your point."

Naruto had a sweatdrop on his head, "Well sorry for trying to be dramatic and cool." He scratched his scalp, "Anyway that guy ended up pushing all of his problems from one source to another, just because he couldn't let it all go. It drove him insane. He flipped his entire worldview at least twice and he lost himself to his madness. I just don't want to see that kind of thing happen to you Soren."

"Hmm." Soren said thoughtfully, "The way you're saying all of this makes me think you knew the guy that you're talking about personally."

"I did." Naruto admitted freely.

"So what ended up happening to him?" Soren asked curiously. Let it be known that Naruto was very good at making you want to know things about him.

Naruto turned around again and just walked away after being asked that question, "Well with his renewed sense of vengeance and a new slew of powers to take it with, he ended up trying to destroy my home and friends and wound up being manipulated like a fool by a madman set on taking over everything… so I killed him." He let that end the conversation, 'And I really hope I never have to watch it happen to anyone else Soren.'

XxX

Naruto looked out over the front of the ship and saw an island on the horizon, "So where are we now?" He asked Nojiko who had a map in her hands.

"Jaya." She said putting the map down, "I don't know anything about this place Naruto-kun."

"Are we near land yet?" Soren said, accompanied by Johnny and Yosaku as they made their way towards Naruto and Nojiko, "Where are we?" Nojiko put the map in front of his face and pointed at Jaya, "Fun." Soren said with a grin, "You're going to want to get all of your guns and ammunition beautiful." He said to Nojiko, "The two boneheads are going to want to keep their hands near their swords at all times. Valentine and the princess going to have to watch their skirts at all times, and Uzumaki is going to have a blast here if only because of the copious amounts of idiots here that will probably try to fight him because he's a pretty boy."

Naruto grinned right back at Soren, "Really?" He asked excitedly, getting a fervent nod of confirmation, "Fun."

"I know." Soren returned before elaborating on what the big deal was, "Jaya is full of one thing and one thing only. Wannabe big-shot pirates that think they're hot shit for making it this far on the Grand Line. The last time I was here I ended up having to kill five guys picking a fight with me because my bounty wasn't as high back then as it is now. I eventually bartered passage off, but the point is, this place is pretty much lawless. All there are here are pubs, pubs, weapon stores, pubs, weapon stores, pubs, and pubs."

Nojiko looked through a pair of binoculars at the tow, "It doesn't seem that bad to me actually. It actually looks pretty nice from where I'm looking."

Miss Valentine came up, followed by Vivi, "That's Mock Town. And it looks that nice because no one destroys the actual property… they'd rather just buy stuff and get drunk. Still, fights do happen here." She looked away distastefully with a fake laugh, "I fucking hate this place. I had to come here to see if there were any pirates with potential for Baroque Works. So many assholes tried to hit on me and flaunt their bounties at me. 'Hey beautiful, I've got a bounty of 10 million. Why don't you come and get with the next up and coming pirate?' Idiots."

Naruto looked at her pout and pointed at her, "Right then. You and Vivi are staying here on the ship when we dock."

Vivi's jaw dropped before she complained about the current course of action vehemently, "Hey, just because she didn't want to go doesn't mean I don't."

Naruto's finger shifted from pointing at Miss Valentine to pointing at Vivi, "Probationary crew member. Follow your orders. I will have order and obedience on my ship."

Johnny smirked, "Naruto-aniki you don't tell any of us to do a damn thing on this ship other than our jobs, which don't really take that long. The rest of the time we all do nothing. The only people that follow your orders all the time are your clones."

Naruto gave Johnny a deadpan look that eventually unnerved the sunglasses wearing man before the blonde made a half-tiger hand-seal, "You. Weight increase! Fuuin!" Johnny dropped face first on the deck before picking himself up shakily, "Now. I _order_ you to stay here and be Valentine and Vivi's guard dog since you like to mouth off at the captain so much."

"Fine." Johnny said, as he finished struggling to his feet, "Asshole. _Now_ you want to act like a captain." He said under his breath before his weight bands glowed blue again and deposited him face first onto the deck again.

Vivi checked where Johnny's body hit, "Wow, that left a really good divot in the ground." Johnny groaned in reply, "You guys need to fix this stuff, the deck is starting to look like a battlefield."

Naruto shrugged, "Training ground would be the more appropriate description. Now let's go to asshole-pirate city! I haven't punched an actual human being in the face in a while, and if I take Noji-chan she will be getting hit on constantly, giving me tons of excuses to actually do it… unless she shoots them first."

"It's called Mock Town." Nojiko said before she narrowed her eyes and crossed her arms, "You still have one of my pistols idiot."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I'm not done with it yet. You can use one until I get the other one back to you can't you? You have like four more guns on you, not just the pistols."

Nojiko sulked at his question, "I like _that_ gun…"

Johnny chimed in from the ground, "Ugh. You know what I like when I have a concussion? Silence. Can you all please shut the hell up until the ringing in my head stops?" Everyone around him went silent while Vivi kept poking at him with the toe of her white heeled boot, "Thank you."

XxX

(Island of Jaya – Mock Town)

Naruto, Soren, Nojiko, and Yosaku walked through the town that looked like a resort, with the exception of the pirates looking at them with violence in their eyes for the men, and… um something else for Nojiko.

"Can I please scare the shit out of them now Noji-chan?" Naruto asked desperately, "They've been giving us all looks since the second we docked and you won't let us just beat them up and be done with it. We're not going to maim anyone."

Nojiko stopped in front of the group and pointed firmly in Naruto's face, "You aren't getting us into trouble here. I would like to be in a town that you didn't turn into a warzone for once, and the Log Pose hasn't reset yet. Soren's still hurt and I don't feel like letting him off to go on his own where he's going to undoubtedly piss someone off and start a fight. Yosaku's the only one out of you three being good for once."

Soren scoffed, "He's just sucking up so that you don't pistol-whip him. Look at him, he wants to go over and start mean mugging right back at these guys." Yosaku's eye was twitching as his facial features otherwise didn't betray his calm demeanor, "Why aren't you going over there and kicking some ass right now?"

In order to make himself seem more serious, Yosaku had taken to keeping his long green jacket closed due to the insistence of everyone else on the ship that it looked cooler that way, "Because after I win Nojiko-aneue will pistol-whip me for fighting." He said with a serious gesture, making Nojiko sweatdrop, "Naruto-aniki destroys enough towns without me being the catalyst to this one's demise."

"I'm not that bad am I?" Naruto and Nojiko said at the same time before looking at each other, "You do hit us all the time Noji-chan." Naruto said matter-of-factly.

Nojiko shot right back, "You've caused hundreds of millions of beli of property damage since the day I met you. You destroyed an entire fortress the day I met you. I cannot stress this enough, you are a force of nature, and I mean that in the worst way possible."

Soren smirked, "I didn't hear you saying that to him last night." Nojiko blushed brightly, "If my ears were correct I was hearing a lot of comparisons between Uzumaki and God, or was that just me. Ow! Fuck!" Soren was rubbing a knot on his head caused by the butt of Nojiko's pistol, "I'm still hurt here! I need a drink now, Uzumaki pick a direction!"

"Southeast!" Naruto shouted gleefully before blinking in confusion, "Wait, why did you make me shout a random direction?"

Soren looked southeast and pointed where there was a bar in plain sight, "Because I just wanted you to pick somewhere for me to get drunk." Nojiko glared at him, "What? You don't need me. The Log Pose isn't going to reset for a while so I'm going to go get smashed. Who's with me!"

Naruto and Yosaku both raised their hands until Nojiko lowered Naruto's and dragged him off, "Come on! Why? Why? I've got money to spend, I want bottles!"

Nojiko shook her head and continued to drag him off, "Because we need to get the rest of your treasure converted into actual useable cash, until then you don't have anything to spend, now come on you lush, you're supposed to be the captain here."

Yosaku turned to Soren after Nojiko dragged Naruto away, "So… Drink?"

"Drink." Soren agreed, "Drink until the sun goes down and the world starts making me a little less angry." He put an arm around Yosaku's neck and dragged him into the chosen pub.

XxX

(Hours Later - Dusk)

Nojiko happily lead a visibly bored Naruto carrying five massive sacks back through town, "Cheer up Naruto-kun, at least we have all of the surplus treasure you took way back with Nami turned into cash."

Naruto frowned, "It took hours. I wish you would have let me leave a Kage Bunshin. Then we could have actually done something useful while we were waiting for the guy to get everything together." He looked at her to see Nojiko beaming at the fact that they had so much money, "You're really happy right now aren't you?"

Nojiko bumped her hip into his happily, "I grew up poor Naruto-kun, and to go along with that Arlong was taxing and terrorizing everyone so I've never had much money. All of the money Nami stole was to free the village so I never got to touch any of that, and now I travel with you and you aren't exactly broke. It's fun."

Naruto grinned at her, "Well maybe I should spoil all of you if that's the case. You know, get you all some kind of awesome gift of some sort, because I care. Maybe it will make Vivi less pissed off at me."

"She's just a little frustrated." Nojiko said, "She'll feel better when it's clear that your training is really working. You haven't failed with any of us yet Naruto-kun. How do you know how to train all of us?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I've seen a lot of fights Noji-chan. Like I said, I don't think there's anything on the Grand Line that I can see that would scare me to death or catch me too much off guard. Have you seen me scared of anything yet?"

Nojiko laughed nervously, "If I ever see you scared of anything then I'll have to believe that we're in some serious trouble so do your best to keep that from all of us if you could. So, where to next?"

"That's easy." Naruto said as he and Nojiko continued to walk along, "We need more gauze, duct tape, and super glue." Nojiko gave him a deadpan look, "What? If you can't fix your injuries with duct tape and super glue then you have a serious problem."

"I'd rather my medical treatments don't leave me with scars." Nojiko said contemptuously at Naruto's primitive medical practices, "We seriously need to find a doctor before one of us gets killed. We've been lucky all the way through so far."

Naruto sighed, "Soren's fine. Besides, we aren't going to find anyone here, everyone here makes wounds not fixes them. Of course if you're feeling brave you can start yelling for a doctor… I'm sure that would get you a lot of innuendo-laced comments from the people leering at your chest… Your tattoo really does draw attention to your chest Noji-chan."

She crossed her arms under her bosom, making them more prominent, "You know you love it."

"Never said I didn't!" Naruto said with a grin.

A smirking Nojiko winked at him before sounds of a nearby ruckus caught her attention, "Someone must be fighting. What should we do?"

Naruto stroked his chin with his free hand while he held the sacks of money, "Well my heart says to go away and ignore it, my gut says to go over there because I'm bored, and my brain says to ignore my gut because gut's a damn moron, and then they get to fighting, and now I want ramen, but brain knows that we won't find any and that pisses off both heart and gut, so they kick brain's ass even more."

Nojiko just stared at him for a prolonged period of time before speaking, "Okay, not only did that not answer my question, you just made me fear for your sanity three times in the same sentence."

"Good." Naruto said brightly before grabbing a hold of Nojiko's hand, "Now let's go see the fight and then ask if anyone knows where I can get some ramen."

As the two made their way towards the crowd, the crowd cleared a path as a very tall man, taller than Crocodile, with blonde hair and flamboyant clothes came through, walking in a seemingly bowlegged pattern. The man wore a pink, feathered coat, a white shirt with red stripes underneath, a green belt, orange pants with white stripes, and orange tinted sunglasses.

The man stopped in front of Naruto and Nojiko and looked them over with a grin on his face, "Nice hair."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Right back at you." He said in reply, "What's happening back there?"

The man shrugged and walked away, grin present on his face, "Nothing important. It was actually pretty boring to me." Leaving the confused Naruto and Nojiko behind, he simply kept walking along past them and on his way.

Naruto and Nojiko kept walking past the crowd to find two men on the ground motionless. One had blonde hair, scars on his face and wore a blue captain's coat, the other was a man with shoulder length blue hair, and an open white-furred coat. He had a large curved knife in his hand but neither were moving.

Naruto walked over to them where there was a blonde woman in sunglasses and a red bandanna kneeling over them, "What happened here? It looks like they fought each other and nobody won."

"Doflamingo." The woman said, "He said that he didn't need Bellamy or Sarquiss… that they were failures for picking a fight and losing to the Straw Hat kid. He made them fight each other and now…"

Nojiko walked over and looked at the scene, "They fought with Luffy? He wouldn't do something like this to anyone though."

"He didn't, that's not Luffy's style." Naruto walked over to the man called Bellamy and flipped him over to reveal a marred knuckle mark on the side of his face, "Well Luffy definitely did that to him." He looked at the woman that was looking over the two downed men, "They're not dead, and they're not going to die. That guy just wanted to hurt them badly from what it looks like. It looks like someone already worked on them though so they should be fine in a few months."

"Months?" Nojiko asked. Naruto pointed at the specific wounds on the men. Both had deep slash marks on the inside of their joints, "Oh… that's why."

Naruto nodded and stood up to walk away, "Nobody should pick fights with Luffy, that kid never loses to anyone. And now that guy's going to have a reminder of his asskicking for the next few months. Luffy's going to be really tough one day."

Nojiko looked at him, "Does that mean you want to fight Luffy? You said you wanted to fight all of the strong people in the world."

Naruto shook his head, "Not yet. Luffy isn't as good as he's going to get yet. I'll fight him when he's at his best, but until then I want to see how good I really am. From what I've seen there's no one in this place that exudes any power worth trying my luck against. Most of these guys are totally weak." He motioned towards Bellamy, "That guy was the strongest guy here, and the only mark he had on him from Luffy was that one punch mark, it only took one hit for Luffy to beat him. No one around here is worth talking about." 'Except for that guy that was walking away when we showed up…'

"Hey!" The blonde woman said, "Don't give me that crap that our doctor gave us when she left! Bellamy's bounty is 55 million, that's more than yours probably is pretty boy!"

Naruto laughed and pulled Nojiko next to him as he walked away, "Bounties don't mean anything to me. Your guy had 55 million and got beat in one punch by someone I could beat if we fought right now."

"Come on Naruto-kun, don't worry about it." Nojiko urged, "I really don't want you tearing this town apart too."

Naruto looked at her, "I wouldn't need to tear the town apart to beat all of these people, I wouldn't even need to tear the block apart."

The amassed group of pirates looked at the pair walk away before one of the pirates standing about blurted something out in realization, "Naruto? As in Uzumaki Naruto?" Multiple eyes in the vicinity bulged out as they figured they had just had a brush with death itself if what the Marines said about him were anything to go off of, "That was Uzumaki Naruto? Seriously?"

XxX

(With Soren and Yosaku)

"_Why am I doing this my boy? Fuffuffufu… I do this to you because I can, because you are weak… And the weak will always be controlled and dominated by the strong. But you interest me… How strong can you get, driven by hatred? Maybe when we meet again you'll be interesting, but until then I'll give you something to remember me by."_

As those words from his past rang out in his head, Soren looked deeply into his empty glass on the bar as his marking started throbbing absently, "Yosaku… this whole drinking thing to make me less angry is kind of backfiring."

Yosaku was swaying in the seat next to Soren slightly, "Well don't look at me. There's a bar full of people that you can fight. I'm your nakama, we're friends, and I don't want you to melt this sword too."

"Meh, I wouldn't melt your sword if we fought again. And I don't want to fight any of these people." Soren said dejectedly, "I know I can beat all of these idiots and it won't help me vent. Just keep drinking until Uzumaki or Nojiko drags our sorry asses out of here."

A woman with shiny pink hair done up in a bun of sorts and a small mole under her left eye sat near Soren and Yosaku at the bar with a sigh, "Now who am I going to work for?" She said. She wore a tight fitting yellow outfit that zipped in front and left little to the imagination when it came to her chest and around her legs where the outfit stopped in a skirt. She also wore high brown boots that came up to her knees with medical crosses on the front of them.

Soren elbowed Yosaku in the side when he caught the swordsman staring at her, "I would say that you would have a shot if you lost the headgear, otherwise you might as well keep on looking." Yosaku shook his head wordlessly getting Soren to shrug, "Whatever you say, I was just trying to help." He gestured towards the bartender, "Oi! Refill, right here!"

"So…" Yosaku said probingly towards the woman, "What kind of work do you do Miss…" He said, more or less asking for her name.

The woman rolled her eyes and kept from looking at Yosaku, "Muret… and I _was _a doctor on this pirate crew led by Bellamy the Hyena, but he went and got his clock cleaned by Monkey D. Luffy and then he and Sarquiss got themselves beaten to a pulp again… they should have died. But those pretenders will just end up getting themselves killed and then where would that leave me?" She shook her head, "I'm not going to be a doctor for people that are going to wind up dying anyway."

Yosaku placed a hand on his chin with his other propping up his elbow, trying to give himself a studious look, "I can see your point. I mean, doctors like their patients to survive don't they?"

Muret's eyes drifted over to Yosaku with a dry look, "You probably thought that sounded rather smart and deep didn't you?" She said, getting a face-fault out of him for blowing his cover, "Whatever. Why are you trying to talk to me? You haven't even bought me a drink."

Yosaku immediately recovered, "I can do that. B-But if you're a doctor can you look my friend over? He's kind of hurt and we don't have a doctor." He said pointing at Soren.

Soren growled through his drink, "Don't pull me into your epic fail to win this girl over Yosaku." Yosaku then jabbed Soren in the ribs with his fingers sharply, getting Soren to spit out his drink and yell in pain, "You son of a bitch!"

Yosaku looked back over at Muret, "You see. He's all wrecked up from the last battle he was in and he's still hurting from it. Can you help him out?"

"I don't work for free." Muret said, "I'm something of a mercenary doctor, I'm not going to just help you out of the goodness of my heart, that would be money out of my own pocket. You _do_ have money don't you?" Yosaku nodded furiously, "I doubt it."

Soren was still reeling with Yosaku's fingers subtly jabbing his ribs up, "Woman _I'll_ pay you…" He hissed out through the pain, "Just get over here and help me out before I put this moron's face through the bar. I'm not supposed to cause property damage here… our captain does enough of that on his own."

Muret stood up with a sigh and walked over to Soren to give him a short examination of his injuries, "Who tried to fix you? It looks like someone just dropped you on a bed and left you there."

Soren groaned in pain, "That's kind of what happened. Nobody 'fixed' me, no one on the ship knows how. And the thing is, we've never needed anyone to actually do it for us before. Ow, that's uncomfortable."

"Well…" Muret said as she was testing Soren's right arm's range of motion, "You're alright, but you're beat all to hell. There's nothing I can do at this point. You're just going to have to wait it out until you're back to 100%. You've never needed a doctor before? Either you're all really lucky or you're all very strong."

Soren let out a short laugh along with Yosaku, "We're not lucky, trust us."

Yosaku followed up after Soren, "Yeah, but Naruto-aniki's done a good job of keeping us all in one piece so far. Hey do you want to meet him?" He asked her, still trying to keep the conversation going.

Muret raised a delicate eyebrow, "Why would I want to meet this Naruto person? He isn't hurt, or is he?"

Yosaku shook his head, "No. Naruto-aniki never really needs a doctor. Even when someone does manage to hit him he just walks through it and keeps going. No, you should meet him so he can pay you for helping us out."

Hearing that name in her head, Muret mulled it around trying to recall where she had heard that before when she looked onto the wall and saw a rather new poster up and prominent. The poster of the bloody Naruto after the fight at Arlong Park, "Wait. Your captain is Uzumaki Naruto? The Uzumaki Naruto that kidnapped a member of the Alabasta Royal Family? That guy is here?"

Soren and Yosaku just nodded. Muret ran a hand through her hair, "Ugh, first Doflamingo shows himself and now Uzumaki does too. And you, you're Soren the Plague…" She said after looking at the wall and seeing Soren's bounty poster up as well, "What is this? Show off your high bounty day or something?"

Soren's eyes glassed over, "What did you just say?" He asked blankly.

Muret blinked in confusion before speaking again, "About what?" She said, fearful of angering him. A pirate with a bounty over 200 million wouldn't have any qualms with outright killing her and being done with it.

"Doflamingo!" Soren roared, standing up out of his chair and throwing his glass against the nearest wall, "You said you saw him? Where did the son of a bitch go!"

Muret was shaking until Yosaku stepped in front of her, placing himself between her and Soren, "Calm down Soren, you're scaring her. She's going to tell you."

Muret took this moment to answer him to get the oppressive feeling of death off of herself, "He, he said that Bellamy had an alliance with him. That must have been why we had that other insignia on our mast. He might be on our ship in the docks. It's going to have a crossed out smiley on the main sail."

Soren looked at her coldly and nodded before walking towards the door where a group of pirates blocked his path while smirking, "Move." He said simply, a threatening undertone in his voice.

"You think you can come into our bar and start making a ruckus? Who do you think you are?" The leader of the group said placing a hand on Soren's shoulder until a hissing sound rang out and the man pulled his hand away, the skin on the surface of his hand burned away, "Gah! What?"

Soren didn't say a word or even blink. He simply spit right into the man's eye, sending him to the ground yelling and rubbing at where he screamed his eyes were burning, his friends frantically trying to help him.

Muret watched him leave and let a breath go that she hadn't been aware she had been holding, "That was terrifying…"

Yosaku nodded, "Yeah. Naruto-aniki is scarier when he wants to be." He ignored Muret's look of astonishment at hearing that fact, "But what the hell is his problem with Doflamingo?"

Muret shook her head, "How does he even know him? He's one of the Shichibukai."

Yosaku sighed, "I need to go find Naruto-aniki…" He looked at her apologetically, "Sorry about getting you involved in all of this, but if you want to get paid we need to find Naruto-aniki and we need to get this all figured out. Hopefully we don't end up tearing the town apart this time."

Muret remained silent as she wordlessly followed Yosaku out, stepping over the guy on the ground freaking out about being hit with Soren's acid.

XxX

'Crossed out smiley, crossed out smiley, crossed out smiley.' Soren stopped searching when he saw a ship outlined in pink with a crossed out smiley figurehead and a smiley as the main sail with a second insignia of lips and a tongue sticking out above it, "Gotcha… Doflamingo! Time to die!" He shouted as he jumped aboard the ship to find it seemingly deserted, "Come out damn it! Come out so I can kill you!"

"I was having such a nice rest…" A male voice called from inside of the ship as their footsteps sounded out. The flamboyant figure finally emerged from the shadows of the ship to look down at Soren with a grin, "Well little baldy! I could never forget a weird looking kid like you! How's life?"

"Ibi Ibi no Jakan (Rot Rot Hose)!" Soren shouted before a steady blast of acid flew from his arms at Doflamingo who jumped high into the air and stood up on the sail of the ship looking down at Soren.

Doflamingo let out an amused laugh at Soren, "And you got the powers of a Devil Fruit, all for little old me. I'm so touched. I would be rather put out at you tearing this ship up, but this ship isn't mine, it belongs to some former associate of mine so do with it what you like."

"Donquixote Doflamingo… this ship will be your grave!" Soren shouted at him, acidic mist flying from his body, showing his anger at the man above him.

Doflamingo's ever present grin was in place as he laughed down at him again, "Come on now. What did I ever do to you… you know, besides the torturing you and making you mark yourself thing."

"Why?" Soren hissed lowly.

Doflamingo's grin widened, "I already told you that back when you were a little boy. I did it because I could. Because you were weak and I was strong. The way the world works, it's a viciously beautiful modus operandi."

"I know that!" Soren snapped back impatiently, "I meant why did you even bother getting the Marines off of me in the first place? You could have just let them continue! You didn't have to kill them and then turn to me!"

"Fuffuffuffuffu!" Doflamingo laughed uproariously, "I already told you! How many times do I have to keep saying it? I did it because I could! I killed them because I could, because they were weak enough to get their kicks beating on a street kid… and then I wanted to see what they saw in it so I did what I did to you. I have to say, it wasn't as appealing as they made it look. You were so easy to manipulate into cutting yourself it wasn't even worth it." He stopped talking and took a good look at him, "Nice touch covering the scars with those tattoos. You would think you meant to have those if one didn't know any better." He said before laughing again.

Soren seethed in anger as his thoughts were haunted with Doflamingo's laughter both in his mind from the past, and out loud in real-time, "Die! Ibi Ibi no Danmaku (Rot Rot Barrage)!" Soren let loose an uncountable number of small acidic bullets from his mouth at Doflamingo.

The pink feathered coat wearing man laughed loudly as he dodged every shot and let the bullets eat through the sail as he kept away from Soren's shots, "That's the spirit! I knew you would end up being fun if I let you live to hate me!"

Soren stopped his barrage to ration what he had left of his fluids, 'I can't waste everything on an attack that isn't hitting him.' He fired a single burst of acid from his mouth at Doflamingo, who simply turned his head and let it pass by him, allowing Soren to leap high into the air and draw his palm back, "Kishou Tora, Tsuiraku Yama (Rising Tiger, Falling Mountain)!" Soren dropped from the sky at his enemy with a crushing palm strike that was dodged, sending him right through the deck of the ship, leaving a massive hole.

Doflamingo looked inside of the hole with a grin on his face, "Did you go all the way through and land in the ocean? Are you dead yet?" He asked brightly.

"Ibi Ibi no Kanketsusen (Rot Rot Geyser)!"

Soren's reply was an eruption of acid from the hole that he had created. Doflamingo jumped back out of the way, avoiding the deadly fluid. Another eruption occurred from where his feet landed after that dodge, forcing him to move aside again. Doflamingo moved again, only this time from the acid that had just come up from the ground, Soren emerged with his hand drawn back in a knife-hand form, "Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Knife)!" He thrusted his hand out at Doflamingo, counting down the distance before his hand would pierce the man's chest until his hand was stopped cold right before it reached him.

Soren's eyes raised in horror as they met Doflamingo's glasses-shrouded eyes, his face twisted in a wide grin, "Well what do you know? It looks like I can still control you kid. Let's see how much."

Soren's hand slowly moved away from Doflamingo's chest no matter how hard he tried to will himself to go back and finish the man off, 'No! I'm so close! I was right there!' His hand moved back towards his own chest and jabbed against it like he had intended to do to Doflamingo.

The Shichibukai frowned when he didn't see Soren's hand pierce his own chest, "Huh… So you can't work your powers on yourself I see. Oh well, I can still kill you."

Soren grit his teeth before letting his cheeks swell, "Ibi Ibi no Kouzui (Rot Rot Flood)!" He shot out a torrent of acid that knocked Doflamingo backwards and coated him in acid as he lifted his arms to cover his face. The force of the attack pressed Doflamingo back against the mast, where the acid that wasn't hitting him began eating away at the mast, knocking it over and sending it crashing into the water, "And that's that you cocky son of a bitch. Now you're going to be a puddle." He said as he saw bits dripping off of his drenched target.

Eventually it all died down to reveal that the only thing that had happened was that Doflamingo was forced to shed his pink, thickly feathered coat lest his body wind up on the receiving end of the business portion of Soren's acid. Doflamingo lowered his arms from his face to reveal his grin had dropped, "I liked that coat…"

XxX

"Naruto-aniki!" Naruto was finally sprung from Nojiko's inherent need to window shop by Yosaku.

"Thank Kami, Yosaku!" Nojiko glared at him, sending a chill down his back, "I mean, ahem, what could be so important that you'd tear me away from this thing I'm doing with Noji-chan that I enjoy so much and would never complain about out loud?" Naruto looked over his shoulder at Nojiko with a 'please buy that' look. He was satisfied for the moment when she looked away with a huff, he'd have to fix that later.

"Soren…" Yosaku said, "He flipped out and went after Donquixote Doflamingo! I don't know why."

"Donquiwhowho Doflawhatwhat?" Naruto asked vapidly.

"This is Uzumaki Naruto?" Muret asked from behind Yosaku, "He doesn't look scary at all. How could this guy have kidnapped anyone or killed any kinds of Marines?"

Naruto looked at her inquisitively, "Yosaku who is this and why is she here? And more importantly, what are _you_ doing with her?"

"Oi! I take offense to that!" Yosaku said loudly, "But she's just here to get paid for giving Soren a small checkup. She's a doctor."

Naruto stared at her for a few moments, "We'll talk more after we handle this, you're getting paid no matter what for helping out, but right now there's something more important. Where is Soren?"

Muret spoke up, "I told him to check for the docks. Are you sure he's going to fight this person? Who would be insane enough to fight one of the Shichibukai?"

Naruto stopped in his tracks, "Damn it… This is the guy that Soren wanted to fight. If he freaked out and went after him it's definitely him." He motioned for Nojiko to climb onto his back, "We need to go get Soren and hope he didn't destroy too much stuff, we need to stay here until the Log Pose resets." He looked at Yosaku, "Get the girl here to the ship, you guys wait there until we get back."

Muret let out a small scream of surprise when Naruto and Nojiko disappeared in a burst of wind and leaves, "What? What kind of Devil Fruit power is that? He's so much faster than Bellamy."

Yosaku shook his head, "That's not a power of any fruit. Naruto-aniki apparently learned how to do all of that. Hard to believe, but he can swim and everything so he has to be telling the truth about it. He's really secretive about a lot of stuff, but he's a hell of a captain. Come on, let's go."

Muret shook her head and followed him, "You're all so weird." She said, but her thoughts were different, 'But they're more interesting, and definitely way stronger than Bellamy's crew. One of them is picking fights with the Shichibukai and he isn't even the captain.'

XxX

(With Soren)

Soren's body sailed through the air and crashed harshly on the land. He looked up at the boat he had been thrown from, cuts freely opened all over his face. Soren coughed up blood, his internal injuries re-aggravated from the damage he had been taking. He shakily stood up, his leg still not properly healed from his fight with the cyborg, glaring at the ship, "Eleven years goddamn you! I'm not losing after training and hunting you for eleven years. You fucking sellout! Your World Government won't protect you from me!"

Soren lifted his hands overhead and began drawing a massive amount of acid from his body in the form of a huge orb. He began breathing heavily at the lack of bodily liquids doing such a thing caused, "Die! Ibi Ibi Shibotsu (Rot Rot Death)!" Soren threw his hands forward, moving the sphere of acid that began taking the shape of a giant hissing skull that opened its mouth and engulfed the ship, hitting it flush.

The acid covered every inch of the ship, bringing it down in an oozing mess into the bay water. Soren collapsed on his hands and knees, staring out at the water and where the sunken ship Doflamingo had been on used to sit.

"Incoming!" Soren had no time to respond before He found himself driven into the ground by Doflamingo who had his heels buried into Soren's back, forcing the young man to scream out in pain, "Ooh, that looks painful. Do you think that cracked a few vertebrae?"

Soren spoke weakly with Doflamingo still on his back, "How… did you get off the ship? I never saw you move, I never saw anything."

Doflamingo kneeled down on Soren's back, "Oh that? I jumped."

Soren's eyes widened, "You jumped? How high did you jump? I can't jump that high." He said before he felt Doflamingo's hand on the top of his head, having lost his bandanna during the fight.

"Oh little bald kid…" He said scathingly, "If you're comparing yourself to me, and I'm quite sure that you are at this point, you should know something. I've been doing this since before you were even a twinkle in the eyes of the parents that didn't want you." Soren tried to rise and fight at that comment, but as he was, he could only _try_ to move before pain shot through his body from his back, keeping him down, "You were a fun little loose end I have to admit, but if this is as good as you're going to get before challenging me I might as well put you out of my misery now." His grip tightened on Soren's head to an excruciatingly painful extent, getting him to scream out in pain once more.

In a swirl of wind and leaves, Naruto appeared behind Soren and Doflamingo and aimed a kick at the Shichibukai's head that forced him to relinquish his position and Soren's head lest he lose his own. Nojiko hopped off of Naruto's back and kneeled down by Soren with her rifle trained on Doflamingo.

"Noji-chan put your gun up." Naruto said, confusing her greatly, "You aren't here to fight this guy. He beat Soren. Even if he was hurt, beating Soren is a big deal." Nojiko reluctantly placed her gun back into its holding place on her back. Naruto's attention turned to Doflamingo who was standing back up staring at Naruto with his hands in his pockets and a grin on his face, "So you're the guy that Soren wants to murder."

Doflamingo bowed extravagantly, "Donquixote Doflamingo at your service Uzumaki Naruto." He lifted his head up to look at Naruto, "Yes I know who you are. The work you ended up doing on those Pacifista cyborgs that were sent after you definitely got the Marines' attention. I saw the footage one of them captured. Very impressive."

Naruto's lips quirked in amusement, "All I did was break a few toys. I can do things way cooler than that, trust me."

"That's what Sengoku thought too." Doflamingo said, "He more or less told all of the Shichibukai that showed up to his little meeting to offer you a seat as one of us if we came across you on the seas. Someone has to take Crocodile's place after all."

Naruto let out a chuckle, "I don't fight for anyone but those precious to me. If you see this Sengoku again tell him there's nothing he can say or do that will make me his lap dog. I'd rather be his outlaw. It's more fun that way."

Doflamingo laughed at that, "You know that's the exact reason I joined the Shichibukai myself, because I thought it would be more interesting than just destroying the Marines sent after me. I guess that's how we differ Uzumaki Naruto." He then raised an eyebrow, "Aren't you going to attack me? I expected a fight out of you."

Naruto shook his head and formed a trio of Kage Bunshin, putting Doflamingo on guard until they went over to Soren, one turning into a stretcher and the other's placing him onto it before taking him away alongside Nojiko. The original Naruto stared Doflamingo down, "I'm not going to fight you myself because it's not my place. I'll let Soren finish you himself, because who am I to take a friend's dream away from him?"

"Dreams?" Doflamingo said in hilarity, "A man like myself doesn't have any need for immaterial goals like the one that your foolish bald friend has towards killing me. He needs a goal you can grasp onto! A material goal that can be obtained! The world is changing and dreams are dead."

Naruto shook his head pitifully, "Spoken like a man that never achieved his own."

Doflamingo's smile grew, "And you Uzumaki… Are you saying you achieved your own clearly lofty goals in life?"

Naruto shook his head, "No I haven't." A smile formed on Naruto's face, "But I believe I can achieve it, because it's not just my goal, it's the goal of my sensei, my father, my fellow disciple. It's the goal of so many people…" He closed his eyes and laughed, "And I have all the time in the world." Naruto turned around and started walking away with his hands in his pockets, "All the time in the world."

Doflamingo let out another laugh, "Fuffuffuffu! I like you Uzumaki! I disagree with you vehemently, but still, I like you kid!" He ignored Naruto's amused snort after he called him 'kid', "That spot isn't going to stay open for long! I may have been asked to offer you the spot amongst our ranks, but the next time we meet it will probably be filled, and we'll be enemies!"

"There's no reason to do it, especially right now." Naruto insisted, "I'm a free man, I have my own ship and crew, I can go anywhere I want to in the entire world, and I don't need the protection of your World Government for me or my people, so no… I'd rather not place a yoke around my neck to be dragged around by a bunch of nameless, faceless leaders."

Doflamingo nodded, "I respect that."

Naruto waved over his shoulder, not turning to look at Doflamingo, "I don't really care. 'Till the next time, later." Naruto then disappeared in a yellow flash.

Doflamingo stared at where Naruto had once been before laughing slowly. The laughter grew until he was laughing uproariously, "That's very interesting! You're an interesting guy Uzumaki Naruto! Ahh, things are going to be getting fun again. I can just feel it!" He said to himself before walking away.

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**Back to the old grind of university living… yay. Okay, chapter complete. It's Friday night and it's my first week back, time for some debauchery. Until next time people, later. **

***Flies away from laptop into the sky, taking out the ceiling in the process***

**Kenchi out… (Voice fades into the distance)**


	20. Roundabout Way

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Rise up my minions! Rise up and correct this travesty for me! Army of Kenchi618 unite and bring down the manga bourgeoisie! This art is my art! This art is your art! …But mostly this art is my art! And I demand it for myself!

**Chapter 20: Roundabout Way**

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Soren's eyes opened as the light of his room blinded him and gave him a headache, "Ow…" He said to himself, feeling his wounds from the fight with Doflamingo. He turned his head to the side where he saw everyone else on the crew and the woman that he and Yosaku had met in the bar there as well.

Naruto walked forward and looked down in his bed at him, "So he's going to be alright isn't he Muret?"

The woman blinked at hearing Naruto speak to her, but quickly recovered, "Yes Uzumaki-sama, he should be fine with bed rest… a lot of bed rest. You will still need a doctor to see him through his recovery in case of any complications in the meantime, but he's fine for now."

Naruto frowned at her. She was scared of him because of the bounty and the Marine backstory, "No Uzumaki-sama. Don't call me that, just Naruto will be fine. The pay is enough right?" Muret nodded, "So how much would it take for you to come with us."

Yosaku blurred from his spot to right in Naruto's face, "Are you serious Naruto-aniki? You'll really bring her along?"

Naruto stared at the uncomfortably close swordsman before making a one-handed tiger seal, "Weight increase, fuuin!" Naruto shouted before Yosaku's weight bands turned blue and crashed into the ground, "I can't do that too many more times..." He said, talking about Yosaku's weights, "...But yeah, if she wants to she can. She needs a job, we need a doctor, we have money, she can heal us up. She did a good job with Soren."

Muret looked at him long and hard, "1 million beli up front." She finally said.

"Done." Naruto said in return, extending his hand for Muret to shake. She looked at skeptically. Did he really have the money to pay one million straight out like that, "I'll get it to you once we leave so you don't try running off with my money. Noji-chan did the Log Pose reset yet? It's been a day."

Nojiko shook her head ,"Nope, it's still acting up Naruto-kun. We might as well take this as a short vacation of sorts I guess." Nojiko looked at Muret with a friendly smile, "Well I guess she can get used to all of you lunatics in the meantime and see if she still wants the job when it's time to leave."

"Well now that that's settled…" Naruto said before moving over to Soren and punching him on top of the head, "You moron! That's for getting your ass kicked and not telling me you went off to fight one of the strongest people in the world!"

Soren glared at Naruto as a bump formed on his head, "It wasn't your problem Uzumaki. Doflamingo is my mark, if you kill him and I don't I will never forgive you."

Naruto crossed his arms and stared at the injured Devil Fruit user, "Fine. But killing him won't solve a single thing, I'm telling you. If you kill him you'll just push your problem onto something else, I guarantee it. They always do…" The only way he could stop Soren was by force though, and that wouldn't solve anything, it would just make Soren resent him in the end. "Look, there are some people in the world that just need to die-."

"And Doflamingo is one of them." Soren said resolutely.

Naruto ignored him and continued, "-But actively hunting them out and making it your life's mission to carry out some vendetta makes you bitter, cynical, and jaded about life." Naruto said before realizing who he was talking to, "Well, _more_ bitter, cynical, and jaded about life. You'll just look past everything in front of you now looking ahead to taking Doflamingo out in the future, no matter how long it takes. No matter what passes you by in the process. Then when you actually do finish him off, what do you have to go back to? What exactly will you get out of all that time you spent? Nothing but one man's blood on your hands?"

Soren looked away from Naruto and up at the ceiling, "I need to finish him myself Uzumaki. It's the only way I can live with what that bastard did to me. He needs to pay. I want him to feel just as helpless as I did, to feel the pain that I felt."

"Yeah." Naruto said sarcastically, "Because the only thing I know that could possibly make someone feel better about a traumatic experience is to hunt down the actual person that did it and proceed to try and make that person feel the pain that you felt. Ignoring the fact that the entire time you'll be thinking of the pain that the person caused you as fuel to fight and harm them, and when the fight is over and you a_ctually_ kill them, you'll have finished your life's goal and gotten absolutely nothing but years of wasted money, physical and mental scars that the person you killed _didn't_ give you, and a lifetime's worth of missed opportunities." He noticed everyone in the room looking at him strangely, "What? I've seen a lot of stuff in my life."

Vivi decided to interject and break the awkward silence, "Okay, negative stuff aside… can I please leave the ship now? I'm bored here and everyone else is free to leave."

Naruto looked at the princess who he could tell was starting to feel cabin fever, and he couldn't really blame her. All he had been making her do was train and… well that was it. All he made her do was train. That would have to get monotonous and boring really quickly, "Okay Vivi. But you do know that people think I kidnapped you. If people realize who you are you do know that the Marines are going to be on our asses so fast we'll be pinned down before Noji-chan's Log Pose resets."

Miss Valentine waved Naruto's paranoia off and draped herself around the blonde captain, "Oh calm down Naruto. Say that someone here actually does recognize that she's the princess of Alabasta. What is anyone going to do? Do you really think that anyone in a town full of what? Say it with me Naruto: Pi-rates! Do you really think that anyone in a town full of pirates would run off to the Marines just to tell them they saw her?"

Naruto looked at the cheerful blonde woman that had detached herself from him before looking back at Vivi, "Fine, you can do what you want, just stay armed, and if anyone tries to grope you feel free to kick their ass or come to one of us so _we_ can kick their ass. Other than that, have fun." Vivi happily ran up to Naruto and gave him a massive hug before seemingly vanishing from everyone's sight due to moving so fast. Naruto shook his head in amusement before forming a Kage Bunshin, "Follow her, stay out of sight, and make sure she keeps out of trouble." The clone quickly followed its creator's instructions.

"So now what?" Johnny asked from where he had been standing, "We've got another day here? What's there to do in this place anyway?"

Yosaku looked at his most prolific partner and started listing things, "Well from what I've seen we can drink, fight, drink, sleep, get into stare-offs with other pirates, gamble, and drink." He turned to Muret, "Is that about right?"

She sighed and nodded, "That's pretty much it. It's all I've seen happen around here anyway. I've been here for a month. I don't think Bellamy was ever going to leave; he liked the attention that his bounty got around here. Everyone was scared of him and did pretty much whatever he said."

Johnny looked over at Naruto, "Can I take a day off Naruto-aniki?"

Naruto stroked his chin in thought, "I don't see why not. I mean, we can't leave until the Log Pose resets or else we won't know where we're really going so go ahead. Everyone can do whatever they want as long as they all stay out of trouble and are all ready to leave at a moment's notice." Before he even finished his sentence he noticed that the room had been entirely vacated with the exception of the bed-ridden Soren and Muret, who herself was sitting there blinking in shock at how fast everyone left, "They could have at least waited until I was done."

Shortly thereafter, Naruto left the room, followed shortly by Muret, who stood up and looked back at Soren, "Stay in bed and don't move until-."

"Yeah, yeah." Soren cut her off testily, "I know the drill. I'll just sleep while the rest of them do stupid things. I've done enough drinking and fighting to last me a week anyway after yesterday. Good luck surviving out there though."

Muret stopped at the door once she heard that, "I've been on this island for quite some time, I think I'll be alright."

Soren chuckled slightly, "No, I mean good luck surviving the crew. Between Yosaku's crush on you, to everyone's manic quirks you might not make it long enough to even leave Jaya with us." He took a moment to think before adding something else, "And that would really be a shame because you're damn good. I can barely even feel anything."

"Oh, that?" She said disappearing from the doorway, her voice getting louder yet fainter as she walked away, "Surgery is my specialty. If you were still in relative pain after I was done with you, I wouldn't think my skills were up to snuff, definitely not worth one million beli. Just go to sleep."

Soren looked back up at the ceiling, "Will do!" He shouted down the hall at her before doing it again, "Hey can I get some more morphine?"

XxX

(With Vivi)

"Perverts…" Vivi thought to herself as she walked through the town with Carue at her side. So far, since she had entered the town from the docks, she had counted 156 wandering pairs of eyes on her, 253 odd grins from the men looking at her, and 75-.

"Hey baby, how'd you like to travel the Grand Line with a real pirate captain? I'd give you some real pleasant experiences little girl!"

Make that 76 veiled and not-so-veiled propositions from pirates that thought that getting that far immediately went to mean that they were great. The only good thing about it all was that no one seemed to know who she was. She even went as far as believing that they thought she was local. Maybe because she was very young, she was only 16, so they must have thought she was local or something.

When Naruto hit on her she knew he was joking and he was always respectful to her. She knew not to take him seriously. As a matter of fact she actually enjoyed his comments. Except for the ones he would make when he ensnared her in his little obstacle course and manipulated her body with the wires. Those were somewhat uncouth… but she trusted him.

However these pirates were nothing like the ones she had grown accustomed to. The ones she had gotten used to, both of the Foxhound and Straw Hat variety, were good people with quirks and grandstanding issues that prompted them to take up the pirating lifestyle for whatever reason. Hell, Naruto claimed vehemently and loudly on a regular basis that he did not fit the description of a pirate, and he didn't.

The pirates that infested Mock Town and the island of Jaya in general were the pure stereotype of what she had been conditioned to believe pirates were when she was a girl. She was debating taking out her weapons and cleaning some house, but she was still a princess, whether or not she was recognized as one or not.

"Want some company?" She heard from Carue, though she didn't look at her faithful companion.

"You're already here Carue." Vivi said, grateful for something taking her mind off of the aggressively violent acts she was thinking of. Then she realized that Carue was a duck, and ducks don't talk… well as far as she knew they didn't talk. I mean she didn't think reindeer talked either and then she met Chopper, but that was beside the point. She turned to see Naruto sitting on Carue, grinning at her, "Naruto? What are you doing here?"

Naruto pointed at the men on the side of the street who had once been leering at Vivi now diverting their eyes away from their general direction, "They know who I am and they're scared of me. So as long as I'm here no one should mess with you, unless they're trying to mess with me and pick a fight, and if they are I can deal with it."

"What about me?" Vivi said indignantly, "I'm training to handle things like that."

Naruto shrugged before looking down at her from the duck he was seated atop, "People won't want to fight _you_. People will want to do other physical things to you because you're cute. So if anyone thinks you're cute enough to risk an asskicking they'll come out onto the street and challenge me to a fight-."

"Hey Seed of War! You don't look so tough! Why don't you bring that pretty little lady over-?" A man shouted, pushing himself from the side of a building and drawing a cutlass. In the blink of an eye he was pinned to the wall by his clothes, outlined by shuriken.

"-Just like that guy did." Naruto said, still riding Carue, but with his arm outstretched from throwing the weapons, "So what are you looking for out here Vivi?"

Vivi looked up at Naruto with a smile, "Well you said that Luffy and his crew had been here. I just wanted to know how they were doing. Someone around here has to have met them and talked to them for a bit right?"

Naruto was just a clone of the real deal sent to escort Vivi around and keep her safe and out of trouble. He didn't care where she went or what she did, so why not just go with it, "Sure. All I know is that Luffy beat up some guy named Bellamy. He had to have done more than that since being here." He reached down and grabbed Vivi's arm before pulling her up onto Carue to ride as well.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Yosaku had his sword in its scabbard on front of him as he sat on the deck. He took a deep breath and pulled it out of the sheath before placing it back inside with tears in his eyes once he saw where the blade broke off, "Oh man! Why does this keep on happening to me?" He asked himself desperately, "First I gave my sword to Zoro-aniki when he left after the stuff with Arlong, then my other sword gets melted by Soren, and now this."

"You broke your sword again?" Yosaku jumped to his feet fearfully as he turned to see Naruto standing nearby with his arms crossed, "You have a seriously bad habit with those things. What am I going to do with you?"

Yosaku immediately bowed at Naruto's feet, "I'm sorry Naruto-aniki! Just don't do anything rash! I'll pay for my own new sword!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and grabbed Yosaku, jerking him back to his feet, "Get up… You're embarrassing yourself. Muret is right there." He said pointing over towards the helm where she had been leaning against the railing watching with an amused face. Yosaku started stammering before Naruto snapped his fingers and got his attention, "That's it! I know what to do for you! And this could be one of the gifts I planned to get everyone anyway."

He pulled out a scroll that Yosaku thought he was quite familiar with, "Naruto-aniki are you going to give me Samehada?"

Naruto blanched at that notion, "Samehada? Hell no! Samehada would devour you whole if you tried to use it. But I'm giving you something related to Samehada if that sounds right to you." Naruto unsealed the scroll to reveal six more scrolls on the ground. He picked one up with a grin on his face, "Let's see you try to break this one."

In a puff of smoke Naruto then held a large broadsword, the blade almost as tall and wide as he was, that resembled a butcher's knife. It had a hole carved into it near the top of the blade and a smaller semi-circle looking like it was meant for an exact purpose down closer to the handle grooved into the blade itself.

Muret looked at the large blade in utter shock, "What kind of weapon is that? It looks completely wicked and hard to use." She was even more shocked at how it seemed to appear out of thin air.

Naruto held the large sword out at Yosaku with a pleased look on his face, "Yosaku say hello to a sword that I am very, very familiar with. This blade belonged to a group of swordsmen known years ago in my land as the Seven Ninja Swordsmen of the Mist; the best and most powerful swordsmen on the continent, maybe in the world. Now in order to use the others properly you need to know how to use chakra. You don't so I'm giving you this one, and I think it will suit you rather well, especially since I already have you using a sword that would qualify as oversized."

Yosaku nervously took it from Naruto. He had never held a sword so fine before. He noticed that there were still even more scrolls on the deck that Naruto sealed back up into the singular one. How did he come across such weapons and why did he have them? "Naruto-aniki I can't accept this." Yosaku said.

Naruto grinned at him and patted him on the shoulder, "Don't give me that. Yes you can, yes you will. The fact that you can actually hold the damn thing up is a good sign that I made the right choice. Now, meet Kubikiribouchou (Decapitating Carving Knife). It has a special ability that you're going to find very useful. I would love to see you try to break this thing for good."

"I would never let this amazing gift break Naruto-aniki!" Yosaku said frantically, "Thank you so much!"

Naruto waved it off, "Meh, don't worry so much about it. I wanted to give this to you at some point. But now I've got to get something for Johnny too. He can't use any of the other swords I have. They either don't fit his style or wouldn't work for him right because he can't use chakra. You don't need chakra to use this one, you just need to be strong. You're way stronger physically than Johnny is and this sword is just your style. Not to mention it will scare the shit out of someone that doesn't know anything about combat with swords. I know it scared me when I first saw it as a kid."

Muret crossed her arm at the ongoing scene, "You're a generous person aren't you?" She said to Naruto. She didn't see how anyone could mistake this guy for a ruthless killer. So far other than the skill he had shown by pure speed, which actually was very scary she had to admit, he had only seen an effective leader figure. Not the blood-soaked warlord in his poster, but it was undoubtedly him. What made him go off like that, because it was obviously real?

Naruto shrugged as Yosaku was still marveling at his new gift, "Well Yosaku is a strong guy. If this Yosaku fought the Yosaku that existed when I first met it wouldn't even be funny to watch, it would be so one-sided. If Luffy beat your old captain with one punch I'm sure that Johnny and Yosaku would be able to beat him."

Muret's eyes widened as she saw Yosaku give the giant sword some test swings that he seemed to find satisfactory. To say that this goofy looking guy could beat someone with a bounty of 55 million was a big boast, but there was no posturing on Naruto's face when he said it, and Yosaku didn't respond one way or the other. So he either knew he himself was that strong off of experience, or he believed in Naruto so much he accepted it as fact.

Either way it was seriously something to think about as she watched Yosaku skillfully go through his motions with the sword. Naruto watched and nodded in appreciation, "Yeah, you see, a few months ago that would have looked so clunky and uncoordinated, and that's with a regular sword. I'm not even talking about trying to swing that monster around." Naruto was forced to turn around when he felt a tap on his shoulder.

Nojiko was standing there with her hand outstretched expectantly, "I want my pistol back Naruto-kun… that is unless you broke it."

Naruto grinned at her and reached inside of his sage coat, "No way. I know what I'm doing Noji-chan." He handed her the gun back, watching as she quickly inspected it, "Now shoot it to make sure I didn't mess it up because you know that you want to."

Nojiko finished her inspection and pointed the gun over her shoulder without looking to shoot a bottle sitting on the railing, not even turning around to make sure she hit her mark, "It's fine. What did you even do to it?" She asked him, ignoring Muret's rather slacked jaw at Nojiko blind-firing without even actually aiming and hitting her mark.

Naruto led her back to the mast where he had set up a target on the one behind it, "You know how I told you to hit the target behind the mast while standing right here, still?" She nodded, "Well I want you to try it again."

"How in fuck's name am I going to pull that miracle off?" Nojiko asked trying to figure out what motion would even get a shot around the mast to even give the bullet a fighting chance at hitting her mark. Naruto moved behind her and took her hand that was holding the gun, much like the way he did when he first taught her how to shoot, "What are you doing Naruto-kun?"

Naruto drew Nojiko's arm out wide to the side and readied her finger on the trigger before swinging it inward and pressing down on her finger, forcing her to fire. Nojiko's eyes widened when the bullet seemed to curve and strike the side of the mast the target sat on. It was nowhere near hitting the mark, but the fact that it didn't just fly out into nothingness or hit the mast in front of her, "How did you do that? What just happened?"

Naruto chuckled and let go of her hand, "I put a wind seal in the barrel. It's very precise. Since you can't use chakra I made it so that it works just off of kinetic energy. Depending on how hard you swing the gun when you fire it, the bullet will curve at a sharper angle as it's coated in wind chakra. My own personal touch."

Nojiko turned around and gave him an odd look, "So let me get this straight… I can curve bullets."

Naruto nodded, "Yep!"

Nojiko looked at her pistol, "I have to learn how to shoot again don't I?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head, "Oh don't be like that Noji-chan. It was getting too easy for you anyway. Look at it this way, when you get this way down pat you can shoot around cover. And you can still shoot normally, it's just an option. The move you need to make to fire the curved bullet is so specific you can still shoot normally until you get it down."

Nojiko kept staring at the gun in her hand before pulling her other one out of the holster and handing it to him, "Do it for this one too. I need to learn how to shoot this thing." She turned baack towards the mast she was attempting to fire around and attempted her curved shot, only for it to miss miserably and take out quite a bit of wood, "Ugh, Vivi was right. We tear this ship apart." Nojiko moved back to Naruto and gave him a quick peck on the lips, "Thank you Naruto-kun. I'll have this down in no time."

"I know you will Noji-chan." Naruto said honestly, "And now that I know it works on your pistols I can see if some other things like that will work… on the cannons. Because eventually I'm going to want to fire them at something and I just want them to rip whatever we shoot at to pieces on the first try."

BANG

"Cra~zy." Nojiko chimed in a sing-song voice while reloading her pistol to keep practicing, "I need to go grab some more ammunition. I think I'm going to be here all day."

Muret looked over at Yosaku who had discarded his old sword and used the strap around his old sheath to keep Kubikiribouchou attached to his back through the circle, "What am I supposed to think of all of you? You have to be the weirdest pirate crew I've ever seen."

Yosaku shrugged and noticed Naruto about to open his mouth to address Muret on the matter, thus he decided to do it himself, "We are not pirates… really. We just find ourselves in situations that either place us in a ridiculous amount of danger, put us on the opposite side of people in power, or both. You'll get used to it."

She pointed to herself with a deadpan face, "I'm not going to pick up any weird quirks like the rest of you if I wind up taking Naruto's job offer am I? I rather like being normal thank you."

Yosaku gave her a smile and laughed reassuringly, "Oh my dear Muret… of course you are. You probably won't even have a choice in the matter." He pointed at Nojiko who was busy working on her new shooting style, "Nojiko-aneue was normal too, and now she can shoot a bird out of the sky behind her back with her non-dominant hand and constantly shoots at our feet and pistol whips us to make us behave."

Muret looked at Yosaku and crossed her arms, "Well what about you and the guy with sunglasses. You seem like the most normal people on the ship besides that teenage girl."

Yosaku laughed, "Johnny and I regularly get smashed and get into violent fights… mostly with each other. And Vivi isn't really that normal. She's a princess." Yosaku then cringed at the sound of a gunshot and the feeling of a bullet whizzing by his ear. He turned and saw Nojiko giving him a scolding look, shaking her head.

"Yosaku!" Naruto yelled at him as he walked up the side of the mast to the crow's nest to take a nap, "You give out information like that on a need to know basis, not just because you feel like it! Stop telling the pretty doctor lady stuff to impress her!"

Muret shook her head and walked away as Yosaku started yelling back at Naruto something about demanding respect, and how he wasn't afraid of him. She pretty much tuned it out as she went inside, but the last thing she heard was Naruto shouting a command of sorts and a loud thud where Yosaku had been standing. Arriving inside in the common area she sat down on a couch to find Miss Valentine doing the same only with a newspaper in her lap and a glass of lemonade in her hand, "You're all crazy."

Miss Valentine let out a laugh, "It's fun. Trust me, I assume that being crazy is the only thing keeping half of us from going insane." She looked up at the doctor and gave her a large Cheshire grin, "But you'll understand that soon enough if you come with us."

Muret looked at the blonde woman, "I'm wondering if 1 million beli all to myself is really worth the headache this is going to give me in the end."

Miss Valentine turned a page in her newspaper, "Well that much money can buy you a lot of aspirin." She then blinked in confusion before turning the paper towards Muret, "Hey, I've got my own listed bounty now too!" It was a rather grainy picture of her with Naruto cut out of the picture after their conflict with the Pacifista she wound up finishing off, "It's not much though, just 14 million. But how did they get it?" She wondered to herself.

"Oi! Doctor lady!" Soren yelled through the depths of the ship, "I can't get back to sleep! Give me some more drugs!"

"No!" Muret yelled back at him, "Too much and you'll overdose and die you idiot!"

"Fine!" He replied before going silent, "Hey Valentine, can you steal some drugs from that doctor lady and slip it into my lunch!"

"I can try Soren!" Miss Valentine yelled back at him, not taking her eyes off of the paper, ignoring Muret's glare on her.

"You're a real sweetheart Valentine!"

XxX

(Marineford – Fleet Admiral's Office)

Sengoku abruptly hung up the Den Den Mushi he had been using to speak with Doflamingo, as he had called him after his short run in with the man in question. In truth, Naruto just seemed to be floating about doing whatever he felt like. But power enough to repel the attack of an Admiral the likes of Kizaru and enough to put down two of the incomplete Pacifistas on his own could not be ignored. Until him, they had never been reported having been defeated.

"Something on your mind Sengoku?"

Sengoku's head snapped up in surprise as he looked at the large muscular man standing in his doorway. He was an older looking man with grey hair and a beard along with a scar on his left eye. He wore a white suit underneath his Marine Captain's coat that he kept his arms out of.

Sengoku grabbed his head, "Ugh, I really don't need this right now Garp. What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be training those two recruits you decided to randomly snatch up right now?"

"Meh they're all burnt out right now." Garp replied off-handedly, "But it's always a good time to come in here and see you about to burst a blood vessel over something. So who's the unlucky victim this time?"

Sengoku sighed and calmed down to explain how things were going, "This new guy… Uzumaki Naruto."

"Ah!" Garp said, cutting him off, "I've heard of that kid. He looks like a little pretty boy to me… don't really see what the big deal is about him. He seems like an upstart to me."

"He's more than just some flash-in-the-pan Garp!" Sengoku said, "Or is everyone going around these days getting the best of my Admirals?"

Garp let out a laugh, "Are you still upset that he sent Borsalino to Kamabakka Kingdom? *laughs* I figured he'd be more pissed off about that than you! And he's actually upset, Borsalino's never upset about anything!"

"_Kizaru_…" Sengoku said, stressing that that was his name, not Borsalino, "Kizaru is an Admiral. For a pirate to even be a challenge to him is a big deal. For him to actually be bested is something else altogether."

"I don't see what you're so worried about Sengoku." Garp insisted while picking his ear, "As far as I've seen as long as you leave the kid alone he'll keep to himself. It's not like he's one of those pirates out there looking for trouble."

"That's unacceptable Garp and you know that." Sengoku said, slowly losing his patience with his old friend, "You know that as a pirate, it's our job to find him and bring him to justice."

Garp blinked and pointed at Sengoku, "About that, what exactly makes him a pirate anyway? The fact that he has a ship? Because I've never heard of him looting anything, or killing anyone except for Nezumi… and after his death we got nothing but complaints about Nezumi's conduct. I don't think it's as straightforward as you think."

Sengoku rolled his eyes, "Yes, because your judgment is so fantastic. What are those two grandchildren of yours up to these days? Oh, that's right. Ace is Whitebeard's elite! And your other one Luffy is out there fighting my Shichibukai for the hell of it!"

Garp stared at Sengoku long and hard before a grin came across his face, "Ha, I wasn't paying attention. I'm sorry Sengoku, did you just say something?"

"Damn it Garp!" Sengoku roared at his laughing friend.

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto stopped fiddling with Nojiko's other pistol and looked up in thought, "Huh, someone just tried to be incredibly hip." He shrugged and continued inscribing the seal inside of Nojiko's gun barrel, "Oh well… I wonder where Vivi is. I hope she isn't lost on the road of life with my clone…"

XxX

(With Vivi and Naruto-clone)

Naruto and Vivi left Mock Town due to the information on the Straw Hat Crew's activities while on Jaya to head towards the other side of the island. Vivi had trouble believing what she had heard the crew trying to get into, but it didn't surprise Naruto too much at all. He was actually kind of jealous, because he just knew that they managed to pull it off.

So now Naruto and Vivi, the girl still riding Carue, traversed the deep forest covering much of the island so that they could reach the other end. Carue was fast enough on the ground to keep pace with Naruto through the trees, who looked like he was having the time of his life jumping from branch to branch effortlessly, "This is so great! I haven't gotten to do this in forever! I thought I would have forgotten how by now by I guess I didn't!"

While she was confused about what she was seeing and how he was doing it so effortlessly, seemingly at home among the trees, Vivi just chalked it up to being another thing she didn't understand about Naruto. For every question he seemed to answer, three more seemed to pop right back up in its place. Eventually, they reached the end of the forest and saw a massive castle sitting at the edge of the cape, "Naruto look, what is a castle doing here?"

Naruto jumped from the trees and landed at Vivi's side, "I don't know. Do you know if Jaya actually has any royalty or anything?"

Vivi shook her head as the two walked to it. The closer they got to the castle however, the more they realized that it wasn't a castle. Getting right up against it, Naruto knocked on the castle and sweatdropped when a hollow plywood sound echoed out along the cove. The two walked around it to find a house that looked recently repaired, "Who is this guy supposed to be Vivi?" Naruto asked, "No one in town told me anything, they just ran away when I asked stuff."

She pointed at the house, "This is where Montblanc Cricket is supposed to live. Apparently Luffy and the others came here to ask him how to get to Sky Island." Vivi shook her head, "It's hard to believe they actually went to do something like that."

"Not really." Naruto commented as he rapped on the door a few times, "Luffy seems like the kind of guy to get himself into this kind of stuff regularly, I know he pulled it off."

The door abruptly opened in Naruto's face before he could knock again to see a very muscular middle-aged man with blonde hair, sideburns, and a large chestnut on his head. He had purple pants with no shoes or shirt and had a chestnut tattoo on his left arm, "What do you know about Monkey D. Luffy?" He asked abruptly.

Naruto and Vivi looked at each other before speaking simultaneously, "He's a friend of ours." Vivi stepped forward to talk to the man, "Sir, are you Montblanc Cricket? We heard that you know of what happened to Luffy and his crew. We haven't seen then in quite a while."

"Yeah." Naruto added after she finished speaking, "All we know is that he beat the crap out of some guy named Bellamy and was looking for Sky Island. Then people told us to come to you. And from your reaction you obviously know him, so how's the kid doing? We haven't seen him since Alabasta."

Cricket smirked, "Well I just saw him the other day." He noticed Vivi and Naruto paying rapt attention to him for the remainder of his comment, "Up there." He said, pointing at the thick clouds overhead, "The kid proved that Sky Island existed. My ancestor was right." He noticed Naruto and Vivi uncomfortably close to him and backed away, "What's wrong?"

"Tell us everything." Vivi said, in awe that something like Sky Island actually existed, let alone the fact that her friends actually went up there.

XxX

(With Johnny)

"Fill me up again bartender!" Johnny shouted loudly at his table surrounded by others with a massive grin on his face. Right in front of him was a mass of poker chips and random winnings, "I'm on a gravy train and it's never derailing! It's never derailing!"

"This can't be real!" One of the unfortunate victims of Johnny's ongoing hot-streak said in desperation, "That was all of my pay!"

Johnny raked in all of his winnings, "Well at least now I know that Naruto-aniki's dumb luck rubbed off onto me, at least as far as money goes!" He reached his hand forward to grab the rest of his wins from one person until a large, heavy, curved knife stopped just short of impaling his hand. Johnny looked at the man that had attempted to drive his weapon through his hand and through the table for winning with a deceptive smile, "I really wouldn't do that if I were you."

The man that had tried to keep him from winning pulled his knife away from Johnny's hand. Why didn't he go through with it and drive it through his hand? Because Johnny just had an intimidating aura? No. Because Johnny saw it coming and drew his sword. By the time he stopped his stab attempt, Johnny had placed the blade of his uchigatana against his throat, "Do you know who I am?" The man said.

The man had long blue hair, an open furred coat with a crossed out smiley on his chest, purple tinted sunglasses, red and white striped gloves, and red and white striped pants. Johnny stood up, blade still at the man's throat and walked over to his side of the table to retrieve what he won from this man, "I don't know, a sore loser?" Johnny pocketed his money and moved his sword away from the man's neck, re-sheathing it while grabbing his refilled mug of alcohol, "I'm taking this, alright?" He yelled to the bartender as he left.

"I'm 'Big Knife' Sarquiss you son of a bitch!" He seethed at Johnny's back as he drank down his drink without a care, "My bounty is 38 million! I don't even know who you are you nobody!" He pulled up his knife that resembled a kukri and spun it a few times for aesthetic effect.

Johnny didn't turn around, he simply placed the mug on an empty table, "Nevermind! I finished it before I got to the door, ha!" He said to the bartender, ignoring Sarquiss.

Sarquiss didn't take to kindly to being ignored and leapt at Johnny going into a vertical spin to cut into him like a buzzsaw with his weapon, "Kyokiru (Big Chop)!"

Johnny flicked his sword loose with his thumb and grabbed a hold of it once he felt Sarquiss launch himself at him, "Yosen Ikksen (Primary Flash)!" A blur surrounded Johnny's body as a silver flash circled around him once in the blink of an eye. Sarquiss flew past Johnny out the door, blood trailing from where he would have clashed with him. The bar stared at him in silence, waiting for him to fall until a click signifying him re-sheathing his sword sounded out, followed by him walking out of the bar.

Everyone ran to the door to see Sarquiss laying on the ground outside, blood pooling around his body, "Did Bellamy's first mate just lose in one move from that random guy?"

"Who the hell was that guy?"

"I think his name was Johnny!"

"Yeah, it was Johnny, he told us right before he took all of our damn money. *sobs* I'm broke! What am I going to do now?"

They all watched Johnny walk towards the docks as the sun set in front of him. What they didn't see however, was Johnny's face, which had tears of joy cascading down it from under his sunglasses, 'I'm badass! I'm badass! People know my name now!'

XxX

(With Vivi and Naruto-clone)

As night had fallen, Naruto and Vivi, now walking beside Carue instead of riding him, walked away from Cricket's house as the man himself stood out front laughing at the shocked faces that they bore. Vivi pointed up into the air, "Luffy shot the entire ship into the air and rode on clouds?"

Naruto rubbed his eyes and looked up, "Okay, I'm torn between being upset that he might have gotten Nami hurt, and believing that he's awesome for pulling that off. I wish I could go up there. Maybe-."

"No!" Vivi shouted at him to break his train of thought, "You are not going to that Knock-Up Stream and shooting us into the air! You don't even have the stuff on your ship that Cricket said you needed to get up there!"

Naruto scoffed, "Who needs that? I'll just blow us up the rest of the way with a wind jutsu or two… or three." He looked up at the sky and tried to gauge the distance from the ground to the sky, "You know what? Nevermind. I'll leave that little adventure to him."

Sighing in relief, Vivi rubbed Carue's head as they continued to walk, "Good." She looked over at Naruto, "So when do you think I'll be able to go home?"

Naruto looked over at her and saw the hopeful look in her eyes that he didn't want to have to break, but leaving her with a hope he couldn't readily support wasn't his style, "Honestly I don't know. All we can do is keep our ear to the ground and wait for any word on it. Don't worry Vivi, I made a promise to you and Pell that I would keep you safe for as long as you were with me and I'm not letting either of you down."

"What if I have to be gone for years? Wouldn't that be inconvenient to you?" Vivi asked him desperately.

Naruto shrugged, "That would be terrible for you, but I would still keep you with me. Time isn't that big of a deal to me. And how would having you with me be inconvenient? You're one of my precious people Vivi and a member of my crew."

Vivi looked at him awkwardly as she didn't expect him to say something so kind, "So… am I officially on the crew yet?"

Naruto grinned at her, "Nope. Sorry Vivi. You're close, but for now you're still on probation."

Vivi threw her arms out outrageously, "Again with that! What exactly does it mean that I'm on probation?"

Naruto laughed at her reaction, "It means that you need an actual job onboard the ship. I thought Noji-chan told you this already. So what exactly can you do that could qualify as a job?"

Vivi furrowed her brow in thought, "I'm not sure…"

Naruto tried to help her out as they began walking through the forest to get back to Mock Town, "Well let's think about it. Let's go with your practical skills. What exactly are you good at that doesn't qualify as fighting?" Vivi thought long and hard, and Naruto watched her rack her brain trying to answer him in amusement, "Well if you can't think of anything I have a job that I know for certain that you can do."

Vivi had been thinking for quite a while and drawing a blank, so hearing that Naruto had come up with something came as a pleasant surprise to her, "What is it? Is it something important?"

Naruto nodded, "Yes it is very important to me. Vivi, you can be the ship's dancer. It's perfect, because you're really cute, and everyone else knows to look and not touch!" One second later found Naruto flying through the woods before landing against a tree, Carue's footmark on his face, "That really hurt…" He said before bursting into smoke.

"Thank you Carue." Vivi said to her fowl companion as she climbed back onto the duck to ride back to the ship, fuming the entire way, "That asshole! He was being so deep and helpful and then he goes and says something so stupid. Why is it every captain that I'm friends with is so stupid? And I'm not a stripper, I'm a princess!" She shouted to no one in particular before stopping to think about what she said, "Wait… I'm a princess… and that's an occupation isn't it? I'm all kinds of things, but most importantly as a princess I'm a diplomat. And a crew that gets into this much trouble might need someone that can talk them out of it as opposed to just running through it like a brick wall. That's it Carue. That's my job; official diplomat of the Foxhound Pirates." She said to Carue with a smile.

XxX

(Two Days Later)

"Naruto-kun!" Naruto looked down from the crow's nest to see Nojiko yelling up to him to get his attention, "The Log Pose reset! We can finally leave now!"

Naruto smiled and jumped down right next to her to see that the Log Pose had indeed reset, "Good. Now we can finally leave. And we have that Eternal Pose that Johnny won off of those guys in the bar. We're good to go now."

Nojiko found Naruto's smile to be infectious and soon joined him in his good mood, "So where is that thing pointed at anyway?" She asked.

Naruto started walking back inside to tell everyone that they were about to depart, "Apparently it's supposed to take us right to Water 7. Vivi, Miss Valentine, and Soren all said we should go there next no matter where the Log Pose tells us to go, so for the next leg we're going off of the Eternal Pose."

Nojiko bumped up against him playfully, "Well everyone's aboard, and we're all ready to leave. I already told them the Log Pose reset, so don't worry about that."

Naruto shook his head, "Nah, I'm not, I'm just going to see if our potential new doctor is having second thoughts on coming with us." Naruto found his way to Muret's room and knocked on the door. The woman in question was sitting on her bed reading a book when they walked in, "So are you still coming with us? We could really use you on the ship."

"Do you have the money?" Muret replied audaciously, not looking up from her book, "Because that's all I'm really concerned about right now."

Naruto laughed to himself, "Muret the money's been in here the whole time, check your desk."

She dropped her book and scrambled over to the desk where she opened a drawer and saw it stacked full of grouped bills and a note on top of them that said welcome to the crew, with the crew's Jolly Roger drawn on. She shook her head and shut the drawer with a smile on her face, "These people are going to be the death of me, I'm sure, but I can't bring myself to care right now."

"Oi, doctor lady! I'm not in a pleasant haze of semi-consciousness here. I demand more drugs!"

Muret sighed to herself and grabbed her supplies to acquiesce to Soren's request, if only just once.

XxX

Naruto had a smile on his face as he was currently steering the ship back on the open seas. He was glad to get away from Jaya and back out travelling. He needed to see more of the world and understand it for even a fighting chance at making the dreams of his sensei come true, and there was no way that was going to happen by staying stationary for sure. He had more than a few good friends that he believed in and believed in him, and allies out on the seas that he could trust as well.

His crew was getting better and better in combat, more and more confident in themselves, and more knowledgeable alongside him. It was a learning experience for them all. As far as the crew was concerned, Soren was the most knowledgeable of the Grand Line out of all of them.

They had their problems. Soren's ongoing vendetta against Donquixote Doflamingo, the crew's ever increasing notoriety attracting some unwanted attention from freaky cyborgs and the World Government themselves, the blame for 'kidnapping' the princess of an important nation, and the hits just kept on coming. Yes they had problems, but with time everything could be solved. Hey, they had just solved one problem while they were in Mock Town. They got themselves a doctor. A doctor that Yosaku seemed to have a crush on, and maybe soon they could solve another problem of making him look cool enough on a regular basis that he would have a fighting chance of sleeping with her. Unlikely? Yes. But easy goals aren't worth having.

'What the hell are we going to get into next?' Naruto wondered to himself. As he thought to himself, a sound of a bell ringing filled the air, seemingly from the sky, a beautiful sound that sounded divine. Naruto looked around to see if there was a ship coming up on them from anywhere when he finally looked upwards and saw a massive shadow of a familiar figure on the clouds; familiar in the straw hat kind of way.

Naruto let out a loud laugh as the shadow was moving about excitedly in a victorious fashion, "Okay… okay… I've got to find some way to top that."

* * *

**Chapter done… nothing to say. Dig it. Enjoy your weekend... and fools need to update before I lose my cool. I just updated two stories at the exact same time two days after I updated another one, one day AFTER I updated yet another one. What have you done lately to entertain the masses?  
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**Kenchi out.**


	21. I'll Hold Them Back Myself

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I do however own a gallon of PCP. Now if you'll excuse me it's party night kemosabe, and the PCP? Well... Got a gallon right here.

**Chapter 21: I'll Hold Them Back Myself**

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'A Shichibukai…' Naruto thought to himself as he absentmindedly manipulated the wires for Vivi's training while sitting in a meditative posture. He had been thinking on this ever since he had his little run in with Donquixiote Doflamingo and had been weighing the positives and negatives of accepting. The negatives; it could be a trap to sucker him into an ambush, Soren would be completely pissed and would probably leave the crew if he had to be associated with Doflamingo in any way, he didn't really want to listen to anyone tell him what to do about anything, and from what he had seen of the World Government thus far he didn't particularly want to side with them.

The positives; he wouldn't have to worry about Marines coming after his crew, he might be able to steer interest away from the Elemental Nations if he had some stroke with the higher-ups in the chain of command, he might be able to convince Soren that being closer in this way to Doflamingo would help him in the long run towards his ambition, and if he decided to leave what did he care? He was already a pirate with a monster of a bounty, what would they do, send Marines after him? They were doing that anyway.

"Penny for your thoughts Naruto?" Miss Valentine asked him, coming up to him with a smile, "You usually don't seem to be the type to think so hard about things."

Naruto looked up at the bright blonde woman before blinking in confusion, "What do you mean? What makes you think I'm wondering about something?"

Pointing towards Vivi in the midst of springing, jumping, and rolling through Naruto's rapidly shifting wires, Miss Valentine answered his question, "Because normally by now you would be all fired up to finish Vivi off in there. She's been going at the same pace for about five minutes, she's got to be exhausted in there."

Naruto looked and began paying attention to the ship's resident princess and was actually impressed. It had been over two weeks since Vivi had begun and she was showing marked improvement. Her reaction time and reflexes were utterly impeccable. With a grin, Naruto stopped his fingers movement and allowed the wire obstacle course to go slack, "That was great Vivi, it looks like I'm going to have to start using my dominant hand and start paying attention when we do this."

"You weren't even using your strong hand?" Vivi said in exasperation, "I thought I was almost done!"

Naruto grinned at her, "No, you've been doing great, but you're not done yet. You still have to learn to do this blindfolded! Then you're done. Or have you forgotten?"

'Blindfolded? Who does he think I am?' She wanted to say that, but then again she was the one who asked him to train her in the first place. He didn't want to do it, she more or less pestered him into it. Who was she to complain about it?

A nod came from the blonde captain, "But you're not that far along yet. We'll step it up next time around, for now you're done for the rest of the day. Go get something to eat." He looked up at Miss Valentine, "I think I heard you call for lunch didn't I?"

"Yeah, lunch is ready." Miss Valentine said, backing up Naruto's statement. Vivi went inside, leaving Naruto and Miss Valentine alone on the deck, "So are you going to tell me what's wrong with you today or do I need to start withholding meals from you until you cough it up?" She said playfully.

"Alright, there's no need for that." Naruto said, laughing slightly, "Actually you might be able to give me some feedback on this." That had firmly gotten her attention, "Doflamingo said something about inviting me to be a Shichibukai when we met. What do you think about that? I've been mulling it around in my head for weeks."

Miss Valentine's visage took on a thoughtful expression as she sat down next to him, "Well I guess I have to ask you why me? Why not ask someone else about this?"

Naruto sighed, "Because I already know what Soren would say, I know Nojiko is already biased against most things involving the World Government after that Nezumi guy that I killed, Johnny and Yosaku would go with me no matter what I did, Vivi's still supposed to be off of their radar, and Muret hasn't been around us long enough for me to actually value her opinion."

"And what about me? Where do I fit in with all of this, hmm?" Miss Valentine asked, eager to know what he thought about her.

Naruto looked at Miss Valentine and smiled, "On the other hand you've more or less earned your spot on the crew, the only bias towards them you have is that you just now got a decent bounty, and you actually worked under an actual Shichibukai before this, so if anyone had anything decent to say about it you would be the one."

"Aww…" Miss Valentine gave Naruto a kiss on the cheek, "Naruto values my opinion, how sweet." Wrapping her arms around him and thinking about his dilemma at the moment, she finally started giving him her view of it all, "Well if you want to keep a lower profile you'd be better off going as you are. The second you become a Shichibukai you're basically at the World Government's beck and call when it comes to certain things or else you'll lose your status and they'll get you back somehow."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "Get me back? How in the hell are they going to get me back for anything if they can't even beat me?"

"They know where you're from." Miss Valentine said, scooting up close and nuzzling his cheek as she savored her Naruto-time, "That's why most pirates break all ties with their original homes most of the time when they leave to begin their journeys and take everything with them, because when you get famous that becomes a liability. There are exceptions of course, obvious exceptions like Jimbei of the Fishman Pirates, or Boa Hancock of the Kuja Pirates, but the entire reason they became Shichibukai in the first place was for their homes."

Naruto nodded in understanding, "I have no idea who either of those people are, but I'll take your word for it." He looked up in thought, "So I'd basically be their proxy soldier if I accept, but if I don't accept then they'll start targeting the Elemental Nations… I can't let that happen."

Miss Valentine let out a sigh as she continued to think, "Well… There is another thing that you can do if you're really that worried about it." She felt that she had his whole attention on her and she started to speak again, "But it's going to be a really out there circumstance. You're going to actually have to work, not just go about like you have been, travelling and surviving."

"What do I have to do?" Naruto asked determinedly.

Miss Valentine answered that with a question, "What do you know of the Yonkou?" She saw the blank look on his face, "Okay… They're one of the three great powers of the world, the others are the Marines and the Shichibukai. The thing about these people though, they're pirates. Not government sanctioned pirates like the Shichibukai, just pirates. The strongest pirates, period." She put up four fingers and started ticking them down, "'Red-Haired' Shanks, 'Big Mam' Charlotte Linlin, Kaido, and 'Whitebeard' Edward Newgate. The four most powerful pirates in the world and the ones that have made it the farthest along the Grand Line. They have the power to declare locations as their own or as their own protectorates. Mostly in the second half of the Grand Line."

"I'm not from the Grand Line." Naruto commented, "The Elemental Nations aren't on any part of it. It's just really far out of the way and treacherous. If they really feel the need to go there, I don't think that a little thing like that is going to stop them."

"You say all the time that there isn't any World Government influence over that place." Miss Valentine started again, "That's all that needs to be known. If you can prove that you're as strong and as influential as one of the Yonkou, maybe even take one of their places, then you can claim the Elemental Nations as your territory."

The thing about it is, the Elemental Nations pretty much _did_ belong to him, he just didn't run the place. He could have, but he would have been ruling with fear, as a living weapon of mass destruction. It would have defeated the purpose of trying to bring peace if the only thing keeping things peaceful relations in the land was the threat of one man coming through and making you do it. Eventually that would have sparked another war, with him as the target once again.

However as he was, claiming the Elemental Nations publicly would do nothing since clearly he wasn't considered a power in the level of the Yonkou if they were sending people after him to recruit/kill him.

"Damn it…" Naruto suddenly exclaimed, surprising Miss Valentine, "You said I have to go far into the Grand Line and assert myself among these people right?" Miss Valentine nodded, "Well that basically means I'm going to be gunning for One Piece at this rate… or I might as well." He shrugged his shoulders, "If you're going to go for something you might as well go all the way."

Miss Valentine felt her heart start beating faster at what he was beginning to imply, "So you're going to be going for it? Trying to affirm yourself as the level of the Yonkou or beyond, on that of Gol D. Roger?"

Naruto gave her a wry smile, "I kind of have to don't I?"

Miss Valentine stood up and started pacing, "These pirates all have fleets… Fleets filled with ships with tons of powerful warriors on par with that of the Marines. Fleets full of pirates willing to fight for them. A veritable army of sorts. And you're going to fight them?"

"Is that the most straightforward way to prove it?" Naruto asked her, "I mean I could just bypass them and go straight to One Piece couldn't I?"

Miss Valentine shook her head, "No eventually you would have to go through their territory. They're not just going to let you beat them to One Piece, that's the entire reason they're there too. The reason they've spent the bulk of their lives out there. If you go through there you might as well be prepared for a fight, because no one is going to just let you pass.."

Naruto stood up as well and wrapped an arm around Miss Valentine's shoulder, "Well then I guess you're just going to have to get stronger, and I'm going to have to set up some counter-measures. How much weight can you lift with your powers?"

"1000 kilograms per limb." She said proudly, "I've got one hell of a punch on me now and I think I've come up with something cool that I can do as well."

Naruto smiled at her and hugged her with one arm, "You're going to wind up being stronger than me soon. Hell, you're going to be stronger than the strongest woman I've ever met. I'm excited for you."

"Thank you Naruto." She said, laughing slightly and blushing, "Um, if I'm doing well can I kiss you again?"

Naruto gave her an odd look before letting out a short chuckle, "Valentine-chan a kiss shouldn't be a prize, it should be a show of affection. If you want to kiss me you, go ahead and do it. You think I would get mad?" He said before planting a kiss onto her himself, feeling her quickly melt into the display of fondness and return it vigorously. She pouted slightly when he pulled away, "Don' t be afraid of anything Valentine-chan."

"I'm not afraid." She insisted when Naruto pressed a finger to her lips.

He frowned at her, "Yet. You will be, it's inevitable with our luck that we're going to run into some strange stuff, some scary stuff. Just remember, I would never make any of you do anything I wasn't sure you could do. I believe in all of you."

Miss Valentine smiled and kissed his finger, "We believe in you too. Now go get something to eat. I'm fairly certain that we're all out by now, but if we are I can make you something else captain."

"Hmm…" Naruto paced around in thought, "I think I'd rather have you!" He said, lunging for Miss Valentine before she jumped off of the railing and floated out of his reach on her umbrella, "Damn it!"

"Maybe soon Naruto." She taunted from where she floated up to in the crow's nest, "Just not today!"

XxX

(Three Days Later)

Soren sat outside on the deck of the ship as everyone else trained down in the designated training area, or as most would see it, the area around the mast. "We've got a beautiful day for this don't we?" He said with a grin, "How's it going doctor lady?"

Muret was busy taking the bandages off of his body, "Yeah, yeah sure you big idiot." She said before moving back to his front, "Okay, I'll take your cast off and then we're done and you can be as stupid as you want to be again. Won't that be fun?"

"A blast." The acid-spitting fighter said, eager to get back to being able to go around, doing what he wanted again, "This damn thing is itchy! Are you sure you didn't make it too tight?" A slap to the back of his head was the response, "Oi! Do you want me to make you the prettiest puddle in existence?"

"You're not going to do anything…" Muret said as she began cutting the cast off of his arm, "You guys are all bark and no bite. If you tried anything you would have two people trying to separate your head from your shoulders and one trying to put a bullet in your head."

Soren rolled his eyes, "Yes, yes because we all know who has the more valuable skill-set here."

"Well…" Muret commented glibly, "While you're pretty good at destroying things, I'm the only one here that can put the broken down pieces of all of you back together when you bite off more than you can chew."

"Yeah it's great." Johnny said as he and Yosaku walked up to them after finishing their spar, "Now that you're here Naruto-aniki lets me and Yosaku fight full-out a lot more… though I think he lets me cut him sometimes on purpose, because that big-ass sword he has should never let me get past his defense that easy."

Yosaku was holding his right forearm as blood was flowing from between his fingers, "Liar. Why can't you just admit that you're faster than me and be okay with that?"

Johnny lowered his sunglasses and looked at Yosaku in a contradictive manner, "Because you stuck your arm out for absolutely no reason other than just to take a hit. I should have cut it off to prove a point."

Yosaku waved him off, "I'm sure that Muret could put it back even if you did." He said brightly as he sidled up next to the petite doctor, "I have this cut on my arm, can you help me out? It's pretty deep."

"Because you made it deeper on purpose." Johnny chimed in, rather displeased with his partner.

"Shut up Johnny." Yosaku mumbled before turning his attention back to Muret, "So can you fix me up?"

Muret frowned and rolled her eyes as she finished taking Soren's cast off, "Yes Yosaku…" She said in an exasperated manner, "Just be careful. I _could_ put a newly severed limb back, but you really don't want me to." She smirked cruelly, "You have to be awake for the entire procedure. I have to know if your arm is reattached to the nerves and all of that, and then there's the-."

"Okay, thank you!" Yosaku said, cutting her off and standing abruptly, "I'll just be inside until you're done with Soren, okay?" As he hurriedly scurried away, Muret let out a laugh at leading him on in such a way.

"We have to be awake for something like that?" Johnny said, not looking forward to anything even close to being that similar, "That… really sounds like it sucks. I will now take greater care to not get my arm cut off in the future."

Muret stood up from helping Soren and began walking away, "Oh calm down, you shouldn't be letting yourself loose limbs anyway, but I was just messing with him to get him to leave me alone. Maybe with that idea stuck in his head he'll stop letting you cut him and keep from hurting himself. I've wasted way too many supplies on him in just a few weeks. I don't really feel like buying more so soon or bothering Naruto-sama for anything."

"Naruto-_sama_?" Soren said disbelievingly as he flexed his arm out and smirked at her, "No one here calls him –sama. Nobody here respects that clown enough to call him that. Why are you scared of him and not me? I'm way more terrifying than him."

"Not really." Muret said dryly, "Naruto-sama scares me because I've never seen him angry. I can't even imagine what it would be like if he lost his temper. Have any of you really seen him upset before? What's it like?"

They both looked at Johnny who took on a pondering stance, "I've never really seen him angry. I've seen him wound up by Arlong before, but he was calm the entire time he was tearing him and his crew apart. I don't think I want to see Naruto-aniki in a foul mood."

Muret nodded, "And that's why I'm afraid of him." She said as she started walking towards the door to the ship to go assist Yosaku, "He always feels like there's some barely restrained power inside of him that if he let it go for even just a second it could suffocate me. You all are fighters so you probably don't feel it like I do, but it's definitely there. Weaker people can't stay in his presence for too long when he decides it's time for a fight, I'm sure of it. Sometimes when he's just walking around the ship and he passes me, I lock up, I can't help it."

Johnny frowned, "You shouldn't be afraid of Naruto-aniki like that. He wouldn't hurt you, he wouldn't really hurt any of us."

"I'll think about that…" She said before disappearing inside.

Johnny just watched her leave and scratched his head, "Why would she be afraid of him?"

"That's not the important question here." Soren said as he began stretching up and going through his martial art katas, "The important question here is why in the hell is she afraid of Uzumaki, but she isn't afraid of me?"

Johnny smirked and began walking away, "Maybe because for the last two weeks you've been pissing and moaning about how much your arm itched in your cast. Hearing you whine like a baby kind of takes away your intimidation points." He ducked an acid loogie aimed at his head, "Oi! If that had hit me I would have been pissed!"

"You would have been dead." Soren said with a smirk as he continued going through his motions, "I don't really think I would have cared too much if a dead guy was pissed off at me."

XxX

(A Few Days Later)

Naruto leaned on the steering wheel of the ship in a bored fashion, "Ugh… Noji-chan… give me an E.T.A. When are we supposed to be getting to this Water 7 place again? I'm starting to get bored again."

Nojiko was leaning on the railing nearby reading the most recent newspaper, "Then why don't you just train? I hear you talk about being bored all of the time but you never train."

"Okay first of all…" Naruto said in a lightly offended fashion, "Train what? I know how to do pretty much _everything_ I ever wanted to learn how to do. I'm not going to get any faster, stronger, or anything like that. At this point it's just maintaining it. Second of all, I _do_ train, I just don't do it around you guys. Everything I'm training is way too destructive for me to use on this ship, so I don't."

"When?" Nojiko asked, "You should never have time to train. You're always either training one of us, or all of us, or you're steering the ship, or you're sleeping."

"Clones don't sleep." Naruto said off-handedly, ignoring Nojiko's surprised face as he thought about what he had just said, "Actually that's not true, it depends on how I'm feeling when I make them. When I send them off and there's some kind of landmass nearby the lazy bastards will just sleep there from time to time. So I need to be wide awake and away from land when I make them."

Nojiko walked up to him and pinched his cheek, "Are you insane?" Naruto shook his head no, "Your clones can train in your place?" This time Naruto nodded, "I don't like that. That's not fair."

Naruto grinned at her, "I'm a ninja baby, a lot of the things I do aren't fair." He finished by giving her a peck on the lips, "Besides, when I'm not learning anything new they're really not that useful to use training en masse. They're meant to use to learn things far faster than I could by myself. So when I don't have anything to learn they really don't serve any purpose to train with. I have to keep coming up with stuff for them to try out for me. Like mixing chakra types… that's a really slow going process. I can't do it yet."

Nojiko ran a hand through her hair, "What are you, a god? Who can do these things?"

Naruto pointed his thumbs at himself, "Uzumaki Naruto can… I think. And I'm not God, even though that's what I had you screaming last night."

Nojiko fought the urge to pull a gun on him seeing as no matter how fast her quick-draw was, he was still always faster than her. She was never going to shoot him so she might as well have stopped trying at this juncture of their relationship. She was sure it wasn't all that healthy to be firing at her boyfriend at her leisure anyway, even if he never openly complained about it... it was unladylike.

"About your question." Nojiko said, getting back to the original topic at hand, "We should be there in a few hours. And remember-."

"I know…" Naruto whined in vexation, "No picking fights and no wanton destruction. Why are you pushing it so hard though? You're never really this stern about this kind of stuff. You just mention it in passing and then we disregard it and end up blowing something up anyway, and then I apologize later."

Nojiko shook her head and patted him on the cheek, "Not this time. We're _too_ close to a huge Marine base for you to start acting up Naruto-kun. We really don't need or even want any kind of trouble here, it's not going to end well if you do. Can you please behave? A fight wouldn't work out at all."

Giving Nojiko a hug, he hastily agreed to calm her nerves, "Okay Noji-chan. I'll make sure everyone knows not to go around looking for trouble here. If it's too close to a base of Marines then fighting for the hell of it won't help anyone."

XxX

(Water 7 – Scrap Island)

Naruto hopped off of his docked ship and looked around, satisfied at his placement of the ship, "There. And you said I couldn't find anywhere to hide the ship. Who are you to doubt Uzumaki Naruto Vivi? I'm a jam-up guy."

"Fine." Vivi agreed as she was one of the last to descend from the boat, leaving only Naruto's clones and Carue as a source of security, "But remember, you still have to look for a shipwright to help fix the Natural Disaster. You really don't want it to be all beaten up in the middle of the ocean, even I know that."

Naruto waved it off, "Yeah, yeah Vivi I know… don't bite my head off princess. Geez, you aren't the den mother here, Noji-chan is."

"Hey!" Nojiko said with her hands on her hips, "I need help keeping all of you weirdoes in line, the more the merrier in that case as far as I'm concerned. Vivi can nag you all she wants to. I allow it. And if Muret proves to be even the slightest bit normal or stable compared to you, Johnny, Yosaku, Soren, and Miss Valentine then she can nag you too."

"Boo…" Naruto said lowly being seconded by the entirety of the aforementioned 'unstable' crew members, "You normal people with your well-balanced, logical thought processes. The world is shaped and molded by the insane and the unstable, because we have the lack of common sense to fall into line and deal with the world the way it is. Without people like us nothing would ever get done."

Vivi and Nojiko looked at each other strangely before the princess voiced their shared thought, "Um, I haven't seen you do anything other than fight, sleep, and eat."

"I am a man of action!" Naruto yelled loudly, "It's just that I need the action to find me first or I usually don't know what to do with all of my awesome… It will usually build and swell and then spontaneously explode in a cloud of victory and win."

Muret sighed, "Victory and win means the same thing Naruto-sama."

"Whatever!" He exclaimed in return, "Now how are we splitting up, because we're using the buddy system here?"

Muret blinked in confusion, "Buddy system? Why?"

Naruto crossed his arms and took on a wise stance, "Because in the best and worst situations teamwork can save lives."

Yosaku immediately jumped to Muret's side, "In that case I volunteer to protect Muret while we're here."

"Of course you do." Everyone else said in a deadpan tone. Naruto waved it off and proceeded with his issue of splitting the group up, "Fine whatever. Johnny, you're with Noji-chan. Soren, you're with Valentine-chan. Vivi, you're with me. Let's go."

Everyone shrugged, having no problems with who they were paired with, with the exception of Muret, and went off to head towards the main city of Water 7. Vivi walked up to Naruto's side and looked up at him with her curious eyes, "Why am I with you? I'm not complaining, but I just want to know."

"Two reasons." Naruto said as everyone split off and started going their own way, "One, in case anyone recognizes you while we're here. I'll be the one dealing with the heat in that case. Two, you were the one that insisted that we find a shipwright, that means you're coming with me when we find one… mostly because I have no idea where to start looking." He scratched his head with a frown.

Vivi gave him a reassuring smile, "I'm sure it can't be that hard to find one. Apparently shipwrights are supposed to be famous here. My father talked about something called the Galley-La Company and how they were supposed to be the best."

Naruto grinned at her and grabbed her small hand, "Well I know what we're looking for first!" He made a hand-seal and disappeared in a swirl of wind and leaves.

XxX

(With Yosaku and Muret)

The pair walked through the beautiful city, taking the sidewalk next to a canal. One had a significantly better mood currently than the other one, "So what do you want to do Muret?" Yosaku tried to say in his smoothest voice, "Is there anything that you want to partake in while we're here."

Muret let out a disgruntled sigh, "No, not really anything that I _want_ to do. I _have_ to stock up on more gauze and needles and thread for stitches because _someone_ keeps letting himself get stabbed and cut up by the captain and the other swordsman with sunglasses so that he has an excuse to hang out in my office/room." He finished, glaring at Yosaku.

He backed away slightly before recomposing himself and trying again, "So… do you want to go for a ride on one of the Yagara Bulls?" Yosaku suggested, pointing towards the canal they were walking beside where in the water was a creature that resembled a horse with the tail of a fish that a small boat for two people sat atop of, "My treat."

"No…" She said, getting more and more disgruntled as the seconds dragged on, "I want to find a small supply store and get what I need. That's it. I don't want to go for a ride with you, I don't want to go to a restaurant or anything. I have a job I need to be prepared for. Naruto-sama has paid me a lot of money, in advance by the way, something no one's ever done, to ensure that I keep you all alive. I'm worried about that first."

"You're worried about me!" Yosaku said loudly with hearts in his eyes as he started running around to different people on the street exclaiming that Muret was worried about him.

She palmed her face, "No stupid! Get back over here and stop embarrassing me!" She said with tick marks beginning to form on her head, 'Why did I get paired with this lunatic? I'm going to kill him before the sun even goes down! Take a hint damn it!'

XxX

(With Johnny and Nojiko)

"We're going in here!" Nojiko yelled, pulling on Johnny's arm roughly trying to get him to go in the direction she desired.

Johnny was pulling back just as harshly, locking them in a stalemate of sorts, "No Nojiko-aneue we're going over here!" Another grunt of exertion that got him nowhere followed that statement, "I need a new badass sword! Yosaku got that huge thing Kubikiribouchou, I need something cool! Something that'll make fools crap their pants without me even doing anything!"

"No!" Nojiko shouted back at him as people passed by them, staring at the growing spectacle, "We're going in here damn it! The standard Marine issue ammunition isn't going to cut it for going any further on the Grand Line! I need hollow points for the pistols, I need full-metal jacket shells for the rifle, I need saboted slugs for the shotgun, not to mention a new shotgun altogether! Grapeshot isn't going to do a damn thing later on!"

"Excuse me." A man came up to the two of them and got them to pause in their tug of war, "The two shops are right next door to one another so why don't you just go into one and then the other, or split up and meet each other outside?"

Nojiko and Johnny stared at the man before looking at each other and back at him, "Stay out of this please." They both said at the same time before continuing their argument/test of strength.

"Come on Nojiko-aneue, it's my birthday soon!"

"How soon?"

"…3 months."

"Fine, I'll care in 3 months, now come on!"

"God! Why are you so strong? You're a girl!"

XxX

(With Soren and Miss Valentine)

"So where are we going?" Miss Valentine asked Soren cheerfully, seeing as how he was walking with some serious purpose in his stride, and anything like that should have been very interesting for her.

The look on Soren's face was one of complete seriousness, "To get very, very drunk and perhaps get very, very laid if all of the stars align correctly for yours truly." He looked over at the brightly smiling blonde woman, "Do you have any problems with this?"

"Nope, I'm good with it!" She said before laughing a bit, "And I will watch you get drunk and make an ass of yourself, and perhaps take pictures of the monster you end up straddling while other poor saps buy me drinks all night for being sexy!" She then tapped Soren on his head, "And then I will drag you back to the ship, drop you on the deck, and go inside to perhaps see if Naruto will have sex with me when I'm drunk."

Soren looked at the woman floating and circling around him, as she was now excited by the gameplan of the evening, "And what if Nojiko is in there with him when you show up like she is sometimes?"

Miss Valentine stopped with a blank look on her face before her smile came back full force and she started floating around Soren eagerly, "Yay! Threesome with Naruto and Nojiko!" And with that, every man within earshot flew backwards 10 meters, propelled by the blood gushing from their noses.

"Yes…" Soren said, smirking and holding his own nose lest he share the same fate as all of the others around him, "Hooray for threesomes."

XxX

(With Naruto and Vivi)

Naruto suddenly started looking around rapidly with an unexplainable feeling of excitement in his belly that brought a massive smile to his face for absolutely no reason whatsoever, "Something tells me to leave the door to my room unlocked tonight. Something wonderful will happen."

"What?" Vivi said in response to her captain's seemingly nonsensical rambling.

"Nevermind, we're here." Naruto said as they arrived at a massive door with the number 2 on it, "Now you tell these guys what we need done because I haven't the faintest idea about how to describe it."

Vivi gave him a sly smile, "Oh I know exactly how to word it Naruto. You guys have done obscene amounts of damage to the deck of your ship to the extent that sunlight actually peeks through when we're in the hold sometimes. The deck of your ship has more potholes than a gravel road. Take your pick for your favorite."

Naruto gave her a dry look as they walked into the shipyard, "Well then miss pretty, pretty princess… would you like to foot the bill with all of your lucid observations?"

"No I'm good." She said happily as she bounded alongside Naruto in an upbeat manner, "You torment me hours at a time with what you call training. The fact that I can get the better of you at times like this makes me feel better about it all."

A few chuckles escaped Naruto, "Well, well. Someone's getting a little too used to me if she thinks that it's okay to talk to the captain like that."

Vivi rolled her eyes as they continued to walk through the shipyard, "Everyone on the ship thinks it's okay to talk to the captain like that, because we aren't scared of the captain because we know the captain loves us." She pinched Naruto's whisker-marked cheek, "And we love the captain right back."

"Such a sweet little princess." Naruto said in return as they found themselves in the very middle of the shipyard, with multiple workers scrambling about around them, "Oi! Can we get some help around here? Anyone?"

"Aye!"

"Aye?" Naruto and Vivi both repeated in confusion, "What?"

"I said aye! I can help ye." A man that didn't top out over 4 feet in height came from around a corner into Naruto and Vivi's view. He was a middle-aged looking man with extremely tanned skin who had a huge grin on his face, bringing notice to a golden tooth in his mouth. He had a fuzzy black beard and mustache as well as a bald head. The man had baggy black pants with a blue sash… and no shirt. Which made the ridiculous amount of muscles on his frame that much more noticeable, "Hello there. My name is Stanley Bullford, one of the foremen of Dock 2."

"Genie." Vivi said quietly, almost in an excited fashion like a little girl. She had to fight down the urge to grab the small man and order him to give her three wishes.

"Holy shit." Was the eloquent summary from Naruto before he regained his composure, "Uh, hi there. I was wondering if there was anyone around here that could help us out. We'd like our ship to be repaired."

The man stroked his beard, "Ship repairs eh?" He started pacing around Naruto and Vivi, "So what are ye? Ye don't look like any kind o' Marine I've seen, not with a coat the likes o' that. Ye didn't come in here raising all sorts o' cain so that makes you either civilians or the most well-behaved pirates I ever seen."

Naruto's head drooped, "I promised I wouldn't make any trouble for no good reason. I'm usually a much better magnet for trouble. Honest."

Vivi's eye twitched at Naruto's downtrodden expression towards being civil, "Don't be proud of being a troublemaker Naruto."

"Pirates then." The man said stopping in front of Naruto and looking up directly into his eyes, "Ye have some terrifyin' eyes there behind them bright blues lad." He said almost gravely, "What kind of things must ya have seen?" Naruto and Vivi both gave him puzzled looks, "Alright, now where's this ship?" He said brightly, switching tones once more.

"Really? You'll help us out?" Vivi asked anxiously, excited that someone would actually fix the wrecked up deck that Naruto claimed as his own, "That's great! How much do we owe you sir?"

"Calm down lass…" The man said, "I still need ta' see the ship before I start chargin'. No sir either. I already gave ye my name, understand?" Vivi gave him a nod, "Great! Now let's see this ship o' yours!"

Naruto blinked at how easily it was to convince him, "That's it? It's that simple? Really?"

Vivi looked at the blonde captain who seemed to be stunned at the shipwright who so easily accepted to see their ship, "You say that like you were expecting something different. What did you think was going to happen?"

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well I kind of figured that we would have to travel to some far away place and get something, or fight some strange enemy that's troubling these guys…" He shrugged his shoulders, "I don't know. You should hear some of the stories I have."

"Well not today ye won't." The diminutive foreman said, "It's enough that I haven't heard ye spouting about Dock 1 and how you wished you had been able to get the ship checked there. I'm plum tired of hearing about them I am. Supposed to be the best they are… feh."

Naruto gave the man a grin, "Who cares about what other people think. Listen, I'm the single most powerful warrior that ever came out of my village. Would you like to know what my rank was by the time that I left? I was a genin, the lowest level that a person could be in the system. I'm trying to say that it shouldn't matter what other people try to place you as, just as long as _you_ know you have the talent."

Stanley looked at the prideful and honest smile on Narutos' face and began laughing, "Wahahaha! I like you lad! I think I made a good choice in helping ya' out with yer issue." He rubbed his hands together in anticipation, "So where's this ship o' yers?"

Vivi pulled a map of the city out, "Um, we're stationed at Scrap Island. Is that okay?"

Stanley let out a groan, "That's a very long walk lass… It'll take me at the very least three hours to get there."

"Three hours my ass!" Naruto exclaimed as he grabbed a hold of both Vivi and Stanley, "Say hello to one of the coolest things I know how to do, Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu)!" The three suddenly vanished in a flash of yellow, leaving behind no trace of their previous position.

XxX

(With Soren and Miss Valentine)

Sitting at the main bar, Soren took a long swig from the mug in his hand and sighed in contentment as Miss Valentine broke away from the pack of men she had previously surrounding her and made her way to his side, "So how are you feeling Soren?" She said with a slightly inebriated blush on her face.

The acid-spitting pirate looked over at her a smiled in an even tempered manner, "I'm good, I'm feeling very good. This is a relaxing place you know? Where are we again?"

"Blueno's Bar sir." A man cleaning glasses said from behind the bar, a tall man with a black beard and black hair resembling the horns of a bull, "You've asked that question four times in the last three hours alone."

"Have I?" Soren asked with a small smile on his face, "Sorry, post-concussion syndrome and all that. Anyway…" He slammed his mug lightly, "Go ahead and fill it up again! I've got nothing but time, I've got money, and I've got a need to lose full control of my motor skills so let's do this."

"Go Soren!" Miss Valentine said as she leaned against the bar right beside him.

He turned to look at her with an amused look on his face, "You are so lucky I'm here little miss 'I-can't-hold-my-liquor'. I thought you were supposed to be the responsible one tonight. What happened to that plan of action?"

Miss Valentine waved him off, "Who needs to have one of us be responsible? I'm fine, you're fine, I'm fine… I'm fine. We're all fine! So does it really matter?" She turned towards the others in attendance, "Who hasn't bought me a drink yet?" A series of hands went up around the bar.

Shaking his head, Soren turned back to the bartender, "And once again, against my better judgment and desire, I will be making sure she gets back to our ship without some strange guy in tow tonight." He let out a laugh, "If she wound up with anyone other than Uzumaki she would probably kill the poor sucker. You're a really good listener Mr…" He said, trying to feel out his name.

"Blueno." The bartender replied evenly, "I've told you this already, about four times." He passed Soren back a refilled mug.

"Right." Soren said slightly apologetically, "Sorry about that." He looked around, "This is a nice place though. Where are we again?" He asked pleasantly. Blueno sighed indignantly getting Soren to laugh a bit at that, "I'm just kidding. I know where we are." He pointed his thumb to the side, "That guy obviously doesn't though." He was pointing at a large muscular man in a white suit with grey hair and a grey beard who was out cold, fast asleep, "That guy's been out of it since we first got here. Is he that smashed?" Soren asked Blueno who shook his head, "Huh… he looks kind of familiar. Kind of like…" Soren's eyes widened horrifically and started slowly moving away from his seat, "Yeah, I'm going to go now. Later."

"It's so hard being so pretty." Miss Valentine confessed to the men around her before Soren grabbed her by her forearm and pulled her out of the bar, moving quickly, "Soren what the hell? I was just getting loose!"

He didn't turn back towards the bar they had just left as he continued running, "We did not want to be there… well I didn't want to be there."

"Why?" Miss Valentine asked as she lightened her own weight to make herself easier for him to drag, "And can you slow down? You're moving so spastically I think the alcohol is going to be coming back up at this pace."

Soren stopped and let her get her balance back, "I just saw Monkey D. Garp." He saw Miss Valentine's eyes widen, "Yeah, you'd better know who that is. If he saw me and recognized me he would kick. My. Ass. And drag my ass off to Impel Down never to be seen again. No thank you."

Miss Valentine hissed lowly as if it were some kind of secret, "What the fuck is 'Garp the Fist' doing here? Isn't he supposed to be the hero of the Marines?"

Soren and Miss Valentine began walking again, "We _are_ really close to Enies Lobby, but still… Guys like that never come out in the open, except for Admiral Kizaru that one time. I would have expected Garp to be stuck at Marineford with the rest of the big-wigs. This really sucks."

"It should be okay though." Miss Valentine said, her stomach for the situation slowly improving, "It's not like we have a reason to draw attention or anything, right? All we have to do is lay low and everything should be fine. It's easy."

"Yeah sure…" Soren said, not really that convinced that things were going to go smoothly, "I mean I'm decent at staying out of sight, and I'm sure Uzumaki is too. And we're the most likely to cause trouble and blow something up, so if we stay out of trouble everything should be aces, right? I mean, it's not like anyone else is going to just show up and start something stupid that we're going to get sucked into in a few days time."

Miss Valentine nodded and thumped him lightly on the shoulder, "There you go. We'll be fine. We're not that unlucky."

XxX

(With Johnny and Nojiko)

Johnny walked back through town dejected as night had fallen over the city, "I can't believe we fought for so long both stores closed down." He turned his head towards Nojiko who was looking just as downtrodden as he was, "If you had just let me go into my shop I'd have been in and out in five minutes and then we could have gone into yours."

"Same right back at you…" Nojiko mumbled lowly, "We wasted the entire afternoon doing nothing. I made Naruto-kun convert all of that treasure to actual money in Mock Town for no reason… man that store looked so cool." She perked up when she saw two more members of their seafaring group, "Hey, it's Yosaku and Muret."

The two in question were still walking, Muret carrying a few bags of medical supplies, and Yosaku trying to get her to rely on him, either by letting him carry her stuff… or her herself. Muret then noticed Johnny and Nojiko walking towards them and could almost cry in relief, 'Thank the gods… I knew they wouldn't leave me in this purgatory forever.'

Nojiko walked up to the two of them with a smile, "Well how was your trip around town today?"

Muret gave Nojiko a deadpan face devoid of humor or goodwill, "Never again. Never leave me alone with him again. I don't care if I am afraid of Naruto-sama or not, I will bite, kick, scratch, or whatever if I'm ever paired with him again for anything."

Johnny meanwhile, spoke to his sword-toting counterpart, "So how was your day going around with Muret?"

Yosaku sighed wistfully with hearts in his eyes, "I'm sure she's thinking about me right now. I think we really hit it off today. It's only a matter of time."

Muret and Nojiko walked a short distance in front of the men as the female doctor sounded off again about her thoughts on the day, "I will sew his mouth shut if I'm ever left alone with him long enough to ask me out 83 times in a row again. And then if he learns to speak with his eyes… I might do it to those too."

"He's not that bad." Nojiko insisted, trying to get her to warm up to part of the crew.

"Yes he is." Muret asserted firmly, "Why are all of the men on the ship certifiably insane?"

Nojiko patted her on the back, "We're all a little bit off-kilter. I think it's Naruto-kun, hanging around him disproportionates you. Don't worry, soon enough you'll start to lose it yourself… and you won't know when. Someone else will have to bring up the point for you."

Muret rolled her eyes, "I'm sure _he's_ not that bad." She said, referring to Naruto.

"Yes he is."This time it was Nojiko's turn to assert her point, "If you stay with us, you will develop a personality quirk of sorts just to deal with all of the things you're going to see and come into contact with."

Frowning, Muret slumped her shoulders in defeat, "I'm really not looking forward to that… but he's paying me so much money and I already agreed. I'm honor bound, yep, bound by what little honor I have."

"It's so beautiful out tonight Muret!" Yosaku suddenly exclaimed, "Would you like to take me up on that earlier offer for a ride on the Yagura Bulls?"

"On second thought…" Muret said, with her eyebrow twitching, "I don't think my personality quirk will kick in fast enough for me to deal with him without complicating simple procedures on him."

XxX

"Geez lad!" Stanley yelled out as he walked along the deck of the Natural Disaster, "What have ye been doin' to this ship? Do ye practice swinging a sledgehammer about or what?"

"Um, no?" Naruto said slightly embarrassed as Vivi smirked in the background, "Yeah, yeah Vivi… go ahead and get your laughs of correctness off of this."

Vivi shook her head as she sat off to the side, stroking Carue's head, "No, I think I'll save them for when my self-esteem starts feeling low." She stood up and walked over to the two men, "So Stanley-san, do you think you can help us out?"

"Aye." He said in return as he kept looking about the ship, "Is there anything that ye want done special?"

Naruto's face lit up and he placed a hand on Stanley's shoulder, "I'm so glad you asked that question. I have tons of ideas that I want to know if I can do or not." Stanley nodded and gestured for him to continue speaking, "Can I section off a spot at the back end of the ship as a training spot, 40 by 40? There's enough space."

The two walked back around that area and looked around before the shipwright nodded, "That can be done. But ye need some very sturdy, specific supplies that ye need custom ordered. Is money an object?"

"Nope!" Naruto chirped cheerfully, "I'm loaded! What do you need? What do you think the ship can use? Come on, give me some input! No one on this ship knows how to fix this thing or keep up with maintenance so this is golden for me!"

"Ye actually want my opinion?" Stanley asked, almost in disbelief, getting eager nods from both Naruto and Vivi. The man lowered his head before gleefully smiling at the two, "I'll need ta' look the ship over from head ta' toe to come up with things. Can I come back tomorrow Mr…" He said, trying to remember Naruto's name, "I'm sorry I don't think I caught yer name."

"Uzumaki Naruto!" Naruto said, extending his hand until Vivi elbowed him in the side, "Oh… shit I forgot." He forgot that they really weren't supposed to be letting people know who they were while they were there.

Stanley nodded, not particularly registering Naruto's name as one of overt fame, "And the lass here?"

Vivi cut in before Naruto could potentially blow that cover as well, "My name is Naphitali Vera." She elbowed Naruto again when he gave her an odd look and distastefully tested the name in his mouth, "And of course you can come back tomorrow Stanley-san. We'll be right here."

"Naruto-kun we're back!" The attention of the three people standing on the deck was attracted to the return of Nojiko, Johnny, Yosaku, and Muret, "Who is this?" Nojiko asked once they caught sight of the short, burly strange man aboard their ship.

Naruto walked over to the others and gestured towards the person who had attracted the interest of the others, "This is Stanley, he's going to help us get our ship in order tomorrow morning."

Stanley started waking his way towards the ladder that would have him climb off of the ship, "Well I'll be taking my leave now. I'll be back bright an' early in tha' morning Mister Uzumaki. 'Till then farewell."

Nojiko watched the strange man leave in curiosity, "What an odd little man."

Naruto shook his head and started walking inside the ship, "Odd nothing, I think he's awesome! He's going to help me turn this ship into a floating slice of awesome!"

* * *

**Chapter done. The OC is courtesy of 5-digit, he/she drove a very convincing sell home. **_**Very **_**convincing. It totally won me over in a rather quick fashion quite a while back. The Water 7 arc has begun, this is right before the Straw Hats show up by the way in case you needed the time table and didn't have it on your own. Blergh.**

**No real action in this chapter but you'll have to wait until next time for some fiery fireworks of the flaming variety. It's simple progression. I'm tired, and I need to get to the gym to train so I'll catch you all on the flipside. My knees hurt! **

**Kenchi out.**


	22. Water Under the Bridge

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece, but in Kenchiland I own everything! I am everything! There can be only one! UNLIMITED POWER!

**Chapter 22: Water Under the Bridge**

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"Damn Doflamingo, wasting my time…" Garp said to himself as he stood in front of a rather large Marine ship, with all of his men giving him a rather wide berth, "He said that the Uzumaki Naruto kid that has Sengoku gnashing his teeth would be out here soon." He punched his fist into his palm, "It's been days! He isn't here." He saw two young Marines coming up to him, "Coby, Helmeppo, do you have anything on an Uzumaki Naruto from around town?"

Both stopped in front of Garp and saluted as Coby spoke, "No sir, nothing. No one matching any description of Uzumaki Naruto at all."

"Damn it…" Garp said again, 'I wanted to take that bastard down myself. There's something about that guy that seems like he could be a threat. He already kidnapped the princess of Alabasta and he's a rookie… just like my grandson. Apparently they're accomplices as well…'

(Meanwhile – Nearby)

Soren and Naruto stood crouched stealthily atop a rooftop with a pair of binoculars for each man as they looked at the ship planning to disembark, "So this is the hero of the last era? Monkey D. Garp?"

Soren nodded, not that Naruto could see it from how he was looking. Garp was walking around flanked by two young men, one in a marine outfit with pink hair, a scar on his forehead, and glasses placed on his forehead. The other was blonde, wearing a white long-sleeved shirt with a green sweater-vest and purple pants, "Yep. And it looks like he's leaving. Thank God, because three days of not getting drunk or going where I wanted to in this town was getting irksome."

Naruto smirked as he kept looking through his binoculars, "Amen brother. But it's alright now, because he's going, going, gone and I can officially act a nuisance again!" Naruto held up his hand that was quickly slapped in a high-five by Soren, "And that's our good luck-bad luck exchange for the time being. You got your ass whipped by Doflamingo…" Naruto ignored Soren's angry growl at being reminded of his defeat, "And in return we dodge having to fight a hero that you seem somewhat scared of."

"You don't even know who that guy was Uzumaki." Soren said, not disagreeing with Naruto's statement of saying that he was somewhat afraid to fight Garp, "That man is a monster. He could be the Fleet Admiral of entire Marine force if he wanted to be, I'm sure of it."

Naruto watched Garp and his two young trainees board the ship as the crew began making preparations to leave Water 7, "I'll take your word for it. You know more about the world at large than I do." A grin came to Naruto's face as the shouts of Marines preparing to leave rang out, 'So many strong people in the world, and I'm going to take my spot at the top… I have to.'

Soren nodded contently, "Good. You're starting to take my advice sometimes. I was wondering if you were just asking me stuff so that you could figure exactly the opposite of what you wanted to do. Now what's going down with the ship?"

Naruto and Soren stowed the binoculars away and stood up, stretching their legs from being crouched down for so long, "Alright so check it out; the entire deck needs to be redone, the masts need to be re-layered because of all of the damage we do to it, the nicks and dents in the walls and railings need to be fixed up. Our hull is actually in great shape, we never take any damage to the hull."

"So how long are we going to be here?" Soren asked Naruto, "I'm in no real rush and I don't think you are either, but having a time-table helps me stay calm most of the time."

Naruto shook his head, "I don't know. Stanley checked the exterior yesterday and gave me a rundown of what he was going to do to fix it up. Today is supposed to be the interior, like our rooms and stuff."

"Rooms?" Soren said with a laugh, "What about them? We have a Marine ship Uzumaki, we have six times the rooms that we need, do we really need to do anything with them?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "Duh. What are we going to do with that many empty useless rooms? We're keeping a few, but the rest are going to be turned into something cool. Like a dojo so that we don't have to tear up the deck unless we feel like getting fresh air."

"Hmm…" Soren said as he actually started thinking about it, "Okay, that sounds cool to me. Can we afford it?"

Naruto grinned at his bald ally, "Of course we can afford it! Between the money we were given for helping Alabasta, and the money I got when I first started sailing with Nami-chan we have more than enough. I was always thrifty with our funds. Why do you think I just handed over 1 million so easily to Muret?"

Soren grinned as he thought up his retort, "Because you think with your dick and it was pointed right at hot doctor lady? Wallet be damned."

"You're a funny guy." Naruto said with a dry look, "Why don't you go find that chick with the sword that you kept taking it easy on. What's her name again?" He asked, grinning again when he got a rise out of Soren.

"I am not into that Tashigi woman Uzumaki! I just want to see if I can change someone's point of view in the world to something a little less black and white." Soren said, trying to defend himself as far as his last few encounters with said swordswoman went.

Naruto looked ahead as the two kept roof-hopping in order to get back to their current base of operations, "Whatever you have to tell yourself Soren, I'm not going to judge you."

XxX

(Natural Disaster – Scrap Island)

Nojiko took the initiative and finished leading the shipwright that Naruto and Vivi had conscripted into helping them with their ship, "And that's everything." She said with a sigh, signifying that she was happy to be finished with the tour of the ship, "It's really pretty Spartan around here. We don't go much for anything lavish… Naruto-kun usually destroys any town where we can hang out and buy stuff. Accidentally of course, but still."

Stanley was writing down his observations in a notepad, "So he's Uzumaki Naruto is he? The 'Seed of War'?" Nojiko nervously nodded her head as her right hand slowly drifted for one of the pistols around her waist in case he wanted to make an issue of it, "Calm down lass, I'm not going to start a fight over something like this. I do plenty o' work for pirates and yer boyfriend seems like a good person, high bounty or not."

Nojiko raised a delicate eyebrow as she moved her hand from her guns, "How did you know that Naruto-kun and I were together? I don't think I was that obvious with it."

Stanley smirked, "Aye, but you were. When we walked about this ship of yers you stopped at everyone's door except two rooms that belonged to you and him. You went right into the captain's room as if you were walking into the common area. You must be quite comfortable there lass."

Blushing at his insinuation, Nojiko tried redirecting the conversation, "Well, Naruto-kun isn't back yet and you're done with your evaluation of the ship. Do you have anything that you want me to tell him or inform him of when he gets back?"

Stanley exited the ship and threw a wave back at Nojiko, "No that won't be necessary. Just tell Mister Uzumaki to come back ta' Dock 2 and talk to me when he gets a chance. I still have things I want ta' work into the schematics of the ship. I'll see if there's anything in particular he wants." He then started snickering, "I wonder if I can sell the soundproofin' process on him for his room. For the lady's benefit."

Nojiko watched the raucously laughing man leave with a twitching eye, "You are so lucky that I can't shoot you or I'd be a hypocrite." She muttered to herself before moving to a couch in the common area and taking a seat, looking at the Log Pose on her wrist, "One week at least before we can leave."

"Damn it Uzumaki I hate that damn move!"

"Chill out! It was either use Hiraishin or we run all the way back. Garp isn't far away enough for us to be heightening our profile yet!"

Nojiko got up and walked into Naruto's room to see both Naruto and Soren standing there, one with a rather disgruntled look on his face, the other smiling at her before he walked over and gave her a kiss, "Hello Noji-chan. What's going on?"

Nojiko smiled and pointed her thumb, "You just missed Stanley. He finished checking over the ship and said for you to drop by later at Dock 2 with whatever ideas you wanted for him to try and fit into the new design."

"Fun!" Naruto said as he jumped back and landed on his bed, "I'll head out in a bit. Does anyone want to come with me?"

Soren shook his head as he walked towards the door to leave the room, "Nah, you can go Uzumaki. I need to keep training. Now that we're somewhere solid that I can cut loose a little on I have some techniques that I want to test out."

Naruto shrugged, "Suit yourself, but go around and spread the word to see if anyone wants to head out with me." Soren gave him an 'ok' sign as he left the room. Naruto looked back over at Nojiko, "So are you going to come with me?"

Nojiko nodded, "Yeah, it should be nice." Footsteps rapidly pounded on the ground leading towards Naruto's room, "Yosaku apparently is coming with us too."

Right on cue, Yosaku burst through the door, Kubikiribouchou on his back ready to roll, "Are we going somewhere Naruto-aniki? Huh?" He asked excitedly.

Nojiko started laughing hard enough to require the wall to keep her balance, "He-He's like a dog or something… *laughs* It's so good."

Naruto jumped out of his bed and landed in front of Nojiko and Yosaku, "Alright then let's go! We should get there in fifteen minutes if we move fast enough."

"Fifteen minutes?" Both Nojiko and Yosaku said at the same time before Yosaku realized what he was implying, "Oh I get it. Naruto-aniki's been running on the rooftops to get everywhere. We can't do that aniki, we had to take the long way."

Nojiko thought for a moment, "Well we could rent a Yagura Bull. We won't be getting there in fifteen minutes like you say Naruto-kun, but it won't take nearly as long as it would otherwise. It's not that expensive, especially to us."

"Fine…" Naruto said in defeat. He really wanted to take the rooftops to get there. He had seen the system of streets and canals and he wanted no part of it. He would probably get himself lost if he tried navigating his way around on the ground level, but Nojiko was smart and she sounded like she knew what she was doing.

XxX

(30 Minutes Later)

"Bored, bored, bored, bored." Naruto kept repeating as he walked along the street… the water street to be more exact. He was walking on the water as Yosaku and Nojiko rode on the back of a Yagura Bull nearby.

Nojiko let out a sigh of exasperation as people from all around looked at Naruto in utter awe, "Naruto-kun stop showing off… I don't see why you didn't just rent another Yagura Bull and be normal."

"Because being normal sucks." Naruto said blankly as he kept walking on the surface of the canal, "And I'm not going to rent something to ride on when I can just walk. I'm not a lazy-ass Noji-chan." He pointed at the area where the large doors saying '2' were, "And that's where we're going. Go put the Yagura Bull up and meet me inside."

Nojiko and Yosaku marveled at the size of the entire place seeing as how they had never been that far into the town before. They had to take a large water elevator to get to the shipyard, and Naruto wasn't that patient as evidence by him sticking to the wall and running right up the side to the top

Naruto quickly made his way from the water to the shipyard where he quickly found the diminutive foreman, "Stanley, you wanted to see me?"

He turned from overseeing the shipyard to see the familiar blonde who had asked for his help, "Mister Uzumaki! Right on time! I cut through these plans like a hacksaw, so tell me what you think about these ideas, I think they'll suit ye and everyone on yer ship." Stanley handed Naruto a small notebook with everything he had put down as potential for his ship.

Naruto took it and looked at it closely, taking his time and going over every page provided before he looked at Stanley with absolutely no expression on his face. He reached into his pocket and handed him a slip of paper, "Sir here is a blank sheet. You write any amount of money whatsoever on this parchment and I will produce the necessary funds to foot the bill. I do not care, money is no object."

Stanley grinned at Naruto, "The most expensive thing will be the wood needed for everything. I assume you would like the best wood available."

Naruto's face slowly morphed into a smug look, "I _have _the best wood available. Wood made with the power of chakra…" He looked around sheepishly, "I just need an open vacant spot to use it in because I can't really control that power yet. It's pretty wild and unrefined, but the wood is top-notch. Fire even has a tough time causing it any harm." He then waved all of that off, "But right now I have some killer ideas. I need a sturdier sail design so I can put a little something special on the back to make the ship go faster, I also need a more aerodynamic hull so I can tear ass through the sea faster. Ooh, and then-!"

"Lad!" Stanley finally cut him off, "Why don't you just write down everything you want, and produce the lumber that you said you could provide, and we can get started."

Naruto pointed at him in acknowledgement, "That's exactly what I'm going to do right now. I'm so on it! This is going to be awesome! Can you really do all of the stuff you put in that notebook?"

"Wahahahaha! Can I do it?" Stanley laughed at Naruto's questioning comment, "Of course I can do it! I wouldn't have even drawn 'em up as plans if I couldn't do it!" He thumped Naruto on the shoulder good-naturedly, "Now, you should go find Iceburg. He's the one that ye negotiate the price with. If ye tell him you're supplying the wood ye can hammer out a lower price. I said ye might be stopping by sometime today." He pointed in a direction, "There was a ruckus at Dock 1 not too long ago. Iceburg should still be there."

Naruto started walking away and gave a two-fingered salute to Stanley, "Alright then, I'll be back after I work out all of the details. Later!"

XxX

Naruto landed in front of an area designated with a massive '1' on a large door, signifying Dock 1, and opened it up, letting himself inside, "Oi! Is there an Iceburg around here?" Naruto said as he landed from running atop the buildings around him, "Stanley said that you might be expecting an Uzumaki Naruto, that's me!"

"Naruto?" Naruto heard him name called loudly and rather angrily which confused him. He had taken great care not to piss anyone off since he had arrived in Water 7. Nojiko made him promise her. So who in the hell-? "Gomu Gomu no Pistol (Gum Gum Pistol)!"

"Luffy?" Naruto said to himself before getting nailed with a fist and bursting into smoke, leaving a log behind in his place. Naruto showed himself again standing on top of a pile of lumber, "Luffy! What the hell? It's been months and the first thing you do when you see me is try to knock the hell out of me?"

Luffy had a rather angry look on his normally good-natured face, "Don't act like you don't know what you did! You kidnapped Vivi!"

Naruto face-faulted before standing up angrily to see Nami and an unknown group of people in Luffy's company, "I did not kidnap Vivi! Those are slanderously slanderous lies of a slanderous nature!" He then disappeared in a Shunshin and reappeared at Nami's side, "I did miss you a lot though Nami-chan." Nami quickly gave him a kiss before slapping him, "Ow! What the hell? I say I miss you and you hit me?"

Nami put her hands on her hips, "Well why do the papers say that you kidnapped Vivi? There has to be a reason for it."

Naruto sighed and opened his mouth to answer before ducking a kick from Luffy, "Luffy chill out so I can explain! Don't make me kick your ass!"

"Give Vivi back and let her go home you bully!" Luffy shouted at Naruto. He had forgotten how strong Naruto was and that was _before_ then. They were all well aware of Naruto's bounty now and it couldn't have been just because of one thing. Luffy had to start stepping it up now if he wanted to beat Naruto, "Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum Gum Gatling Gun)!" Luffy began throwing rapid-fire fists at Naruto who somehow danced his way around each one, "Hold still!"

"Like hell I'm going to let you hit me!" Naruto shouted back at the rubber man as he kept slipping Luffy's punches, "I've seen what that move does to people! Now chill out or I'll make you!" Four Kage Bunshin popped into existence on all sides of Luffy before taking advantage of Luffy's tunnel vision on Naruto and kicking him into the air, stopping his barrage, "U! Zu! Ma! Ki!" Naruto jumped into the air and dropped an axe kick on the top of Luffy's head, "Uzumaki Naruto Rendan (Uzumaki Naruto Barrage)!"

The kick deposited Luffy hard into a small crater in the ground, "Now will you shut up and listen to me?" His answer came in a pair of hands reaching out to grab him and missing, "I guess not. Did that last one even hurt?"

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket (Gum Gum Rocket)!" Luffy's body shot out of the crater at Naruto after his outstretched hands found something firm to grab a hold of and pull with.

Naruto grinned ferally as he saw Luffy's body flying at him in proverbial slow motion. He made four quick hand-seals, "Doton: Doryuuheki (Earth Release: Earth Style Wall)!" A large wall quickly rose from the ground in front of Naruto with the Uzumaki swirl on the front as he heard the dull thump of Luffy bouncing off of his temporary construct, "I know that hurt… Are we done Luffy?" He heard Luffy growl and run around the side of the wall to deliver a punch to his face that revealed that Naruto to be a Kage Bunshin.

"Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no Jutsu (Earth Release: Double Suicide Decapitation Jutsu)!"

A pair of hands latched down around Luffy's ankles and tried dragging him underground, but Luffy's legs stretched, keeping him from being trapped. Naruto reappeared from the ground with a deadpan look on his face as Luffy pulled his legs free and snorted like a bull about to charge.

"What's going on, Nmaa? Kalifa do you know?" A man with blue hair, a 5 o'clock shadow, black suit pants, and an orange and red striped suit jacket said as he watched Naruto and Luffy's ruckus.

Kalifa, a blonde woman with glasses and hair tied into a bun who wore a yellow, long-sleeved jacket, high-heeled black boots, and a black tight miniskirt spoke as she adjusted her glasses, "The other man is Uzumaki Naruto. Bounty of 245 million beli. I'm not quite sure what the issue between the two is Iceburg-san." She saw Naruto take notice of her and point and wink at her for identifying him, "That's sexual harassment." She said, getting Naruto to gape at her in disbelief.

"Gomu Gomu no Stamp (Gum Gum Stamp)!"

Luffy's foot stretched straight out and caught Naruto, who was still recovering from Kalifa's comment, right in the stomach, driving him hard into a storehouse right through a shut door. Luffy grinned at having finally caught Naruto with an attack as he heard him groan from inside of the storehouse.

"Ugh… That was such a sucker punch Luffy." Naruto's voice echoed out from within the storehouse, mice running away from the clatter he had caused inside with his body.

Luffy rotated his arm preparing for more of a fight, "No, I didn't punch you I kicked you stupid! Now get out here so I can beat you up some more." He didn't expect to hear Naruto start to laugh from inside of the storehouse, "What's funny?"

Naruto stopped laughing as he had still remained to have been seen emerging from the storehouse, "You're a few years too early to say you can beat me Luffy." One of the mice who had run out of the storehouse ran past Luffy, before transforming in a puff of smoke back into Naruto, who had a wild grin on his face and his hands held in a tiger hand-seal, "Konohagakure Hiden Taijutsu Ougi: Sennen Goroshi (Konohagakure's Most Secret and Sacred Technique: One Thousand Years of Death)!"

Too fast for Luffy to register a defense for, Naruto's pointed fingers, held in the seal, found their way to the most vulnerable spot feasible from the rubber man's backside. Adding a little wind to the humiliating technique sent Luffy rocketing off, screaming and holding his rectum. Naruto stood up out of his attack stance and looked at Kalifa, "Now _that_ could actually register as sexual harassment." He looked in the direction that he launched Luffy, "Okay, he's going to be right back here in a moment, pissed off to boot, so I'll just say I didn't kidnap Vivi. There were reasons that Cobra needed her smuggled out of the country, and he decided to scapegoat me since I'm supposed to be an outlaw anyway. You can ask her yourself later, she's actually with me and my crew."

Nami still had her hands on her hips before relenting her stern look, "Okay, I believe you Naruto-kun… and don't touch me for a while, at least until you wash your hands please."

Naruto looked at his hands and blinked, "Deal." He turned to Iceburg, "So how much do I owe you if I supply the lumber for all of the work to be done on my ship?"

Kalifa showed him her notes in her ledger and he addressed Naruto on it, "Let's see. Not a lot of guys can supply their own lumber for the work that needs to be done. That's a significant portion of the billing right there, building supplies. If you already have that, then you can be cut a break in the price, I would say that after going through the intended plans and being told that you can supply your own wood the price will be around 55 million beli."

Naruto nodded, "Alright then, sweet. I was expecting way more than that. Yeah I can pay that right now." Naruto said, extracting a scroll from his coat, "This has 100 million in it, just let me split it up and I'll hand it right over." Naruto grinned, "Me and Johnny cleaned so many fools out on Jaya, you'd think they would have stopped trying to gamble with us." Nami draped over his shoulder with money signs in her eyes, "Yes Nami-chan? I don't know why you're so up for this money, you seem to have more than this right there." He pointed at suitcase she was holding. While he was doing that, a hand tried to grab into his coat pocket that he wound up stopping, "Don't do that."

The hand belonged to a blonde man with a yellow shirt and denim jacket who had a pair of goggles on his forehead. The man grinned at Naruto, "You wouldn't mind sparing some of that money for someone down on their luck would you?"

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "Someone that says that gambled their money away. No. Besides, you wouldn't even know how to open one of these scrolls of mine." Naruto let go of his arm, "I don't even know who you are."

"The name's Paulie." He said before looking at a man with a nose similar to Usopp's wearing a white cap an orange shirt with blue sleeves that appeared as if he had just gotten through running from somewhere, "Hey Kaku. Where did you go?"

The man pointed a thumb in the direction he had come from, "Oh, I just came back from checking out our customer's ship. And Iceburg-san is here too."

"Damn it Naruto!" Luffy roared as he stomped back angrily over to where everyone was, "This time you're not pulling any of your sneaky, weird ninja stuff on me when we fight!" He then noticed Kaku and his mood changed, "Oh hey! How much will it cost? I have tons of money to pay, and if you can could you put in some cannons and make it super-strong and make it go faster?"

Nami interjected as well, "Please also do some decorative remodeling on the exterior and some remodeling for the rooms too." She then looked around and saw two suitcases laying around nearby, "Where's Usopp? Oh well, at least he left the rest of the money here."

Kaku started speaking on the condition of the ship, "Well you must have had quite an eventful trip to get here."

Luffy grinned, "Yep! We climbed a mountain and then we went into the sky!"

Naruto pointed at him in realization, "I fucking knew that was you! You bastard, I don't know what I'm going to do yet but I'm seriously going to top that one!" He was honestly upset that he hadn't gone up there. He actually probably could have, but it would have been by himself and he wasn't leaving the rest of his crew behind just to get his kicks.

Kaku let out a sigh at hearing about the fond memories that Luffy had of his ship, "The truth is, even we aren't able to fix your ship." That got surprised reactions from everyone around within earshot, "Even if we patch it up as much as we can, the probability of you making it to the next island is 0%."

Paulie put a cigar in his mouth and lit it up, "Is there something wrong with the keel?"

"Yes." Kaku admitted, "It's severely damaged. The fact is, the ship can't be repaired no matter how much money you have. It's honestly a miracle that you made it this far."

Naruto turned his head to see that Yosaku and Nojiko had finally made their way over, but the hello that Nojiko had for her sister died in her throat when she felt the grave atmosphere abundant, "What's wrong Naruto-kun?"

Naruto scratched the top of his head, "The Going Merry can't be fixed… apparently it's really messed up from all of the time on the Grand Line. That really sucks for them."

"What exactly is wrong with the Going Merry?" Nami asked. There had to be something that could be done to fix it.

"Don't you know anything about ships girl?" Paulie asked as he began to explain, "The keel is the most important part of the ship, the support that goes from the head to the tail of it. It can't just be fixed like that. Every piece of wood on a ship is centered at the keel. It's the lifeline of the ship, replacing the keel is the same exact thing as building a whole new ship." He shut his eyes after he made his point, "It can't be repaired, your ship is nothing more than a pile of wood waiting to be scrapped."

Nami was outraged. The Going Merry was their ship, they couldn't just get rid of it, "How could you say that?"

"I know it's bad, but it's the truth." Paulie said.

Luffy jumped back in at that point, "Then just remake it from the start! Remake the Going Merry!"

A pigeon on the shoulder of a man with curly black hair, a goatee, and a top hat answered him, "That's not possible either. While it is possible to build two identical ships it still won't be the same. There are no two same ships in the world. It all depends on the wood. Even if we had the blueprints we can't build an exact replica. The ones who will feel the change most of all will be all of you. You'll all know it's not the same ship."

Nami's mood sombered at the implication, "So you're saying that the Going Merry will never sail again?"

Kaku nodded, "That's correct, what Lucci said was true. You can either take it apart now or let it sink and die naturally."

Iceberg decided to give his own opinion at this point as everyone around with an attachment to the ship were stunned to silence, "The ship has lived out its life, but if you think of it another way… With your old one gone you can buy a brand new ship." Luffy visibly bristled at this point and Naruto palmed his face at the coming explosion, "You have the money for it, I heard about your ship's caliber. It's a very old model. The sea beyond this point is too rough for it, even if it wasn't broken."

"No!" Luffy finally shouted having had enough of this conversation, "I don't want a new ship! If you just fix it it'll definitely keep going! We got here perfectly today so who says it can't go on! I just can't believe you! You have no idea how strong our ship is!"

A small white mouse emerged from Iceberg's pocket that he rubbed on the top of its head, "Then you can just sit in that ship and sink with it. You little punk, you call yourself a captain?" He then let out a sigh and began walking away, "That's enough talking for today, just think about it. Come back when you want to buy a new ship. With your 300 million beli you can easily afford the best ship we can make." He turned to Naruto, "Come with me if you want to pay in advance for your ship's repairs."

Naruto nodded and formed a Kage Bunshin that he handed the scroll containing the money to, "Go with him. Divide it up and pay for everything up front. If you need more for some reason dispel and tell me." The clone nodded and followed Iceberg and Kalifa away.

Naruto walked over to Nami and Luffy, as did Yosaku and Nojiko who was currently listening to her sister rundown the situation.

"Hey you guys!" Iceberg called out, "You're going to want to hide! There's people from the World Government here!"

Naruto and his clone with Iceberg quickly used Henge to transform into generic looking dock workers while everyone else hid behind a large pile of lumber. Luffy took a hold of the two extra suitcases that Usopp had apparently left behind and frowned, "These feel light."

Nami started laughing nervously, as if that would actually keep what she knew had already happened from being real, "Don't joke around, there's 100 million beli in there how can it be light?" She hesitantly opened the suitcases and let out a scream of horror, "The other 200 million we had is gone! When you look at the two cases they aren't even ours!"

"Hey, weren't you with the Franky's earlier today?" A man asked Kaku that the shipwright denied, "I could have sworn I saw your long nose… It seemed like they were carrying you too."

"Wah!" Luffy exclaimed, "Usopp was kidnapped by those Franky people?"

"Luffy go find him!" Nami yelled frantically, prompting the straw hat clad pirate to take off rapidly to do so, "Wait! Do you even know where to go?" She turned to Paulie, "Hey do you know where the Frankys live?"

Paulie quickly answered, "Go from where you all docked your ship, and then go northeast along the beach. You'll see the Franky House." Nami immediately took off towards the Yagura Bull they used to get there so that she could get back to the Going Merry and get Zoro as well as stash the rest of their money. Iceberg turned to Naruto, "Aren't you going too?"

Naruto started feeling around on his person, "Damn it where's the Hiraishin kunai? I swore I had one with me in case I needed it! Nooo! Now I've got to find Nami-chan again to get her one!" He turned to Yosaku and Nojiko, "What should I do?"

Yosaku gripped the handle of Kubikiribouchou defensively, "I'll stay with Nojiko-aneue. You're faster than the both of us and we'd only slow you down Naruto-aniki."

Nojiko gave him a reassuring smile, "Yes. We'll look around here and go to Dock 2 to find Stanley and see about our ship. You go. We can get back to the Natural Disaster just fine on our own, okay?"

Naruto nodded and gave Nojiko a kiss before taking off to find the Going Merry. Everyone watched as Naruto started running atop the roofs of the buildings and finally jumped off of the edge of the elevated position of the Galley-La Company, surprising many, especially Kaku, "He can do that too?"

Nojiko nodded, "Yeah. You get used to it after a while."

XxX

'Come on… how hard could it be to find a ship with a ram figurehead? Hell, I'm lost…' Naruto thought to himself as he tore around the outlying area on the outskirts of Water 7 trying to find the Going Merry. While doing this, he found a rather massive brown frog with hair in a samurai style and numerous scars on its body, 'Maybe this guy could help me out?'

Naruto stopped and shouted out at the amphibian in the water, "Oi! Can you help me out really quick?" The massive animal swam over to Naruto and looked at him rather impatiently, 'Man this guy reminds me of Gamabunta…' "Um, can you tell me which way northeast is? I need to get there to help some people out really quick."

The toad lifted a webbed leg and pointed directly behind Naruto, getting him to sigh in exasperation, "Damn it… Okay, thanks a lot. I'll come back with a treat or something nice for you later. Right now I've got to go kick some ass!" Naruto once again took off at high speed, cutting through town to get directly to the northeast edge of the island.

After running for a while, Naruto found Luffy, Usopp, Zoro, and Chopper, all hovering over a badly beaten Usopp. He looked forward and saw a rather gaudy looking house that basically advertised itself as the hideout of the gang. Naruto walked over with a frown on his face as he looked over the injured marksman, "He tried getting them back by himself didn't he?"

Sanji nodded and took his cigarette from his mouth, "We're going in to kick their asses right now."

Naruto nodded and cracked his knuckles, "Do you mind if I start? This would be killing two birds with one stone in this instance seeing as how this move is kind of wild, and I really don't care too much for these Franky guys right now. I need the practice." Sanji gestured for him to proceed and Naruto moved ahead of the rest of the Straw Hats, forming two hand-seals before calling out the name of the jutsu, "Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koutan (Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees)!"

The ground began to rumble and large roots began to sprout up from the ground, trailing away from Naruto and towards the house before finally fully surfacing and forming a series of trees that punctured the structure of the building thoroughly and on multiple sides, in some cases the branches forming from the trees punched through the other side. Naruto grinned as the Straw Hat members took that as their cue to head up and kick in the door.

"Who the hell had the balls to do that to our place?"

"Someone must have a death wish!"

Everyone inside, dressed in the uniform of wearing strange overalls and goggles took note of the five people that were standing at what used to be their door.

"You're that 'Straw Hat' Luffy!" A massive man in body armor said, not frightened after learning that Luffy was the one leading the charge, "Are you here for the money? Look at how many people we have here? You're only five little guys, we outnumber you ten-to-one! We'll take the bounty on your head and get even more money!" He patted his armored torso, "A weak guy like you… I'll give you the first free hit!"

Naruto cocked an eyebrow and looked at the other Straw Hats, "Is he serious? Did they not just pay attention to the giant trees I made that tore this place a new one?"

Luffy immediately started throwing punches that didn't hit the large man, prompting him to begin laughing, "That's enough boy! I'll show you how to fight!"

"Gomu Gomu no Cannon (Gum Gum Cannon)!" Luffy shot both of his fists into the body of the man's armor, piercing it and destroying it, knocking the man out with one attack. The quick defeat thoroughly freaked out all of the Franky Family who tried begging off and talking it out with them before pulling out a set of cannons and firing them off.

Zoro pulled out all three of his swords and cut right through the cannonballs that had been sent at them, as well as the cannons themselves, "You should have done your homework when you picked people to rob."

They all began hightailing it to the backdoor when Sanji jumped over the lot of them and cut them off, landing on the head of one of the enemies in a handstand and delivering a series of vicious kicks to the surrounding people, taking them all down.

Chopper even got into the action as well, transforming into his Horn Point form, using his horns to throw the men up into the air, forcing them to land on their heads, sticking straight up, "Roseo Colonnade (Cherry Blossom Colonnade)!"

"We don't have to fight!" The outmatched group of thieves yelled trying to reason with the angry Straw Hats and the amused Naruto who was just fine with sitting back and letting them handle their own business, "The 200 million we got from that Pinocchio guy isn't here anymore! Our boss Franky already took the cash and went shopping! He's probably already on the Sea Train and we have no idea where he's going either! You can't get your money ba-!" He was cut off by Naruto pelting him in the head with a piece of debris, knocking him out.

Naruto pulled his outstretched arm back in place, "You guys talk way too much. Just give up or fight, we don't have anything to say to you."

Sanji put a new cigarette in his mouth, "It's not just about the money anymore you morons."

Zoro had his bandanna on his head and no look of giving any quarter in his eyes, "That's right, you pissed us off."

Luffy flexed his fists with a look of intensity on his face, "We're going to pulverize you all."

"That's our line you idiots!" One of the men yelled back as they pulled a large cannon out, "There's still only five of you and tons of us left!" Unfortunately for them, their more powerful adversaries apparently couldn't care less about the numerical odds as they all began beating the daylights out of the remainder of the gang effortlessly.

XxX

(Some Time Later)

What had remained of the Franky House had been destroyed when Naruto used his Mokuton powers again to form more trees for lumber intended for building, turning the area into a veritable forest, "So what are you guys going to do now?" He formed a mass of clones and had them take positions all around the trees, "I want nice even clean cuts, like the lumber we saw in the yard."

Sanji sat on some of the wreckage they had caused when they thrashed the thieves, "So should we actually go after that Franky guy?"

"Where would we go?" Zoro asked as Luffy stood off to the side, a look of intense thought on his features and Chopper off treating Usopp's wounds, "These small fries don't know where the money is and we can only take care of the guy after he gets back from shopping. He isn't coming back anytime soon."

Sanji sighed, "We're just wasting time here. Let's go back. Nami is alone on the ship, we can't find Robin, and the ship itself is breaking down too."

Naruto turned his attention away from his clones who were working on using their wind chakra to section up the trees, "Where are you guys keeping your ship? I'll swing ours over nearby right now, then I'll help you look for Robin-chan."

Zoro and Sanji pointed over in the general direction of their ship, implying that it was on the outskirts of Water 7 in that direction. Naruto nodded and prepared to leave when Luffy abruptly spoke, "I've finally made a decision…" He took a deep breath, "I've decided that it's time to say goodbye to the Going Merry."

Naruto looked at the Straw Hat crew solemnly and let out a sigh, "I'll see you guys later." He said before vanishing in a yellow flash.

XxX

(Hours Later – Nightfall)

"How terrible." Vivi commented from her spot at the helm. After he, Nojiko, and Johnny had returned, Naruto had allowed her to take over steering the ship to allow her some practical instruction. For times when he wasn't there someone else would need to know how. Why not her? "I loved that ship. I had some wonderful times on that ship with the others."

Naruto was watching over the front of the ship as it traveled, "I know. I had a decent time on it too while I was with their crew, but there's nothing they can do. If it's done it's done, that Iceberg guy seemed like a straight shooter, I don't think he would have lied to them about something like that."

Vivi's frowning face turned into a smile once the Going Merry came into view, "It's going to be so good to see everyone again though! I missed them all."

Naruto allowed himself a grin, "You'd better, and I know they miss you too. Luffy tried to beat me up earlier because he thought I really kidnapped you." He jumped on the front railing, "Okay, I'm going to go drop in and say hey really quickly." He pointed back at her, "You. Don't run the ship aground or run into the Going Merry, or I'll terrorize you tomorrow during training."

Vivi rolled her eyes and sent a dismissive gesture Naruto's way. He grinned and blew her a kiss before disappearing in a swirl of water prompting Vivi to blink at his Shunshin, "That was new… I thought the only thing he could do with that was use leaves and wind."

Naruto reappeared aboard the Going Merry much the same way that he had left his own ship with a grin on his face and a Hiraishin kunai in his hand, "Oi! Guess who's back! And I've got something special for all of my Straw Hat people!" He looked down on the deck where he saw Usopp lying on his back, beaten up just as badly as before, and with a somber look on his face, "What's wrong? What happened, and where are the others?"

"They left…" Usopp said, "They decided to leave the Going Merry behind and I kicked their asses off. You should have seen it…"

Naruto crouched down by Usopp with a dry look on his face, "Yeah, you sure look like you beat all of their asses." He poked Usopp on the forehead, "So you're just going to ditch everyone because of this ship? From what I heard when I was at the Galley-La Company this thing is on borrowed time here. What are you going to do with it?"

"I'll keep sailing it!" Usopp exclaimed vehemently, "I'll fix it up just like I always have and keep sailing on! A brave warrior of the sea never turns him back on his comrades, and the Going Merry is a comrade! A nakama, a member of the crew just like any of us!"

Naruto let out a sigh and sat next to Usopp on the deck just letting the silence of the night wash over them both. After a while, Naruto finally spoke, "That's true… but you did kind of turn your back on your comrades. Oh well, it's not my place. You're going to believe what you want to."

"I'm weak Naruto." Usopp said rather tearfully, "I lost the money, I always need someone stronger like Luffy or Zoro to handle fights for me. I can't protect anyone."

"Then get stronger."

Usopp sat up and looked at Naruto, whose tone had quickly turned from one of understanding to one of confident assertion, "If you don't think you're strong enough then just get stronger. If you don't like being protected all the time, then make it so that you're the one that does the protecting." Naruto turned his head towards Usopp, "I remember the time we met when we fought Kuro and all of his pirates and you didn't back up a step. You fought even past the point of you being able to stand up. That's the kind of drive a guy like you should cultivate. Use that to go past your limits again and again." Naruto flexed his arm, "I used to be weak too. So many people lost their lives or lost things important to them by trying to protect me. I never wanted anyone to ever have to do that again. That's one of the reasons that I keep trying to improve, so that I can protect others close to me instead of needing to be protected. And you can do it too."

Usopp looked back up at the sky, "I'm not sure. I still think that without me dragging the crew down everything will be better. Like I said, there's nothing special about me."

"Let me tell you a little story." Naruto said, "When I was twelve, my village was attacked by two others that were intent on annihilating every one of us and I wound up being swept into the fight as well as my teammates. I wound up having to chase one of my teammates far outside the village and wound up going against this guy named Gaara… and I thought he was going to kill us all…"

XxX

(The Next Day)

Earlier that morning, The Foxhound Crew had taken the Natural Disaster in to be worked on after the plans were finalized the previous day and through a combined effort of every male on board, Naruto had been dragged from the ship to a nearby hotel still in his sleep. Not nearly as easy as it sounded as Naruto fought anyone trying to disturb his slumber.

After the rather violent transport and upon awakening… in the late afternoon… Naruto was immediately hounded with the news that the Straw Hats had attempted to kill Iceberg the night before. More specifically, Nico Robin, the only member of the crew he hadn't seen since their arrival in Water 7.

So only sparing time to get dressed, Naruto headed back out towards the main town to figure what had happened and find Robin himself. How hard could it be? With this firmly in mind, Naruto found himself and Johnny for backup and support, at the Galley-La Company for clues, "What the hell happened here?" Naruto asked when he arrived to the area in front of Dock 1. It looked like it had been hit by a typhoon.

"It was that Straw Hat Luffy guy!"

"Yeah, he shot Iceberg and then got away from the strongest Galley-La members when they tried to bring him down! It's fine though, with Aqua Laguna tonight he isn't going anywhere!"

"I don't like this Naruto-aniki." Johnny said rather hesitantly, "Do you really think that any of them actually did this?"

Naruto shook his head, "No… It's not anyone on the Straw Hat crew's style to use guns except for maybe Usopp, and he was on the Going Merry all night. None of them did a thing, I'm certain of it." Nobody was going to help the crew out, he was sure of it, they were pirates, they had no one to turn to in case of injustices done to them so Naruto had to do it himself, "Now hold on a minute here, I know all of those guys and I'll say, staking my own word on it that they would never pull anything like that."

"Straw Hat Luffy just broke into Iceberg's mansion and tried to finish the job!"

Naruto's face quickly fell from one of confidence to one of a man walking to the gallows, "Thank you Luffy… Thank you so much for proving my words right. I appreciate it." Naruto said sarcastically.

"So you're the straw hat kid's ally?" Paulie said, flanked by two muscular men, shirtless with tattoos, as well as Kaku and Rob Lucci, "You should have just stayed quiet and let us handle it. Do you really want all of Water 7 as an enemy?"

Naruto frowned, "No… All I wanted was my ship to get fixed, I just paid for it yesterday. But if you're calling out the Straw Hat crew for something I know they didn't do then I'm going to support them. Killing anyone at all isn't Luffy's style." He noticed the people around the scene moving in with angry looks on their faces and flared his chakra intensely enough to cause a small wind storm, "The real question is do you want to make an enemy out of me? Because I'll actually hit you back."

Johnny held his hand on his sheathed uchigatana, "And I don't really care if I kill any of you during the fight. I'm not going to try to, but if it happens it happens. You were the ones picking a fight with us. We're just looking for our friends."

Paulie narrowed his eyes, "Well then we can haul you off to jail just like with the Straw Hat crew."

Johnny whispered to Naruto, "This is bad Naruto-aniki… We already brought the ship to Dock 2 to start being worked on. We don't have an escape route. We need it to leave the island, and there's supposed to be a huge storm tonight, we're stuck here."

Naruto shrugged, "There's always an escape route." He punched the palm of his hand, "You just beat up enough people for you to run and hide to lay low."

Johnny sighed and readjusted his sunglasses on his face, "This isn't going to be fun is it?" His answer came when the weights on his legs deactivated and dropped to the ground. He looked over at Naruto and saw that he had his hands in the seal release position, "I didn't think so."

Naruto saw the larger of the shirtless tattooed men pull out a large hand held cannon, "You're going to want to move Johnny, now!"

"Demi Cannon!" The cannon fired at Naruto and Johnny as the two rushed away from the target area, one moving in a faster blur than the other, in opposite directions splitting the two up as the nearby crowd roared in approval of the Straw Hat sympathizers getting theirs at the hands of the strongest members of the Galley-La Company.

XxX

(Johnny vs. Peeply Lulu/Tilestone)

Another cannon blast that landed in front of Johnny stopped the fleet-footed swordsman in his tracks, "Stop shooting at me you maniac! What the hell do you want? Leave us alone!"

Tilestone, the larger of the two men with brown hair in a ponytail and a grey beard took aim at Johnny again, "Iceberg is a great man. To let the people that attempted to kill him go on about their business is a slap in the face of this town, and if you're going to defend them you're going down too, because no one's going to help you."

Johnny felt the urge to face-palm were he not in a fight, 'It's times like this I feel like slapping myself for naming our crew as the Foxhound _Pirates_. We could have avoided tons of trouble… hey, where's the other guy?' Johnny's answer came in the form of a kick that caught him in the side of the head and sent him rolling across the ground.

"There's no sanctuary for pirates like you who decide to do as they wish in this town." Peeply Lulu, the other man with short black hair that had a cowlick sticking from the side of it said. He walked over to a nearby carpenters' table and grabbed two saws.

Johnny picked himself back up with a grin on his face as he felt the bruise rising on his cheek, "Heh, is that the best you've got? Naruto-aniki hit me harder than that in his sleep." His thumb flicked his sword loose in its sheath, "That was the last time I've ever volunteered to wake him up…"

The massive man fired his cannon again and Johnny quickly rushed from his spot to attack him directly. His quick slash at Tilestone was blocked by the cannon that prompted Johnny to grit his teeth in exasperation, 'Damn it! I still can't cut through metal yet! Even Yosaku can now! I need to stop working on speed and get more strength!'

XxX

(Naruto vs. Paulie/Rob Lucci/Kaku)

Naruto stood atop a crane and looked down at the three men who had decided to come after him, "This is stupid. I like fighting every now and then but not for something like this." His ship was pretty much in Galley-La's custody. A fight with them was the very last thing he wanted. He crouched down and tilted his head, "Can't we just talk this out? Why do you think that they had anything to do with what happened to your mayor Iceberg?"

"He said that Nico Robin was the one who had attacked him." Paulie said to Naruto, "Are you still on their side?" Naruto immediately nodded, "Fine, then you can go down with them as well." A rope flew out of his sleeve up at Naruto, forcing him to jump into the air to dodge.

While in the air however, Kaku appeared above him with a series of chisels in his hands that he threw at the prone Naruto. Upon being hit by the chisels, Naruto's body turned into a log, signifying a Kawarimi.

On the ground all around Paulie, several of Naruto's clones suddenly appeared and rushed him from all sides, bringing a smirk to the man's face, "Roupuakushon: Zu Hachi Notto (Rope Action: Figure of Eight Knot)!" Eight blunted ropes flew from places inside of Paulie's clothes and hit all of the clones with ridiculous accuracy, "These are specially woven Galley-La ropes, they're unbreakable."

"I doubt that." Naruto said as he rushed from a hidden position at Paulie while dodging the projectiles thrown by Kaku. However he wound up being corralled towards a hidden Rob Lucci who had a fist cocked back and heading right for his face. Naruto averted his focus to Lucci and threw his own punch that hit Lucci's head-on, 'Damn! He's just as strong as Luffy is! Thank Kami for my healing ability, I think that broke my hand! I know that hurt him too though!'

Naruto's still outstretched hand was tied up by another of Paulie's ropes as he was caught off-guard abruptly pulled off of his feet and into the air. Paulie attempted to slam Naruto into the ground as Naruto reached the apex of elevation, "Roupuakushon: Moyai Musubi (Rope Action: Bowline Knot)!"

While he was being hurled up into the air, Naruto slid a kunai into his hand from his sleeve, "Hien (Flying Swallow)!" Naruto channeled wind chakra into the blade, making it stronger in its cutting power and freed himself from Paulie's rope, however Naruto wound up being flung high into air with the momentum used to get him up that high. Kaku took aim at the airborne shinobi and tried picking him off with more projectiles.

Naruto batted away the offending tools with his kunai and threw it at Kaku, getting him to dodge and move towards Lucci, who springboarded off of his hands into the air at Naruto. Naruto made a quick Kage Bunshin while still in the air and had it throw him at Rob Lucci, "Bunshin Taiatari (Clone Body Blow)!" Naruto hurtled through the air like a rotating high-speed missile and plowed headfirst directly into Lucci who crossed his arms to block the attack. The impact sent them both flying off in opposite directions, 'What's this guy made of? He's super-tough.'

Naruto landed on the top of a building, "Stop it now damn it! I'll tear this place apart if you don't leave us alone!" The shipwrights continued to advance, in response Naruto made three hand-seals, "Fine, you asked for it, Suiton: Kokuu no Jutsu (Water Release: Black Rain Jutsu)!" A black cloud rose from Naruto's body into the air and began raining all over the area, alerting the others, however it seemed to do no damage.

"What was that supposed to be?" Paulie taunted Naruto, "That didn't do anything-." He stopped talking when he began smelling what exactly the black fluid Naruto had produced was, "You wouldn't!"

Naruto's face was deadly serious, "Try me." He said making more hand-seals, "I'll send this whole place up in an oil fire, and then I'll stop the flow of all of the water coming up here so you can't put it out. Read my bounty profile and tell me I can't." He waited for someone to call him out on it, they never did, "That's what I thought. Now I'm going to leave, you're all going to stay there." He then created a Kage Bunshin that started making hand-seals before holding the last one, "His one job is to set this place on fire if you chase me. Do not fuck with me."

Paulie grit his teeth in anger at Naruto's threat, "You're making an enemy of an entire town you know."

Naruto shrugged, "So? I already have an entire country at my throat for no reason. Why not add one more place to the list of areas I can't come back to for stupid reasons? Later. I'll be back for my ship, I paid you, I still expect Stanley to finish working on it." He said, vanishing in a swirl of wind and leaves, leaving his clone behind.

Paulie glared at the clone who had a no nonsense look on its face as it continued to hold its hand-seal, "Tch… there's nothing we can do without losing the whole dock. He'll get away for now, just like 'Straw Hat' Luffy."

XxX

(Johnny vs. Peeply Lulu/Tilestone)

Johnny traded strikes with Peeply Lulu's twin saws, getting the better of the man, leaving a shallow slash across his chest before focusing back on Tilestone who had him firmly in his sights, 'Oh like hell I'm letting you shoot me again!' Johnny dodged the hand-cannon blast as Tilestone kept quickly reloading and refiring. Johnny pumped more and more effort to his legs as he felt his muscles pushing well past their limits. He started getting tunnel vision, 'Wait, this only happens when I use that move with Yosaku. Can I do it now without his help to gain the speed for it?'

"Hold still!" Tilestone shouted before letting off another thunderous blast, "Demi Cannon!" Johnny jumped onto the side of a wall just as the cannonball hit the very same surface, bringing a satisfied smile to Tilestone's face, "Dodge that you little pest."

"Hanekaeru Eikyou (Rebound Impact)!" After Tilestone started to speak, Johnny immediately shot out of the cloud from the explosion directly at him, so fast that he didn't even have time to grab a new cannonball to reload. Johnny slashed Tilestone across the chest and flew past him, the speed of the attack sending the large man stumbling back before Johnny bounced off another surface and cut him across the back. This repeated itself on all sides of his body as Johnny's momentum picked up and forced him to move faster and faster, the only thing denoting his presence were the sounds of his sword cutting through the air as he slashed at his enemy.

Tilestone finally had enough and dropped to the ground in a wounded heap.

"Tilestone!" Peeply Lulu called out as he ran over to his comrade when Johnny, still moving at high speed from his last technique appeared in front of Peeply Lulu with his sword sheathed once more, "No!"

"Yosen Ikssen (Primary Flash)!" A silver flash appeared in front of Johnny, the only sign that he had even pulled his blade loose to cut at him opponent as his sword seemed to have never left his sheath. He stood straight up and walked past an unmoving Peeply Lulu, "You were the ones that picked the fight." The sound of his blade's guard clicking against the top of the scabbard echoed out as he walked away.

Peeply Lulu seemed to have nothing wrong with him until the sound of Johnny's sword clicking rang out. He let out a groan as a vertical wound from his shoulder to his hip began spraying blood as he dropped onto the ground.

Naruto landed in front of Johnny and looked at the downed shipwrights, "Don't tell me you-."

Johnny shook his head and cut him off right there, "They're not dead. They're not even hurt that badly Naruto-aniki, I cut shallow, they'll be up in 30." He frowned, "I don't really like killing too much… If I could go all out without killing anyone I would never do it at all."

Naruto patted him on the shoulder, "If you can win without killing anyone then you're the better person for it. They didn't deserve to die, now let's get out of here." The swordsman nodded and quickly followed Naruto as they discreetly tried leaving the area.

"What are we going to do?" Johnny asked as Naruto planned to jump down to the lower levels with him on his back, "They think we're accomplices of Zoro-aniki's crew and that they attacked Iceberg-san."

Naruto jumped down onto a roof in the lower section of town and was rather proud of Johnny for not yelling in fear at their descent, "I have a bounty and you look normal enough to blend in with other people. I'm going to be the one put out in the cold from this. Go find everyone else and tell them to drop off for the time being, Soren is in charge since he knows how to make himself scarce." Johnny nodded and prepared to leave when Naruto grabbed his shoulder, "And good work."

Johnny smiled and nodded before leaving Naruto to himself. He took the Hiraishin kunai out of his pocket and flipped it around intently before looking up at the sky and sighing, "Ugh… maybe Noji-chan is right, I just can't help but to get into trouble. Only one thing to do now." Naruto threw the kunai into the air and disappeared in a yellow flash.

XxX

(Nightfall – Galley-La Headquarters)

The tide around Water 7 had risen to alarming heights by this time as everyone had gotten themselves geared up for the coming storm. Naruto kept a decent berth away from the mansion as it was surrounded by Galley-La workers, "Okay… the place is locked down tighter than the room of a crime lord's virgin daughter." He blinked at what he had just said, "Kami, I'm such a deviant… Damn you Ero-sennin."

A sudden explosion rang out, alerting Naruto to a series of figures that for the most part stealthily infiltrated the mansion during the panic, 'They're decent. Of course getting in without causing a ruckus would have been much better.'

One of the attackers on the mansion defeated many of the workers guarding the place with swift use of a thorned whip, "What in the hell is going on? Should I do something?" He then saw Zoro, Nami, and Chopper run right up to the front door that was still heavily guarded, and thus the chase began, "Well that answers that question…" Naruto began running along rooftops and wound up running right alongside the miserably outnumbered trio before jumping down in front of them all.

"Naruto?" Nami called out as she ran past him. As she and Chopper did so, Zoro turned alongside Naruto to face off with the crowd, his swords drawn, "Zoro? What are you two doing?"

"Saving your asses. Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)" Naruto called out, flooding the street with clones that formed a wall, "Zoro you're going to want to close your eyes for this one, trust me."

The swordsman was confused, but did as requested as Naruto had his trust. As the green-haired man closed his eyes, Naruto grinned ferally and formed a series of hand-seals, "Transform!" A large puff of smoke clouded the street that the shipwrights charged into, "Harem no Jutsu (Harem Jutsu)!" The smoke cleared and everyone of the men that were close enough to get a view of the mass amounts of beautiful, naked blonde women standing in the street provocatively flew backwards into sweet unconscious bliss as torrents of blood gushed from their noses, "Damn I've still got it!" Naruto yelled in victory, "I'm an army killer baby!"

Zoro opened his eyes upon Naruto's declaration of success and looked around to see the beaten shipwrights, a grinning Naruto, a mortified Chopper, and a blushing Nami who looked ready to strangle Naruto, "What? What did he do? I didn't see anything."

"Yes Nami-chan." Naruto said, trying to intentionally provoke her, "Tell Zoro how I beat all of those guys in one move, he wants to know."

Nami glared at him and huffed before walking up to Naruto and poking him on the chest, "You're making it up to me for using that move in front of me, understood?" Naruto nodded and Nami grabbed his chin getting close to his face, "I'll deal with you after we're done with all of this. You owe me one hell of a date after all of this time."

Zoro shrugged at the little spat between the two and began running towards the mansion to get inside like Luffy had. Nami then realized what they had been doing, "That's right! We need to get in there to find Robin and help Luffy!" She and Chopper began running after Zoro, "Naruto-kun can you find Sanji for me? We don't know where he is and he's been missing all day!"

Naruto nodded and yelled back to her, "Can you all handle this? Are you sure you don't need my help?"

Nami turned back and winked at him, "We can handle this Naruto, we've done just fine so far since you left us. We should tell you sometime! We're way stronger!" She then turned towards the mansion and kept running along with Chopper.

Naruto frowned and formed a Kage Bunshin, "Go find the others and tell them what's happening. Tell them to get to Iceberg's mansion and watch the Straw Hat crew's backs. I'll be back with them soon enough." The clone nodded and took off as Naruto reached into his coat and pulled out the Hiraishin kunai he carried with him, "Damn it… I still haven't managed to give this to them yet…" He scolded himself before taking off in search of Sanji.

XxX

(Ten Minutes Later)

Nojiko arrived at the scene on the back of Soren who had deemed it necessary to carry her to arrive faster, "Oh my god… What happened here?" The entire mansion was burned to the ground and the people were out front gathered around Nami, Iceberg, Paulie, and an unconscious Chopper, "Nami? What happened? Naruto-kun told us to come here in case you needed help."

Miss Valentine landed from the sky with her umbrella in hand as Johnny and Yosaku arrived shortly thereafter on foot. Nami ran up to Nojiko and grabbed her shoulders, "I need to find Luffy and then Naruto-kun. We need to go save Robin from the government officials that took her."

Nojiko blinked in confusion before her face hardened, "Tell me everything, and what we might be able to do to help you."

Soren walked over to a wounded Chopper, "I think we're going to need Muret's help to fix the little reindeer guy." He rubbed his bald head, "She's going to be pissed about working on an animal though, but it can't be helped."

Yosaku formally saluted as if he were a soldier as he spoke, "Well if Nico Robin is being taken from the island then the next and last train out of here leaves in 20 minutes. We're going to have to move if we're going to make it down there."

"We need to go now then!" Nami said, "We have to go convince Robin ourselves! I need someone to check over in the directions that Luffy and Zoro were thrown."

Johnny and Yosaku volunteered, as did the newly reawakened Chopper just as Paulie sat up, "Ugh, hey everyone." He said, speaking to the Galley-La workers, "Help them all out." The workers started spouting off about how they were Iceberg's assassins finally pissing him off, "The assassins weren't the Straw Hats, we were deceived! They were framed by the actual killers and fought against them, they fought for us! They're the only reason that Iceberg and I are still alive!" He stood up and motioned to Nami, "Hey, I'll lead you to the station you shameless woman…" He pointed at her and Nojiko, "I still think you should wear something to cover yourselves better."

XxX

(Blue Station)

Sanji watched from the nearby shadows as Robin walked in a crowd of people over to a bunch of government agents, "Bingo… you see? I told you she'd come through here eventually."

Naruto appeared behind him with a smirk on his face, "You were right after all. And here I was, about to knock you out and drag you off to the mansion… it looks like I owe you that next volume of Icha Icha once this is all over."

Sanji let out a chuckle, "Now let's see. Government officials, some Marines, and Robin-chan. Now how do we get on board so I can rescue this lovely princess?" He was about to move when Naruto grabbed his shoulder.

Sanji turned to find Naruto grinning at him, "Let me handle this part. I'm an old hand at it." He then frowned and pointed out at what he had seen, "Crap… this is getting more and more troublesome…"

"Let me go damn it!" A bound Usopp yelled as he was carried aboard the Sea Train by Blueno who himself was walking behind Kalifa, Kaku, and Rob Lucci, all dressed in black outfits with stern looks on their faces.

"This isn't a game, brace yourselves." Lucci ordered the Marines and officials who were standing and saluting the passing group, "All hands board the train."

Sanji laughed humorlessly as Usopp continued being carried away, "And he said he wouldn't cause us any more trouble. Well this still feels like trouble to me."

"Huh... I fought half of those guys not seven hours ago." Naruto shook his head and schooled his features, "Alright, you can bitch at him for getting himself caught later. Right now we've got to get on this train, I don't think anyone else is coming to help us on this one. I've got your back… after all I can't let a loyal reader do something like this on his own."

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**My body is sore, my mind is spent… and it's only Monday. I'm screwed.**

**Kenchi out… It's only Monday… *sigh* It's only Monday.**


	23. Headfirst Slide Into the Lobby

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. If anyone reading this does then I have to wonder… what in the sweet hell are you doing reading my shitty fanfiction? Don't you have anything better to do? Go put gas in your airplane you rich motherfucker. This is broke people entertainment.

**Chapter 23: Headfirst Slide Into the Lobby**

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(Water 7 – Blue Station – Aboard the Sea Train)

The conductor of the Sea Train entered the car housing the CP9 members Rob Lucci, Kaku, Blueno, and Kalifa before speaking, "Lucci-san we will be departing a little early, is there any problem that you have with that?"

"No, let's leave." Lucci said firmly without any thought to the contrary, "For five years I've lived on this island. I don't regret leaving this place."

The conductor nodded and left the room, heading to another car as he got on the Den Den Mushi that acted as the speaker system in the train, "This is the Sea Train's last departure for today. We are now leaving Water 7, destination: Enies Lobby." The brakes of the train released as it began to power up, "We are now departing."

XxX

Nami and Nojiko hopped off of the Yagura Bull both girls were riding as it quickly pulled into Blue Station, "Let's go Nami, we're here!"

Nami nodded and looked back at the animal they had ridden to get there, "Thank you Yagura-chan." She said to the Yagura Bull before following her sister who seemed to be in better shape than Nami did from the way Nojiko was running, "Where do we go Nojiko?"

Paulie pulled up on his own ride and quickly answered her, "Take the stairs down to the middle entrance! That's where you want to go!"

Both girls immediately followed his instructions and rushed around the station workers warning them that it was dangerous to be there at the moment before finally making their way to the platform to see the train taking off and leaving Water 7. Nojiko stopped running, catching her breath after the spirited rush that wound up failing in the end, however Nami refused to give up and chased after the train for as long as there was platform to run on, "Robin, get off the train! Wait! Robin We'll fight them for you, you don't have to go!"

The sound of the train easily blotted out her yells for Robin, if they would have gotten through to her anyway. Nami dropped to her knees in sorrow, "Damn it! I was too late."

Nojiko and Paulie walked over, with the shipwright feeling for the girl a bit, "I'm sorry…"

Nojiko looked down the track covered by the ever rising water level, "So now what? There's no way we're getting on that thing now. What are we supposed to do?"

"Hey!" One of the station workers called out, "You're Paulie of the Galley-La company! What in the world are you doing here with wounds like that?"

Nojiko laid her eyes on them and decided to get some information out of them, "What was with the train's early departure? I know we made it here in time. That was not twenty minutes." She said charily.

One of the men nodded, "Yes, well we had finished loading all of the passengers… and this sea storm is going to be incredible. It looks as if the Aqua Laguna is going to come through here any second now. It's dangerous to be here right now."

Paulie nodded and looked at Nojiko resting a hand on Nami's shoulder as she cried at missing her chance to stop Robin, "Hey, I know it's hard to accept but that train is going to Enies Lobby, and once it leaves it can't be stopped." What he said had absolutely no effect on bettering Nami's mood, getting Nojiko to glare at him, "Are you crying? Seriously? Geez…"

Nami suddenly jumped up and shouted, scaring all of the men and even Nojiko with her shift in attitude, "I'm following her! I won't forgive those stupid government officials for strong-arming Robin like this!" She turned to Nojiko, "Nojiko can I borrow your ship to go after her?"

Nojiko shook her head, "I can't. We already sent it in to have it worked on. With what Naruto-kun specified to have done to it, it's in no shape to go anywhere at all until it's completely finished even if we could get it ready to go fast enough."

"What's with you all of a sudden?" Paulie asked the seemingly reinvigorated Nami who ran up to him and grabbed him desperately, "Hey!"

"Lend me a boat!" Nami asked quickly, "A huge, strong boat!"

Paulie however was having none of that argument, "You want to take a boat out in this kind of sea? Don't be stupid girl, you don't even know how strong the Aqua Laguna is!"

Nami shook her head, "It doesn't matter, I'll cross it!"

Paulie yelled right back at her, "These waves are on a completely different scale than anything you could be thinking of! The sea will be extremely rough from here on out, there's no way any boat would make it out of here in that storm! You'll be sailing right to your death!"

"But Robin is throwing her life away for our sake!" Nami replied desperately.

Nojiko had been listening to the argument between her sister and Paulie closely as she stood behind her, however for a flash of a moment she saw everyone standing right there at the time getting swept out to sea. By now she knew not to chalk this feeling of hers up to paranoia and immediately grabbed Nami, pulling her away quickly, "Everybody move!"

Paulie heard the sound of water crashing and immediately followed suit with the two station workers without a single dispute, "Look out! Don't get swept out to sea or you're as good as dead!" Nojiko and Paulie carried the others up the stairs to a higher level as the waves crashed along the lower part of the station, receding back into the rest of the ocean with the ebb and flow of the tide, "That was seriously close…"

Nojiko nodded as everyone looked at what the wave had done to the lower section, "Look at that massive pillar with the times on it." Nojiko said lowly. The solid wooden pillar had been torn apart by the wave, "What kind of freaky storm is this? It happens every year? That would have probably killed us on impact!"

Paulie shook his head, "No, that's never happened before, not even once. And the tide is still approaching with the same force. The velocity of the Aqua Laguna is really abnormal."

Nami pulled on Paulie's sleeve to get his attention, "Hey, will Robin be safe aboard that Sea Train?"

A nod from the blonde shipwright was her answer, "The train should be able to get out of the area just before the surge hits. It would have to be hit directly to do any damage. Normally the surge will just pass it by."

"Hey! Is one of you Nami?" A Galley-La worker yelled as he ran down the steps towards everyone with a note in his hand, "There was this letter just sitting in the station square, it must be from one of your friends."

Nami raised an eyebrow at the man, "A letter? How did you find something that small?" The man motioned for her to follow him, thus she and Nojiko did so and had to facepalm at what they were shown, "Idiot…"

The wall had been painted with a specific message surrounded by hearts and an arrow pointing to the ground where the letter was found.

_Nami-san, read this!_

…_People who aren't Nami don't read it. You're idiots._

Nojiko shook her head at the gaudy message as Nami opened up the letter, "So what does it say?"

Nami read it with a dry look on her face, "Well the vast majority of the whole thing is a love letter… so I'm skipping that. Anything important would be at the bottom."

_P.S. – At 11 o'clock I had confirmed that Robin-chan is on the Sea Train. Naruto and I have decided to board it._

"Eh? Sanji and Naruto-kun got on the train before it left! And Usopp too, and I think that Franky guy from before as well!"

Another of the workers reached into his pocket, "Here." He handed over a small communication snail, "There was also a small Den Den Mushi with the letter as well."

Nami continued to read where she left off.

_There should be more than one Den Den Mushi on board the Sea Train so will contact you soon. I hope that you will carry this Den Den Mushi with you and think of your beloved Sanji…_

That was where the letter cut off with a violent skid on the paper dragging down. Sanji probably was speaking out loud as he wrote the letter and Naruto cracked him one for whatever it was he was about to write next.

_We've got this one handled Nami-chan! Me and Chef-boy will have this one handled in no time!_

That portion of the letter ended with a chibi-Naruto head grinning and a thumbs up drawn in next to it. Nami folded the letter up with a new look of determination on her face, "Sanji and Naruto-kun are with Robin right now! We should get going too! We'll find a way to get to Enies Lobby without fail!"

XxX

Elsewhere in Water 7, Chopper, accompanied by multiple Galley-La workers as well as Johnny, Yosaku, and Miss Valentine searched all over the city for wherever Zoro and Luffy had landed after their defeat at the hands of the CP9 members that had left with Nico Robin, "Luffy! Zoro! Where are you both?"

Yosaku was helping the little reindeer call out for his misplaced crewmates as Johnny kept his eyes peeled for any sign of either of the two. Either a straw hat somewhere, or moss green hair. Something that would give them a clue of where either of them were, "Man, where the hell are they? You said they were thrown out of the mansion? How fucking far did they fly?"

Soren frowned as he got sick of riding in the Yagura Bull alongside one of the Galley-La workers, "You guys can handle this. I'm going to go get Muret and the princess and tell them what we're doing." He jumped up and grabbed a hold of a nearby building with his acid allowing him to dig a handhold into the wall and climb up.

Yosaku started freaking out, "What are you doing you maniac? If you fall into this water you're going to die!"

Soren turned back and grinned at him, "Then I guess I'll just have to keep from falling won't I? I'll find you guys later! Get Straw Hat and Samurai-Boy and I'll catch up!"

XxX

(Aboard the Sea Train – Back of 7th Train Car – Out in the Open Ocean)

Sanji was holding himself and shivering in the back of the train, outside in the middle of the powerful storm with a drenched and limp cigarette in his mouth, "I'm totally drenched out here… I can't even fucking smoke."

"Stop complaining." Naruto said, a hood on his sage coat pulled down over his head, "Put it in the back of your mind. We're here now and that's half of the battle. Now all we have to do is find her."

Sanji nodded and looked at the train that was barreling through the water, "So how are we supposed to be sneaking in here anyway?" He looked over at Naruto, "Can't you just break the lock and get in or something?"

Naruto gave him a deadpan look, "Breaking the lock isn't exactly stealthy Sanji. Just wait. We'll get a break or come up with something good."

Sanji started snapping at Naruto about how he had a nice toasty jacket with a hood and how he himself was exposed to the elements. Naruto however, wasn't listening to a word of the perturbed chef's rant as he was alone with his own thoughts at the moment, 'Come on now Robin-chan… what did I tell you already?'

_(Flashback – Alabasta – Two Days After Crocodile's Defeat)_

_Naruto had heard all about the battles that the Straw Hat crew and his own crew had taken part in during the rebellion with the Baroque Works members and had visited the sites of each conflict to get a feel for how the fights went, almost as if he could see the battles in astral projection form._

_Right now he had worked his way to the ruins outside of the city of Alubarna where Chopper and Usopp had fought Mr. 4 and Miss Merry Christmas. He looked around and saw multiple groundhog holes in the ground. He could almost see the fighting style of the female agent, digging through the ground to launch attacks at Chopper and Usopp._

_As he continued to look around he stopped moving about as he caught sight of something that he couldn't chalk up to being a mere figment of his imagination, "Well I know you aren't a hallucination… because you are completely out of place here. Hello Robin-chan."_

_Robin had a rather sly smile on her face as she sauntered across the sands to Naruto, "Hello Mr. Uzumaki. What are you doing all the way out here away from your crew and the Straw Hats?" She shook her head as she got close to him, "I guess it doesn't matter since if they were here I doubt I would get this chance to talk to you."_

"_Ah…" Naruto said in understanding as he grinned at her, "You're here to thank me are you? For helping you out when Crocodile turned on you and tried to kill you? It was no problem at all. I always like helping out people that need it, especially pretty girls."_

"_I didn't want to survive that Mr. Uzumaki." Robin said, getting a surprised look out of Naruto, "I've been running and running ever since I was a little girl. I'm used to being betrayed and watching entire groups and organizations fall around me, usually just for my involvement in them." She looked up into the sky with her usual smile on her face, "You should have just let me be killed."_

"_Don't say that." Naruto said, almost angry at how she spoke of herself, "And don't you ever smile around me like that. It's completely fake." Before Robin could open her mouth and defend herself he cut her off, "I know… Don't ask me why I know, and I won't ask you why you think that way about yourself. It's obvious that you don't want to tell me."_

_Robin frowned at him, "I don't like talking about my childhood to others. Even me telling you what my real name was when I did was a major leap for me. Do you know who I am? What they said I've done?" Naruto shook his head and Robin let out a bitter laugh, "I'm supposed to be the 'Demon Child of Ohara', the girl that racked up a 79 million beli bounty when I was just 8 by destroying some of the most powerful parts of the Marines by myself. I'm surprised you don't know who I am. Your bald crewmate knew."_

"_Did he attack you?" Naruto asked, getting a shake of the head from Robin, "Good, but you don't seem like any kind of monster to me Robin-chan. You're telling me that you've basically been all on your own since you were eight?"_

_Robin nodded and looked down, "Every time I thought someone was going to help me, or whenever I thought that I had gotten away I was always betrayed. I'm surprised you aren't trying to take me out now and collect my bounty."_

_Naruto gave her a deadpan look, "Yo… 55 million beli bounty right here. Like I would really try turning you in even if I was like that." Naruto walked a little bit closer to her and before lifting his hand up. Robin narrowed her eyes and stepped back, getting Naruto to stop moving towards her as a hand formed on his chest and held his arm in place, "I'm not going to hurt you. I swear. Please trust me. You're way more like me than you know."_

"_I can't trust you…" Robin said to him firmly._

_Naruto shook his head, "Yes you can. But I can't make you trust me." A small smile came to his face, "Yet. But I'm going to get you to trust me eventually Nico Robin. I refuse to have such a beautiful creature like you be so mistrustful so how about this? You can leave now, I'm not going to tell anyone you were here, and you can do whatever you would like. I'm not going to stop you because I have a feeling we'll meet again, and when we do I hope you'll have a little more trust in me and others."_

_She raised an eyebrow at him, "What makes you so sure we'll meet again?"_

_Naruto smirked, "Well It's clearly not because I placed a marker of some sort on you that will let me come to your location at any time at a mere whim." Robin began looking around on her person for the mark that he was talking about, so surprised by his comment that the Hana Hana no Mi arm that had been extended from Naruto's chest vanished. Naruto immediately began laughing so hard tears came to his eyes, "Oh man that was good… I can't do that… yet. I'm just playing with you. I just think we'll meet again." He said as he wiped the tears away from his eyes, "I like girls like-." He took his hands away from his eyes to find that Robin had vanished, "-You…" He chuckled a bit, "That's my kind of woman… one that can disappear on you in the blink of an eye."_

_There wasn't a trace of her presence anywhere. Even her footprints in the sand had vanished with the blowing of the wind. Naruto looked around for a moment trying to pick up any trace of her before blowing a kiss into the air, "Until the next time then Robin-chan…" He reached into his coat and pulled out a Hiraishin kunai, "And I didn't even get a chance to give her this." He placed it back in his pocket, "Oh well, I'll give it to her when I see her again."_

(End Flashback)

"Oh man, this storm is really cooking out here."

A voice from inside of the train knocked Naruto back to reality as the back door opened and one of the government agents stepped out between them both, much to both Naruto and Sanji's infinite amusement, especially when he finally noticed that they were there.

"Korie Shuuto (Collier Shoot)!"

"Dynamic Entry!"

Sanji and Naruto both kicked the hapless man, one of them hitting him in the neck, the other in the face. The kicks sent him flying into the train car, alerting all of the agents inside to their combined presence, prompting the men inside to stand up and take aim at the two blondes with their firearms, "Who the hell are you two assholes?"

Naruto looked at the men in the room and stopped trying to count them, instead choosing to yell angrily at his and Sanji's odds, "How the hell did they fit so many of these guys in the same car? Kami, they're like sardines in here!"

"I saw those kicks!" The same agent shouted accusingly, "There's no way you two are civilians!"

Naruto grinned and bit his thumb, "Hey Sanji, they don't know who we are, but they seem to think we're special apparently."

Sanji was finally able to light a cigarette and wipe the rainwater from his head, "Well if those are their honest feelings… hm, this is rather awkward." He said casually.

"It isn't praise!" The man yelled at the two men who didn't seem to care less that they were stuck in a room full of hostile government agents on edge, "Don't make fun of us! Hey, someone go and report this to Lucci-san at once! Tell them of these two suspicious characters immediately."

"Wait." Another of the agents said calmly, "This isn't the type of thing that should concern CP9."

Another man picked up speaking as Sanji continued taking drags of his cigarette and Naruto yawned and picked his ear, "*cough* No matter how unorthodox and suspicious these two are don't be afraid, because in this car I'm here to keep watch." A very tall man standing behind Naruto and Sanji with his legs framing both sides of the door they entered through looked down on them as he bent over and looked down on them. He had white hair and a white beard and was coughing due to the smoke from Sanji's cigarette rising directly into his face, "*cough* I am the boxing champion of South Blue's Karate Island."

"Jerry!" The other agents on the train car called out in acknowledgement of the man's name.

"Karate Island huh?" Sanji said before looking to Naruto who simply shrugged, "So do some Karate." He said absently getting gasps of shock from the other agents in the car.

The man grit his teeth and began launching rapid punches at the two blondes with his hands, covered with boxing gloves. However Naruto and Sanji simply moved out of the way and dodged him through his legs, getting behind him. All that Jerry hit with his punches were other agents that were in the way, "They escaped…" He looked between his legs at the two men behind his standing on the chairs, "Youngsters I'm saying this because I'm a big man. If you think I'm at a disadvantage in this small car you're mistaken."

Sanji didn't seem too concerned at all, "This is the first time that I've ever been warned by someone while between their thighs."

Naruto grinned over at his fellow blonde, "Well then my friend, you have yet to truly live." Sanji caught Naruto's allusion and grinned lecherously at his implication, "Yeah… you know what I'm talking about."

Jerry growled at being ignored by the two, "My boxing has the advantage in such a small space! This is Yoga Style!" He sat down and crossed his legs behind his head and began throwing punches that unfortunately hampered the reach of his attacks due to his legs being in the way, "Yoga 1-2! 1-2!"

Naruto palmed his face and Sanji yelled at the man, "Your reach just got shorter you idiot!"

Jerry narrowed his eyes, "Is that so?" He launched himself at Sanji in a twisting motion, "Screw Drop Kick!"

Sanji just yelled at him again, "The fight just started and you're already ignoring the rules of boxing!" He sighed and blew out more smoke, "This is a waste of my time." He jumped over the screw drop kick, "Brochette (Skewer)!" He spun around like a screw and drove one leg right into Jerry's face, defeating him immediately.

The remaining agents in the car looked at Sanji in pure fear as he stood up and dusted his pants off indifferently, walking over to Naruto who had his arm outstretched. Sanji slapped his open palm and walked past him to take a seat and enjoy his cigarette, "Tag."

Naruto grinned darkly and cracked his knuckles, radiating killing intent at the petrified remaining generic agents, "Now who doesn't need to call for CP9 or whatever you call them?"

XxX

(Water 7)

It hadn't taken very long for Soren to find Vivi and Muret and link back up with all of the others, plus Nami, Nojiko, and Paulie who had found them after coming from Blue Station to assist in finding Luffy and Zoro, "Where are they at?" Miss Valentine asked in exasperation, "We're never going to catch up to Naruto and Sanji at this rate… How hard could it be to find them?" She looked at Nami, "You're sure that this is the direction that they flew in right?"

Nami nodded as everyone else kept calling out to the two missing pirates, "Absolutely. I definitely saw them fly this way. Now where are those supplies I asked for? We're really going to need them to find Zoro and Luffy!"

Chopper was in his Walk Point with a concerned look on his face, "This is bad. Even when it's normal my nose doesn't work well in windy places, and now it's raining too."

Vivi looked at the blonde cook of the ship she inhabited, "Miss Valentine why don't you float up and check from the sky?"

Miss Valentine shook her head, not a single laugh came from her at the prospect of doing such, "I'll just be blown away far from here. You can feel this wind don't you? I had to increase my natural weight a bit just to make sure I don't lose my footing."

Nojiko was atop the roofs with her scoped rifle out in order to search for either Luffy or Zoro as she scanned the lower levels of Water 7 alongside Soren to keep her from falling due to the wind. She gasped at a certain sight she got in her sights, "Um Soren… If the water recedes like all the way what does that mean?"

Soren paled, "That means that we're screwed… because the water's going to come back in a big ass wave Nojiko. He looked around the lower level of the city and sighed in relief, "We should be decently safe all the way up here though."

"And of course as luck would have it we wouldn't be able to stay up here…" Nojiko said to him with an annoyed look on her face as she found the Straw Hat captain in rather dire straits, "…Because Luffy is stuck down there between a building. Hey Nami!" She yelled down to her sister, "Follow me to get to Luffy!" She motioned to Soren, "Take me down there please."

Soren rolled his eyes and picked her up piggyback style, "Yes Mistress Nojiko." He said getting a light slap on the back of his shoulder as he took off running on the rooftops before jumping down to a lower lever, sliding down the wall with his acid nails to slow the decent, "What? I have a very good chance at drowning once those waves come back. I can afford to be snippy with you." He let Nojiko off of his back as they both ran along the rooftops to reach Luffy.

Nami tried to match Nojiko and Soren's pace as she ran down the large set of steps while the Galley-La workers yelled after them to come back before the wave hit. She jumped from the stairs to a roof and ran along them much like Nojiko and Soren were doing.

Meanwhile, the workers and the remaining members of the more or less allied pirate crews watched them head for Luffy. Vivi looked at the other buildings on the lower level and saw a pair of legs in black pants sticking out of a chimney, "Look! Legs!"

Muret looked over as well trying her hardest to see what Vivi was talking about and pointed when she did, "Yeah, and is that a sash? Who is that?"

"Zoro/Zoro-aniki!" Chopper, Johnny and Yosaku took off to help free the swordsman from his trapped position as well, heading down to the lower level like Nami, Nojiko, and Soren, "We'll get you out!" They yelled as they hightailed it over to his building, Chopper transforming into his Heavy Point form and grabbing a hold of Zoro's legs.

Chopper was trying in vain to pull Zoro out of the chimney, "Ow! You're going to pull me apart Chopper!"

Chopper let go of his legs in his human form and began to panic, "The wave is coming! How are we going to get him out of here?"

Yosaku grabbed Kubikiribouchou from his back and moved Chopper away, "I wonder how deep down in the chimney he is… Oh well. We're going to find out."

"What are you going to do?" Johnny asked as his oldest friend drew his massive cleaver blade back with intent to swing, "That's not going to get him out of there you know."

Chopper looked at Yosaku, who was measuring his shot at the chimney, with a measure of fear as the swordsman spoke nonchalantly, "Yeah, but Chopper here can carry him back to the upper level and we can get him out like one of those finger-trap puzzle things. Now both of you get out of the way."

"Wait!" Zoro said nervously, "What the hell is about to happen?"

"Nothing much Zoro-aniki! Just hold still! Kubikiri Iktou (Decapitating Single Stroke)!" Yosaku swung the massive sword and cut clean through the roof of the building and part of the chimney, cutting it off. Chopper quickly grabbed it before it could slide off and fall to the ground, "Yes! I'm just as awesome as I thought I was!" He said, absently slashing at the chimney again, freeing Zoro with the second vertical stroke.

"Where the hell did you get that thing?" Zoro asked once he got an eye full of Kubikiribouchou, until he was thrown over Chopper's shoulder as he ran away, "Wait! I need to get a closer look! Chopper get off of me!" Yosaku laughed and hooked the blade back up on his back before leaving as well.

"Jerk…" Johnny said, "I wish I had an awesome, super-cool sword like that." He quickly followed Chopper who was leaving the lower levels with Zoro in tow alongside Yosaku.

XxX

(With Soren, Nojiko, and Nami)

Nami stopped as a massive gap separated herself and the others from Luffy who was caught firmly between two massive buildings, "This is no good. I can't go any further than this and he's stuck." She grit her teeth and began yelling, "Luffy! What are you doing up there you moron?"

Nojiko tapped Soren on the shoulder, "Can you reach him from here?"

Soren looked at the distance and shook his head, "With this distance and this wind I would miss him entirely. The wind would just blow it away before it hit the building."

"Nami?" Luffy said in a muffled voice due to his rubber body being squished by the buildings, "Is that you? Jeez, listen to me… That pigeon guy threw me and so I flew and got stuck in this convenient spot." He said sarcastically.

"Don't try joking at a time like this!" Nami yelled over the storm to him as tears gathered in her eyes, "While you were stuck down here Robin was taken away! For all of our sakes, Robin, she's going to sacrifice her life!"

Nojiko and Soren looked at her in shock, "What? Nami what are you talking about?"

Nami began to cry as she explained, "Robin sacrificed herself for us! She protected us from being attacked by the World Government! Even though she knew she might be killed!"

"So Robin was lying after all!" Luffy yelled in realization, "Thank goodness!"

Soren looked rather fearfully at the ocean as the massive wave of the Aqua Laguna was getting closer and closer, "We are screwed! Come on already Straw Hat! If you're going to do something now would be the time!" In response, the buildings that Luffy had been trapped between started creaking, "What the hell?"

After a moment, the buildings collapsed as Luffy actually pushed them apart with brute force, "Come on Nami, let's go!" He reached out and wrapped an arm around her and used his other hand to grab a tall building a distance away, allowing them to slingshot to safety.

"That's our cue!" Soren scooped Nojiko back up piggyback and ran towards the wall, grabbing it once more with his acid claw fingers and climbing swiftly and getting them to the upper level just before the waves hit the wall with crushing force, "Man… I need a cold beer and a burger." Soren said, sprawling out on the ground next to all of the others that had made it back to the safe part of the stairs once he and Nojiko were safe.

Nojiko gave him a pat on the back for his trouble and a grateful smile, "Thank you Soren." The waves then hit the stairs with intense force, cracking off a segment and pulling them into the water, "Damn!"

Before they could fall into the water, they were grabbed by ropes that wrapped tightly around them that kept them safe, "Safe!" Luffy shouted before the section of stairs they were on started crumbling too, "Um, nevermind! Run!"

They all got up and hightailed it away from the powerful waters of the Aqua Laguna, narrowly avoiding the water dragging them all back into the ocean. Soren turned around once they were absolutely sure that they weren't going to be getting any more nasty surprises from the storm and laughed maniacally while flipping off the sea with both hands, "Fuck you nature! I rule you with an iron fist! You can take your freaky, super-strong storms and you can kiss my ass because I ain't getting taken out by a little baby flash flood!"

"Is he alright?" Chopper asked the others as Zoro tried to pry the frightened little reindeer who had transformed back into Brain Point from his face, "I'm not really a mental doctor so I can't tell."

Luffy huffed and puffed in exhaustion, "Thanks for all of the help rope-guy. We needed it back there."

"You're all insane!" Paulie yelled at them as he caught his own breath.

Nami was holding her chest as her heart was still beating rapidly, "That was so terrifying. That was Aqua Laguna?"

Nojiko was checking all of her guns to make sure none of them were waterlogged as her eyebrow twitched in seething anger, "I'm saying this once… I haven't complained once about this fucking place since Naruto-kun made us take the Calm Belt, but it needs to be said right now. I hate, hate, _hate_, fucking hate! I fucking hate the goddamn Grand Line! I hate this place! All of the weird people and weird shit that tries to kill us every single day! I hate this place!" She screamed at the top of her lungs before taking a series of deep calming breaths and standing back up, "Okay… I'm good now."

Johnny slapped the side of his head to get the water out of his ears, "Was that your obligated mental breakdown into Crazytown Nojiko-aneue? It took you long enough."

"I am not crazy Johnny." Nojiko asserted firmly, "It needed to be said. That's all."

"The storm isn't like that every year." Paulie explained to the others, "If it were, the island would be gone by now. It's abnormally strong this year."

Luffy stood up and looked down at Paulie, "Hey rope-guy. Give us a boat to borrow. Your strongest, fastest ship. We need to go after Robin."

Paulie stood up himself and yelled at Luffy, "Are you all brain-dead or something? You just saw the storm! Nothing could sail through the _normal_ Aqua Laguna. Even if we give you the biggest ship we have it'll still be torn to pieces against these monster waves! I'm not giving you a ship so you can die out there!" He sighed, relenting at losing his cool, "I'll give you a ship in the morning. For now everyone to the shelters, the search is over."

"Won't that be too late?" Nami asked, concerned, "I know what kind of place Enies Lobby is. Isn't that where the Gate of Justice is?"

Luffy blinked in confusion, "What's that?"

Nojiko shivered as she had a flashback, "Ugh… don't remind me. Naruto-kun was about to make us try and go through one just to get around faster…" She looked at Luffy, "Enies Lobby is the judicial island of the World Government. But no one taken there ever really comes back. Once a criminal goes through the Gate of Justice they don't come back."

Nami nodded and continued, "There are only two places you can go from there. The 'Heart of Justice' Marineford, and the island filled to the brim with the most dangerous criminals in the entire world, the great prison of the seas, Impel Down." Soren shivered at the mention of the place, "But there isn't going to be a trial, it's a judicial island in name alone! Robin is a criminal and no matter what they're not going to let her go! So how can we possibly wait until morning?"

"Are you done?" Paulie said after Nami was through yelling, "Because even if the sea calms for long enough you still shouldn't go there. You're all pirates yourselves! Enies Lobby is the front door to the government, do you plan to go there all alone and wage war right under the World Government's nose?" The rest of the gathered Galley-La workers started voicing their opinions, roughly coinciding with Paulie's doubt of their ability to go and survive.

"Well in that case…" Luffy said lowly before getting into a fighting stance against all of them, "We'll just take one by force! We're leaving now! We have friends waiting for us out there! Don't try getting in our way!" Before Luffy and all of the others could begin fighting with Paulie and the workers, a voice called out.

"Hold it right there!" An old woman in a conductor's outfit said, stopping them all, "Paulie's right 'Straw Hat', you're not thinking straight. If we let you go like this you'll die before you even get close to the island. If anything can survive Aqua Laguna it's the legendary Sea Train."

Miss Valentine had her umbrella out to block the rainfall from coming down on her as she placed a hand on her hip, "Well what exactly can we even do about that? We only have the option of using a ship. The train left already."

The old woman turned and began walking away, "Follow me and I'll start the Sea Train for you."

XxX

(With Naruto and Sanji – Inside 6th Train Car)

Sanji finished knocking out the last of the agents stationed in that car with a single spinning kick to the neck, "Collier Frit (Fried Neck)!" The force of the kick knocked the poor victim up through the roof of the car, leaving his head sticking out in the storm.

Usopp looked at the two in shock, "Sanji! Naruto! What are you two doing on the train?"

Naruto, done beating up agents to his heart's content, noticed Usopp and waved gleefully at him while Sanji spared him a cool glance, "Actually, that's what I'd ask you but I don't know your name." He said, lying terribly. Something blatant to Usopp who simply looked at him dryly from his tied up position, "Woo, there's a few Den Den Mushi in here. I guess this place doubles as the communications room. I can finally contact Nami-san!"

A man beside Usopp with a blue pompadourish haircut that looked around seven feet tall, even completely tied up, his body completely bound, wriggled in his bonds, "The guys from before mostly had useless crap like costumes and masks."

Naruto looked at the snails meant for communication and grabbed one, placing it in one of his inside pockets, "I'm taking one of these things." He said, patting his pocket with a smile on his face.

"Where did you fit that?" Usopp asked, as there wasn't even a bulge in his coat pocket from putting the Den Den Mushi the size of his head in there.

Naruto looked at him and blinked, "Um… Hammer space?" No need to tell him that his pockets were lined with storage seals where he kept his weapons and other things. No need at all.

Franky looked at all of them suspiciously, "So you're all pirate comrades?"

"Were." Usopp and Sanji said simultaneously before the chef added something else, "Who the hell are you?" He said to Franky.

Naruto pointed at himself, "I'm a friend of both of these idiots. But I have to agree with Sanji, who the hell are you?"

"I'm the hidden boss of Water 7." The man said, "Franky."

He was then flattened by a kick from Sanji and a punch from Naruto, "You bastard!" Sanji said angrily, "You sure did a number on our long-nose buddy back then!"

Usopp tried coming to Franky's defense but was tied up, "Hey! Hey! Wait a minute! A lot's happened since then!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "It was yesterday. What could have possibly happened?"

"He saved Going Merry!" Usopp explained before he remembered something, "Oh man… Merry."

Franky looked over at the dejected sniper, "Hey don't get all depressed. Now isn't the time. Could one of you please just get me out of this?"

"Why would I do that?" Sanji yelled at him, "You should stay that way until you rot for stealing all of our money like that!" They began to argue, alarming Naruto and Usopp who could both tell how loud they were.

"Guys calm down!" Usopp said fearfully, "If you don't hurry up and stop it we'll be caught here!" He was silenced when he was suddenly cut loose by Naruto, as was Franky as they were both picked up seemingly effortlessly by Naruto.

"Naruto what are you doing?" Sanji yelled at Naruto before he found himself picked up by one of Naruto's Kage Bunshin who then followed its creator out of the car and onto the roof just as a group of Marines came into the room.

Naruto looked at Sanji intently as his clone dispelled and all of the others held on tight to the train car, Naruto sticking with his chakra in a crouch, "Call Nami and tell her what's going on."

Sanji nodded and called her up on the Den Den Mushi, "Nami-san? Nami? Can you hear me? Because of two idiots here with us the situation is getting kind of heated out here."

"Hi Nami-chan!" Naruto yelled gleefully, "We're fine, Sanji's just getting all dramatic."

Sanji waited for a moment as she spoke, "I see… So that's why she went with them. To protect us." Hearing Nami explain that Robin went with the government to protect the Straw Hats brought something of a small smile to Naruto's face before Sanji started speaking again, "Robin is still with them though." He waited again and smirked, "Right to the point aren't you Luffy? Fine, we'll kick their asses."

Naruto stood straight up in the midst of the storm, ignoring the wind and the water, "Fine then. I don't have a problem with that. Let's go."

Franky smirked, "Well I guess I'll help you too. If the World Government has a problem with Nico Robin then it's my problem as well. After all, I'm stuck in this too. And after that moving story…" He trailed off starting to cry. And Naruto and Sanji had to fight off the heebie-jeebies because there was something wrong with watching a grown man in a speedo and a Hawaiian shirt cry, "Come on long-nose guy. Let's go."

"I'm not going." Usopp said, "It's got nothing to do with me. You guys will be fighting directly with the World Government and you're going to meet up with Luffy right? Besides, you guys have Naruto here. He could probably do this all by himself."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "Well… mayb- yeah… Yeah I could."

Usopp continued speaking, "After saying the things that I did in front of everyone I couldn't possibly rejoin you guys! I'm grateful to Robin, but it's not my duty to save her!" He started walking back away from them all on the top of the cars, "Goodbye."

Sanji turned away from Usopp, "Fine. Forget it then."

Naruto nodded and raised an eyebrow, "Where is he going to go? We're stuck on the train." He turned to the side of the car where a Marine was poking his head through the window looking right at them, "Crap."

The man was suddenly hit in the side of the head with a small projectile, "He told me everything!" A figure said from a ways down the train, "I heard you were on your way to assist a defenseless girl, so I'll help you for free! My name is Sogeking!" It was Usopp in a masquerade mask and cape.

Naruto, Sanji, and Franky looked at him as if he were insane as he began to sing some strange superhero theme song. Naruto pointed dully at him, "What in the hell happened to him? Did he land on his head when he was leaving?" He shook off the thought, "Meh, who cares? Oi! Get over here already so we can do this!" He yelled, getting Usopp/Sogeking over to the others, "Now check it out. I have no idea which car Robin-chan is on, but we still have five more to search… and then when we get here there are going to be a ton of people we'll have to fight."

He lightly tapped the top of the car, "These things are narrow and it's kind of hard to maneuver in them, so we should avoid fights with all of the chumps and worry about the ones that could actually be some trouble."

Sanji smiled, "I think I have a plan. I heard them talking about the seventh car."

"So?" Naruto said questioningly. Sanji held up a finger telling him to wait a moment and dragged Usopp off with him to go through with his plan. After a moment, Naruto heard the sounds of troops inside charging towards the back car, and then shortly after that he heard the sounds of a distant car detach from the rest of the train, and then the one he was standing on, forcing him to jump off to the next one. At that point he heard the sounds of fighting inside of the car he was on and he jumped straight inside of it to find the agents there already beaten, "What did you guys do?"

Sanji shrugged, "A lot of things. Come on, we only have a few more cars left." Naruto sighed at being left out of the loop and sadly followed them into the next car where they were immediately greeted with someone in a kitchen section of the train.

A man with fluffy white hair, buckteeth, a yellow scarf, an unbuttoned black shirt, black pants, and roller skates was pushing a cart of food… while he ran on the walls and ceiling yelling his name repeatedly. Naruto's eye twitched, "How is he doing that without chakra?" He then started sniffing the air as if he had pinpointed a long-lost scent, "Wait a minute, I know what that smell is."

The man stopped in front of them with a stupid smile on his face, "Hey guys! I'm Wanze! Since I'm the head chef I can make you anything. You want some ramen?" He asked.

Naruto's face went blank, 'What? Did I get hit in the head or something, or did this guy just say that he had ramen?

"Then ramen you shall have!" Wanze said excitedly, "But before that I've got a bit of something I want you to know first."

Naruto finally got back to reality after punching himself in the face hard enough that he had to reset his nose, freaking out Sanji, Franky, and Usopp. Realizing that nothing had changed, Naruto immediately ran to the cart and dropped to his knees with a massive grin on his face, "Yes! Yes! Whatever you want to say as long as I get some ramen! It's been over seven months! You're my hero!"

Wanze smiled at Naruto, "It's my nose hairs!" He put a wad of dough in his mouth and spoke, "First I put the wheat flour in my mouth, then I kneed it well!" He said while chewing it before straining hard as he forced it out of his nose in noodle form into a bowl, pouring boiling water in it as well. The look on Naruto's face fell faster than a stone from the sky, "Well go on, dig in!"

Naruto stood straight up with the blankest look on his face before it morphed into one of pure anger, "You son of a bitch! I'll kill you!" Naruto had to be held back by all three of them, had Franky not been there they wouldn't have been able to do it at all, "How dare you! I go for the better part of a year without ramen and then you do this… this… this… I don't know what to say about what you just did!"

Sanji strained to assist in holding his fellow blonde back, "God… he's like a bull! Sorry Wanze, but we're kind of in a hurry so we'll have to go, we're keeping someone waiting! Calm down Naruto it's just ramen! We still have to save Robin-chan, remember!"

Naruto was still raging, "There's no such thing as _just _ramen Sanji! Let me go! He has to suffer! I'll Rasenshuriken his ass back to the stone age!" Naruto finally stopped to everyone else's relief and pointed at Wanze with a shaky arm, "_You_… are not getting off that easily. We're gonna come back through here, and I'm going to tear your ass apart. But right now we've got something…" He strained to say the next words, "More… important… than ramen to take care of."

"Wait!" Wanze said, "If you want to go through this car you have to get through me!" And that was all he needed to say as he found a fist in his face from Naruto who was all too eager for an excuse to go right through him to get to the next car.

Naruto had an evil grin on his face, "I was _so_ hoping you'd say that." He watched Wanze get back up with a bloody lip from taking the punch, "I'm going to savor this beatdown more than I have any other in a long, long time." His face darkened, "No one does that to ramen… you barbarians… first of all it took me forever to find some ramen, and then I see this guy here pulling it out of his nose. It makes me want to puke."

Wiping the blood from his nose, Wanze's smile never left his face, despite being punched in the face not twenty seconds prior, "I'm here for just this kind of situation. If you want to get past me and free the prisoners you'll have to defeat my Ramen Kenpo first."

"Gladly." Naruto said before turning to the others, "Stay out of this. This is between me and this guy. A battle for the sanctity and honor of ramen. This is by and large one of the top three most important fights I've ever had."

Sanji rolled his eyes, "I don't see what's so great about noodles and water." He balked at the killing intent from Naruto and backed away, "I mean, go get him Naruto. You can't let him treat ramen that way!"

"Such a scary feeling!" Wanze said as he looked at Naruto. He sounded sincere, but with the never-changing stupid look on his face it sure didn't look like he had meant it.

Naruto's eye twitched. It _was _scary. It was killing intent, it was supposed to be scary, "All of you go to the next car so I can freely kick his ass all over the place."

"I won't let you~~!" Wanze said in a sing-song voice as he put more dough into his mouth and covered one nosehole, "Ramen Beam!" He started shooting rapid needles of sharpened ramen at Naruto and the others who all dodged.

"This is just pissing me off more and more!" Naruto yelled as he kept out of the line of fire.

Sanji did the same, "Would you believe that it's making me mad too? This guy's no real chef!"

Naruto pulled out a kunai and channeled wind chakra to it so that it would cut through Wanze's rapid fire attack, "Stop doing that already!" He said as he threw it, forcing Wanze to stop shooting as he had to dodge.

Usopp and Franky moved towards the window, "We'll go to the next one from the top."

Naruto nodded and looked at Sanji who was still standing there, "Well? Aren't you going to go too?"

Sanji shook his head, "No way. This guy gives chefs a bad name. If you're going to stay and fight him over your ramen I'm going to stay over the occupation he's making a mockery of."

"Fine." Naruto said as he threw a kick at Wanze who backflipped away and stuck to the wall, "Stop dodging and take your asskicking like a man! And how the hell are you sticking to the wall? Only I can do that!"

"Take this!" Wanze yelled, "Men-Kiri (Ramen Cutting)!" His bladed skates caught on fire as he jumped off of the wall and threw a flaming kick at Naruto who growled at the slow attack and grabbed him by the ankle, slamming him repeatedly to the left and right into the dishes and the stoves and the like before throwing him away. Wanze showed some durability by standing back up even though he was bleeding from the nose and mouth, "You blocked my attack with one arm and threw me all over the car! Are you secretly super-strong?"

Naruto looked and Sanji and back at Wanze, "Well it's not really a secret. Everyone knows that I'm strong. I'm Uzumaki Naruto."

"Uzumaki Naruto?" Wanze said before his eyes widened. He was about to yell in horror until he stopped himself, "Yeah right. You're not Uzumaki Naruto. The real Uzumaki Naruto would have ripped this train from the tracks by now. He controls the oceans you know."

Naruto got an angry look from Sanji when he remembered that Naruto _could_ do stuff like that, "What the hell! That's right you asshole, you could have done that this entire time!"

Naruto yelled right back at him, "Oi! And then what exactly would we do? Do you know how to swim in the shitstorm going on out there? I can't walk on that! And if I knocked the train off of the tracks then Robin-chan would drown! She can't swim in _normal_ seawater with the Devil Fruit powers you moron!"

While Naruto and Sanji took turns screaming at each other and the attention was off of him, Wanze pulled mounds and mounds of ramen together around his body, finally coming up with ramen battle armor, "Now it's time for my awesome, edible battle suit! Ramen Kenpou Ougi: Men Seisou (Ramen Kenpo Ultimate Technique: Ramen Formal Suit)!"

Sanji shook his head, "How can he disgrace food like that?"

Naruto's eyes lit up in glee, "It's alright as long as he still eats it Sanji! Gah! That's so awesome!" He thought about walking around in his own personalized ramen-clothing before he remembered where the ramen came from, "Wait, that's still gross though! Give me the real, formal recipe for ramen so my sweet Valentine can make it for me and I won't beat you ugly! Otherwise kiss your noodle-booger picking ass goodbye!"

Wanze simply laughed, "You can't touch me now! In this suit my speed, strength, and special attacks are all drastically improved!"

Sanji scratched his head and spoke in a puzzled tone, "How?"

Naruto gave Sanji a lecturing look, "Ramen is magical Sanji. Don't ask how, that's not the right question."

"Very true brother!" Wanze said, ignoring Naruto's righteously angered cry of, 'I'm not your damn brother, dattebayo!' and Sanji's laughter at it, "Now take this! Tonkotsu Tataku (Tonkotsu Spank)!" He threw a straight punch at Sanji who simply sneered at it.

The cook blocked the kick with his foot, "What's with this? All you did was get bigger. Your punches are still as weak as hell." He then found himself stuck to the ramen arm and wound up eating an actual punch from the insane cook.

"Surprised by my Ramen Kenpo are you?" Wanze asked while laughing, "Now I'm going to get you two back for earlier." He spoke before Sanji's body disappeared in a puff of smoke and was replaced by an extremely large pot, "Huh?"

Naruto was behind Wanze, having used Kawarimi to free Sanji from the noodled grip of Wanze and was dusting the cook off. Wanze jumped at both of them with his entire body, "Men Tamashi o Oshimasu (Ramen Soul Press)!"

Naruto looked at the mass of ramen in armored form flying at him and had flashbacks to the dreams of a similar nature in his youth as he jumped right towards it, arms wide open and intent on living out at least one longstanding dream of years past. He was about to open his mouth to take a huge bite before once again he realized exactly where this ramen had been and what it had been doing, "*gasp* You bastard! How dare you do this to ram-!" He was cut off as he and Sanji were both smashed into the ground with a huge body press, "Ow…"

Wanze stood over Naruto and Sanji's bodies as he did a small victory dance, "How do you like my Ramen Kenpo now?"

"It still sucks!" Both Sanji and Naruto yelled from their backs before kipping up back to their feet, looking no worse for wear. Naruto once again had a displeased look on his face, "I am going to hurt you… badly." He hissed lowly, "That should have been a dream come true for me, and you made it into a nightmare, and an attack! Ramen would never hurt me! You're evil! You're an evil, evil man, using ramen for your twisted purposes! Ramen should be used for all to enjoy, not as a weapon! Ramen is supposed to make people happy, not cause them pain!"

Sanji put a hand on Naruto's shoulder, "Food should never be used as a weapon."

Naruto pointed at Wanze and repeated after Sanji, "Food should never be used as a weapon! Least of all ramen! This ends now!" Naruto held out his hand and formed a swirling blue ball of energy before Naruto added a second hand over the top of it, coating it in a white buzzsaw-looking blade as he ran at Wanze, "I'm sorry ramen! Forgive me! Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Rasengan)!"

"Fukumen Tataku (Double Noodle Spank)!" Wanze sent both of his ramen arms at Naruto just as Naruto thrusted the wind-layered Rasengan at him. The small unassuming orb cut right through the ramen like nothing. Believing himself to be dead he closed his eyes, however was simply dropped to the ground as his armor lay on the floor in tatters, "Wha? I'm not dead?"

Naruto had tears in his eyes, "I'm sorry ramen… I love you." He then glared at Wanze, "Of course you're not dead. I would never taint the ramen any further with your blood. Now give me the recipe for ramen! I can't make it to save my life and I can't teach Miss Valentine to make it off of pure memory! All I need are the basics and I can have some Ichiraku Ramen again, or at least something close!"

Wanze shook in fear at Naruto and grabbed a nearby set of kitchen knives that he threw at Naruto, much to Sanji's chagrin, however Naruto simply blurred from his position and threw a high front kick that was directed upwards, "Konoha Shoufuu (Leaf Rising Wind)!" The kick planted directly under Wanze's face and knocked him headfirst into the air vent in the kitchen, dropping him back onto the ground, standing and dazed.

"Why?" Wanze asked as he staggered about, "Why are you trying to save that woman Nico Robin? You probably don't even know her true nature." He was doubled over when Naruto deposited a hard fist to his stomach, forcing him to back up while holding it, "Everyone knows that she's the Devil's child…"

"Konoha Senpuu (Leaf Whirlwind)!" Naruto launched a low kick that hit Wanze in the body again before spinning through and kicking him in the face, releasing a spray of blood from his mouth as he sent him flying into a pile of dishes, breaking them on the floor, "You shut up about Robin-chan. _You_ don't know anything about her so suggest you just stop talking and fall down now."

"My face!" Wanze said as he got a look at himself in the reflection of one of the dishes. He now had a rather fetching appearance, however he didn't see it that way and pulled out a long kitchen knife with poison on the blade, "I'll kill you now! That woman is deceiving you! She's survived by betraying her friends over and over, and you'll be next!"

"I said shut the hell up!" Naruto said as he ran forward at Wanze. Wanze took a swing at him with his blade, but Naruto simply drew his arm back as the outline of a fox covered his arm in red chakra. He dodged the sword strike and hit him in the neck with his bicep and the inside of his elbow full-force, "Rariatto (Lariat)!"

The power of the hit sent Wanze flying, forcing Sanji to dodge as his body crashed through the door and the other door behind it, flying into the car inhabited by CP9 who all looked impassively at the body that had just crashed in front of them.

At the same moment, Franky fell through the roof of the same car with a beaten man that had the facial features of a weasel. He looked back and kicked the unconscious man he had defeated over towards where Wanze had landed, "So you beat the ramen guy?"

Naruto nodded and looked at the members of CP9 with a feral grin, "Hey there. How's my ship coming along if you could tell me."

"It's so noisy now." Kalifa said in response to all of the ruckus that had just happened.

Blueno looked at the doorway where Naruto, Sanji, and Franky were, "So all of the other Marines escorting us were beaten?"

Kaku shrugged, "Well we didn't expect too much of them in the first place after all."

Nero regained consciousness and was glaring murder at Franky when Rob Lucci called to him, "Hey, new guy."

Nero looked up at the powerful leader of the group, "Oh, hello there. Don't worry, I'll kill that weird guy with the blue hair in just a second."

"You're supposed to catch him, but you let your emotions get the better of you." Lucci said plainly, "You have three seconds to run." He said, getting a look of disbelief from the young member until he started counting down, prompting him to vanish in his speed technique, "3, 2, 1." Lucci then immediately caught up to him and stabbed him in the back with nothing more than his finger before throwing him off of the train, "You half-assed, worthless trash. And you call yourself a member of CP9. You have to master all six forms of our style before you can claim to be one of us trash." He then looked at his teammates, "Kalifa, on the report put that the new guy was too weak. He was worthless to us."

"Understood." She said without an argument.

Sanji narrowed his eyes at them, "These are the agent's of justice? They're way more evil than us."

Lucci then turned his attention to the new arrivals, "What are you-. Forget it, I don't need to ask. From the way you opened the door I can guess why you're here. If you're here for Nico Robin just give up now. Her problem is beyond your understanding. There are some people in the world better off dead-."

"-And I'm looking at one." Naruto said darkly, "What are you going to say huh? That Robin needs to die? That she's a monster? Who do you think you idiots are?"

Lucci's eyes rested on Naruto, "We should eliminate her for the sake of the people of this world. She has the power to destroy the world. Now she's a criminal with a much deeper history, but before all of that she'd already sinned by her very existence." Lucci then had to place his hand up to catch a kunai that was thrown directly at him, however it didn't go the way he thought it would when he looked at the blood coming from his hand, 'What? I had Tekkai (Iron Mass) active and he still cut me.'

Naruto narrowed his eyes, 'That should have taken some fingers off if not the entire hand. I put wind chakra behind that one. This guy is no joke.'

With the stalemate on the attempted attack and defense, Lucci continued speaking, "Only her death can bring safety and happiness to others. She has no choice but to accept her fate. She should have died 20 years ago, and now before it's too late she must die for the sake of the world." Sanji ran forward and threw a kick that was blocked by Lucci's forearm, "But it will probably take the government a few years to harvest all of her knowledge and experiences. But then the woman will die in whatever horrible manner-."

"In your dreams!" Sanji yelled at him.

"Sanji get back!" Naruto shouted at him with authority, "Didn't you just see him punch a hole in that other guy and block my kunai with his hand? Don't rush in blindly or you're a dead man."

"Wait, don't go in there Robin!" Usopp's voice sounded out from the car the furthest along.

She walked into the car and looked over everyone standing there and an overjoyed Sanji called out to her, "Robin! I'm so glad you're okay! Did they do anything to you?"

Her eyes rested on Naruto who grinned at her and pointed in a gun motion at her, "I told you we'd meet up again Robin-chan. So do you trust me yet? Because I'm about to get you out of here in a flash. Just let us beat these guys really quick."

A frown crossed her face and in the blink of an eye a multitude of her hands hit Usopp and knocked him over towards Naruto, Sanji, and Franky, "It seems that words are meaningless to you people."

"No." Naruto said firmly to her, getting a gasp of shock from her, "No, you don't get a choice. Remember that cute little note you left me on my ship? I'm supposed to be responsible for you still being alive… well I'm taking responsibility for it, and so is Luffy."

Usopp got up and pulled out a smoke bomb, "Franky, cut the third car now!"

"Why?" Naruto and Sanji yelled.

"So we can get away!" He yelled back at them as he dropped it onto the ground, filling the room in smoke. From the smoke at the end of the car he jumped out, carrying Robin under his arm, "Because we've got her!"

Naruto and Sanji's faces turned from faces of outrage to faces of elation, "That's awesome!" They both escaped with Franky and Usopp as the large man detached the cars, "How do you do that man?" Naruto asked him.

"Oh, I'm a cyborg." Franky said, getting Naruto to stare at him, "What?"

Naruto realized he had been staring and broke it off, "Oh, sorry. It's nothing." He then looked at everyone in the room, "Wait, that was too easy." He looked out at the car that they had detached from and found that they were still stuck to the other car by thorn whips, "Fuck." Naruto had a kunai emerge from his sleeve and was preparing to cut them when Blueno grabbed hold of them and sharply pulled them back, slamming the cars harshly together.

"Got 'em." The large man with the bull-looking haircut said as he and all of the other C9 members stepped into the car.

'Damn...' Naruto thought to himself, 'Four of them on all of us, none of these guys are pushovers, especially that Kaku and Rob Lucci guy, and we have to worry about Robin bugging out and leaving. _And_ I'm stuck in this puny little car. I need space to maneuver and dodge to fight better! I'm going to be taking a few hits in this one.'

"It's time to push these cars back apart!" Sanji said as he ran up to Blueno and kicked the large man in the chest, his body not moving, "What's with this toughness?"

Franky yelled to the cook, "They have a weird fighting style!"

Sanji pivoted on his hand and spun around rapidly on one arm before delivering a heavy kick to Blueno's face, "Concasse (Crush)!" The kick was hard enough to almost injure him through his defensive technique.

Seeing that put a smirk on Naruto's face, 'So if I can muster enough brute force I can just muscle my way through their stupid toughness technique. That's good to know.' Naruto followed up and jumped at the large man, spinning his body rapidly, almost turning to a mini-whirlwind, "Konoha Gouriki Senpuu (Leaf Strong Whirlwind)!" Naruto's kick bounced off of Blueno's face and sent him sliding back to the other members of his team with a bruise on his face.

"Ocho Fleur: Clutch (Eight Flower: Clutch)!"

Naruto and Sanji turned around to see Usopp bound and held by Robin's Hana Hana no Mi arms, prompting the two blonde men to turn around abruptly, "Robin-chan what are you doing?"

"How many times do I have to tell you to stay out of my business?" She yelled at them.

"And how many times do I have to tell you?" Naruto yelled back, "When are you going to trust in people? We came all of this way for you! Believe that we can beat these guys and let us help you!"

"You should watch your opponents." Kaku said as he launched a blind attack at Sanji, catching him in the face with a hard kick.

"Damn it…" Franky said at seeing Sanji knocked back, "You guys are so stubborn with wanting to protect your comrades… well here's your chance!" He ran at the CP9 car and jumped at it fearlessly, unhooking it from the back car that the others were in, "You guys don't worry about me! When you link up with Straw Hat just get back to town!"

"That wasn't necessary you idiot!" Naruto yelled at him.

Robin yelled at the cyborg, "Franky what are you doing? I'm not trying to escape!"

Sanji turned to Robin, a nasty bruise forming on his head from the damage he took, "Robin-chan we've come this far to get you! What are you saying? We always knew the situation and came to get you! It doesn't matter if there's a Buster Call, we can handle it! Why won't you just come with us?"

"The Buster Call is the problem." A voice said behind Sanji, reveling it to be Blueno, opening a door to seemingly nowhere unnaturally, "Rankyaku (Storm Leg)." He threw a kick so fast it seemed to cut into Sanji, sending him flying into a wall.

'These guys are good!' Naruto thought to himself, gritting his teeth, 'I think I'm going to really have to go hard this time to beat them! I'll have to crush these guys, but I can't do it in here or else I'll destroy the train and kill the Straw Hats too! None of my attacks are subtle!' Blueno shut the door he had opened to attack Sanji, 'Damn, where now?' He turned and saw Usopp drop, "No! Damn it!" He launched himself at the door and growled when he missed, 'I wish I had more goddamn Hiraishin kunais! This guy would be dead if I had more!'

"Stop it!" Robin yelled as Naruto looked around, preparing for Blueno to appear once more to try and put him down, "I'm not trying to run away! I don't want your help! Help them!" She said, pointing at the downed Sanji and Usopp, "Let me go! Please!" She lowered her head, "Don't let them die like this…"

Naruto looked at her, not moving or searching for Blueno anymore, "You could never just leave Robin. When you joined Luffy's crew and when you wrote me that note, whether you know it or not you became precious to us. And guys like us just don't let our precious people slip away when there's something we can do about it." He sighed deeply, "You should have some more faith in us."

"It's no use." Blueno said, reappearing right by her, "Nico Robin won't go back on this. In the past there was a Buster Call invoked by the navy. It happened to a simple island, the whole thing was burned to a crisp, no trace at all was left. The only one to survive that hellish incident was a young Nico Robin. The memories she got from such an experience are firmly planted in her and they cause her to turn on her comrades." He said as Robin walked over to him to leave with him.

"Robin-chan." Naruto said, "I. Don't. Care." He motioned to the wounded Usopp and Sanji who were trying to get up, "They don't care. None of us care about that! I know about wanting to sacrifice yourself for others, but that doesn't work when the others you're trying to protect can protect themselves! Don't go with them!"

She didn't even turn around to look at Naruto as she walked through the portal made by Blueno. The large man looked at Naruto with an uncaring glance, "It's all for the sake of justice. That girl has our deepest condolences."

Naruto simply glared at him, "You know… I'm glad this happened. I was looking for a reason to make a statement anyway. I think I'll start with you, and every single person that gets in my way at Enies Lobby when I take her back." His eyes flickered red before setting back to blue, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and for twisting Robin-chan's mind and making her so scared she'd turn herself over to you I'm going to destroy every last one of you. You'd better hope you don't see me again."

Blueno found himself ensnared to stare into Naruto's eyes and felt as if he could see the future for a moment. Enies Lobby lying in ruins, Massive warships in broken pieces all through the ocean, destruction. However he shook his head and the visions left him, "Don't be ridiculous." He said as he left in his portal.

Naruto stared hard at the now unassuming space where Blueno and Robin had left from before turning to Usopp and Sanji who were both still unable to stand, "Are you two going to be alright?"

Sanji grit his teeth as he tried to stand and made it to his feet slowly with the help of the wall, "I'll be fine. What are we going to do now?"

Naruto looked out of a window at the choppy seas and set his head against the unruined glass, "We have to wait Sanji… we have to wait."

Sanji limped over to Usopp who was starting to get up as well, "What about Robin-chan? What about Franky?"

Naruto turned towards him with his arms crossed, "We'll just go and get them. It's simple. There's nothing big or flashy about this, we don't need a plan, we don't need anything. We're going to go get her, and nothing is going to stop us from doing it. With your crew and my crew, and I know they're coming with Luffy, there isn't a chance that we don't walk out of there with Robin-chan." He looked back out the window and saw a pair of massive Yagura Bulls pulling what looked like a house or something behind them, "So just rest, because you aren't going to get a chance to in a moment."

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**I'm done. Nothing smart or snarky to say about anything today. I have class to get to in 5 minutes being that it is 3:55 pm so enjoy the fruits of my labor and have a wonderful day.**

**Kenchi out.**


	24. New Age Outlaws

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I'm going to name my dogs Naruto and One Piece. Maybe then that would work out for me. Nah, that would be crazy... crazy like a fox.

**Chapter 24: New Age Outlaws**

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'She doesn't believe in her friends…' Naruto thought to himself as he was alone with his own judgment as to why Robin was fighting so hard to leave. He had the one Hiraishin kunai with him. A far cry from being able to use it with dozens at once like his father was able to according to legend, but even with one he would have been able to match or even overpower Blueno and save her, but he had then he felt that Robin would have never forgiven him for it. Normally he would have simply saved her and dealt with the hate and been done with it.

However from the look in her eyes when she told him to stop that final time and assist Usopp and Sanji, it was clear to him that had he fought and taken her back he would have broken the small amount of trust that she had in him, and there was something about that prospect that made him sick. The idea of Robin hating him. He needed to change her mind, he needed to show her once and for all that being worried about her friends not being able to handle themselves would never be a realistic problem. If he had to walk right up to the CP9 after tearing his way through that place and grab her by her wrist to take her back to prove that it was no big deal he would.

This time he was going to leave absolutely no doubts, and he had never delighted in hitting a woman, but if she still didn't believe that they were strong enough after this he would have to slap some sense into her, because he wouldn't know what else to do.

Naruto, Sanji, and Usopp (still in his Sogeking gear) were picked on the choppy seas by the Franky Family of all people, who were heading to Enies Lobby in an attempt to save their 'big brother' Franky. Naruto didn't say a word as he stared out the window at the front of the seafaring house at an island where there seemed to be nothing but sunshine, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that that's Enies Lobby."

One of the members of the Franky Family nodded, "Yeah, the 'Judicial Island', it's a never-night island. The sun is always shining there as if it were daytime just like right now." The sound of a train blowing and moving got their attention as they all looked out behind and everyone's spirits lifted up, "Hey! Look over there, it's the Straw Hat kid and the crew with him!"

A round of cheers broke out as Naruto grabbed Sanji and Usopp and quickly jumped the rather considerable distance to make it to the train that the others were riding on. As Luffy met up with his own crew this left Naruto to only say one thing once he saw that his own entire crew was there as well among the crowd that were all about to attack Enies Lobby, "Okay… I'm only going to say this. I'm pissed off that you're all here, but I can't be too mad about it because I knew that you were all going to show up anyway. But still…" He pointed over to Vivi and Muret, "What the hell are Vivi and Doctor-chan doing here?"

Vivi puffed out her cheeks in resentment, "Well Nico Robin may have conspired with Crocodile against my country, but she's a friend of Luffy and the others, and you told me to try to not hate her in case I saw her again. Well I'm trying to forgive her by helping to save her!"

Muret's eye twitched as she explained why she decided not to stay in Water 7, "The only other doctor here to handle all of the wounds that you, the others on this crew, the Straw Hat crew, the tons of Franky Family members, and the Galley-La guys that came with us are all going to get is Chopper, and I'm sure he's going to be busy fighting too." She put her hands on her hips, "You paid me good money Naruto-sama… too much money for me to sit back and be a coward. You paid for a doctor, well you'll get a doctor." She revealed a rather sizeable pack on her back to him with a smirk.

Nojiko was busy staring at how Luffy and Chopper thought that Usopp was a superhero in his Sogeking costume before turning to Naruto to give him her answer, "There's no way you're going to do something this stupid without us backing you up Naruto-kun. Did you really think that we would just leave you alone for this?"

Letting out a sigh, Naruto answered her, "I was kind of hoping you would. This one isn't going to be pretty or clean."

Miss Valentine appeared draped over his back, gently rubbing the whisker-marks on his cheeks, "Come on sweetie, you had to know that after all of that hellish training you put the lot of us through we weren't going to just sit this one out when you put your neck on the line… especially your two rottweilers over there." She finished, pointing at Johnny and Yosaku.

"We've got your back Naruto-aniki!" Johnny and Yosaku stated at the same time, giving Naruto a very business-like pose.

Naruto couldn't help but let a smile spread across his face as he looked at his crew and rested his hand under Miss Valentine's chin, rubbing softly, "And what about you Soren? What do you think?"

Soren chuckled, "You're going to the face of the World Government to whoop-ass on some Marines, some secret government agents, and who knows what else… and you didn't think that I wanted a piece of that action myself? And I thought you knew me by now."

Naruto nodded before he and Sanji shared a look and the two called all of both crews together, "Before we do this there's something you all need to know." They explained in detail everything that they had been able to learn about Robin from CP9 on the Sea Train as Sanji for once didn't feel like smoking, "I just wanted to point out that even if we get to her, Robin still probably won't be willing to go back with us."

"She's worried about all of you guys." Naruto said to the Straw Hat crew, "She doesn't think that you can stand up to the full might of the World Government and she's handing herself over so that you guys won't be associated with her and destroyed." Naruto looked at Luffy, "So what do you think about that?"

Luffy immediately shouted angrily, "I don't care, I'm going to kick their asses and get her back! Robin, that stupid-! Gah! We tried to rescue her and she just refused to go! She shouldn't be worried about us, she should worry about her own safety!" He looked at Naruto seriously, "If we don't do anything she's going to die isn't she?" A nod came from the blonde warrior, "She doesn't want to die, she shouldn't have to die for us, especially for no reason."

"That's true, but-." Nami tried to say before being cut off by Naruto laying his hands on her shoulders.

"But nothing." He said with a grin, "This entire thing Robin-chan is doing is totally pointless. She doesn't need to do this in order to protect you guys, and this is going to prove that. Do you want her back?" Nami's eyes hardened as she gave him a firm nod, "Then that's that. Let's go get her back." A small smile formed on the Straw Hat navigator's face.

Paulie laid out a map of Enies Lobby depicting the island from front to back. The first main gate, the front gate to get to the court, the waterfall surrounding the entire place, and the Tower of Justice and Gate of Justice at the vey back of the island, "It's a straight shot all the way through. If we can't get to Robin or Franky by the end of the path then we fail. But even if we all charge on the island there are only a few of us here that have any chance of taking on the CP9, and that's you guys. There are only 70 of us but there will be more than 3000 enemies on that island. Focus on the CP9."

"I'll focus on whoever is stupid enough to get in my way." Naruto said, taking his sage coat off and sealing it in one of the storage scrolls he had on his person, leaving him in his red shirt, white pants, white sandals, and orange sash. He tightened the forehead protector on his head and narrowed his eyes, "I'm going in a straight line, and anyone that gets in my way, well I'm just going to have to get them out of the way."

"Hey everyone, look at the island." The old woman conductor said to everyone, prompting them to look at Enies Lobby.

Even behind the large mass of the island, the outline of the large looming gate behind it was the thing that truly attracted attention. Even the size of the faint World Government symbol on the gate was large and imposing.

Everyone stared at the structure in awe before Naruto finally spoke, "So that's a Gate of Justice… Well now at least I know where to go to keep Robin-chan from leaving." He said seriously, "If we want to save Robin-chan we have to do it before she gets through that gate, because I'm not sure that even my strongest jutsu could bust that thing down." It was the mass of a good-sized entire island all on its own.

Nojiko pulled out her long-range rifle and planned to move outside to prepare, "So what's the plan you guys?"

"Plan?" Naruto and Luffy said at the same time as Naruto moved towards an open window, "The plan is, I'm going to turn this place into a lopsided warzone and go get Robin-chan back. That's the plan, that's all the plan I need!" He then jumped from the Rocket Man to the Franky Family's vessel which was further ahead than their place outside of Enies Lobby to the gate surrounding it and straight onto the island.

Nojiko growled and made her way outside to the top of the Rocket Man prototype train, "God! He couldn't even wait for us to tell him the plan we came up with on the way over here! So stupid!"

Luffy shouted and held onto his hat tightly as he quickly followed suit with Naruto, "Who needs a plan anyway? We know what we want to do and how to do it, so let's go!" He then jumped off on his own as well.

Soren and Zoro both watched their respective captains leave with similar deadpan faces, "They couldn't have waited 5 minutes…" They both looked at each other and grinned before shaking hands, both victims of the 'stupid captain' curse.

Luffy used his rubber body to grab a hold of the flag on the front gate and jumped right inside, "We have an intruder? He just jumped right in!" One of the Marines standing out front yelled in shock, "Get him! Kill that guy!"

"Fuuton: Chikadoukaze (Wind Release: Subterranean Tunnel)!"

Underneath the multitude of clustered soldiers, the ground cracked and exploded as massive bursts of wind were forced out of the ground, taking dozens of men and throwing them into the air with crushing might. With the path cleared, Naruto ran right at the front gate and formed a massive ball of energy between his two hands that he slammed into the huge front gate, "Odama Rasengan (Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!" The overpowered Rasengan blew the doors of the gate right open from whatever was keeping it closed and attached, "The gate's open!" Naruto yelled back at the others that had yet to land, as if they could hear him "Hurry up and get in here!"

Naruto ran after Luffy, quickly catching up as he saw the rubber-man take out an entire squad of guards, allowing him to get close to him, "You ready kid?" Luffy nodded eagerly, "Great!" Naruto formed a cross-fingered hand-seal, "Tajuu Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (Multiple Shadow Clone Jutsu)!" In a huge puff of smoke, over one hundred Kage Bunshin were spawned with only one standing order from their creator, "Tear this fucking place apart and get Robin-chan back!"

The Marines that had arrived to back up their defeated front guards almost turned tail at the sight of Luffy and Naruto leading the charge of over one hundred Naruto clones, "It's 'Straw Hat' Luffy and the 'Seed of War' Uzumaki Naruto!"

"Those two? That's a combined bounty of over 350 million!"

Luffy began taking out Marines by the droves with single punches and kicks, not even bothering to use actual attacks, "Where's Robin?" He shouted as he continued to tear through them like tissue paper.

Naruto's clones had split off to terrorize other portions of the island and use their one-hit life-spans to soften up the forces before their inevitable demise so that the others could fight their way inland without too much resistance… resistance that Naruto and Luffy were doing a bang-up job of rending asunder all on their own.

Luffy ducked under a wave of slashes from swords and all other kinds of weapons before he effortlessly disposed of those soldiers that planned to use numbers to take him down ,"Hey Naruto, should we be keeping count on how many each of us can beat?"

Naruto was backstepping and keeping just out of range of another group of Marines' bladed melee attacks, "I don't think you really want that Luffy. Your ego might end up taking a hit today."

"Chicken!" Luffy shouted at Naruto as he quickly dispatched another group of Marines with a stretched, kick that caught them all, "Gomu Gomu no Muchi (Gum Gum Whip)! And that's 10 you big chicken!" Luffy started clucking obnoxiously, throwing the advancing Marines that saw and heard him off guard and allowed him to quickly pummel them, "15!" He shouted before clucking again.

"Fine!" Naruto yelled with a tick mark on his head, "Hakaiarashi Shougeki (Destructive Storm Bombardment)!" Naruto stopped backing off from his group of Marines and began spinning in a circle as he got close to them, kicking up and wind storm that disguised his movements and swept the Marines up. However the wind and dust storm didn't stop there as it carried over to another hapless group of soldiers and swept them up. It finally dispersed, leaving a rather tall pile of horrifically bruised and beaten bodies with Naruto standing on top of them, counting them out before pointing at Luffy and yelling, "18! Now come on!"

Luffy blinked before being forced to dive between two slashes from Marines attacking him with naginatas before he kicked them both in the face and kept running deeper into the base.

"Stop them! They're just two unarmed men!"

Luffy jumped over a group of them to grab onto a large pair of doors that he used to jump over and enter the gate into the main portion of the island. While they were looking at Luffy who had scaled the massive wall, Naruto ran atop all of their heads and followed suit, however he just sprinted vertically up the wall and jumped off of the top as he let out one loud shout, "42!"

They wondered what he was talking about until they saw some strange slip of paper attached to one man's back, burning down. Having a terrible feeling about it, they started to run away from him as he tried prying it off of his back, however many weren't fast enough and got caught in the ensuing explosion from Naruto's explosive tag.

Naruto jumped high into the air and looked down around the area to see Luffy surrounded by a massive crowd of agents and Marines that had him outnumbered by the hundreds, "Hey there 'Straw Hat' Luffy, where's the rest of your crew? Enies Lobby's forces number in the ten thousands! What are you supposed to be able to do alone?"

Luffy cracked his knuckles and pointed up, "You'd be surprised, and… well I have my old ship's resident hobo with me."

They all looked up at a figure obscured by the sunlight but heard him yell, "Goddamn it Luffy! I wasn't your ship's resident hobo! But I will settle for ship's resident army killer! Luffy jump now!" Naruto landed on the ground in a mighty stomp just as Luffy left his own feet, "Doton: Ouki-sa (Earth Release: Magnitude)!" The ground began to crack and shake as if a relatively powerful earthquake and hit the Marines found themselves caught in the cracks, breaking their lower limbs, or just falling to the ground off-balance from Naruto's jutsu. The shaking was forceful enough to crack the walls of a few nearby buildings as well.

"What? He can cause earthquakes like Whitebeard too? What kind of monster is this guy?" One of the hapless Marines shouted in response to another of the things that Naruto was capable of.

A grin crossed Luffy's face at seeing how Naruto had neatly set all of the Marines up for him to go open season on, "Gomu Gomu no Storm (Gum Gum Storm)!" Luffy landed and immediately blasted away an entire side of the numerous discombobulated forces with a savage and uncountable number of rapid-fire punches while Naruto decided to finish off the other side himself.

"Fuuton: Moukinruigou Boukou (Wind Release: Raptor Swarm Assault)!" After finishing his hand-seals, Naruto placed his hands directly out in front of his body and breathed deeply, forcing a stream of wind that he directed and manipulated with his hands. The wind surrounded the area and turned into a multitude of light-green bird figures that darted through the air, faster than the normal soldiers could keep up with as they were all cut down by Naruto's attack.

"400! I counted every punch that hit!" Luffy shouted at Naruto once he stopped beating on the large number of soldiers to face his shinobi comrade.

Naruto grinned back at him, "You know that half of that final score counts to me as well because I set the prep work for that attack, so that assist gives 200 more for me, and add that to the 300 more that I just beat with my second jutsu and that's 500 in all so suck it!"

Luffy was about to complain about that little addendum to the rules when he let it slip his mind, "Ooh! Vantage point!" He shouted as he saw a large tower with many snipers posted up in it. Luffy ran towards it with a look of intent on his face as he barreled past a huge number of Marines as he finally got up under the building, "Gomu Gomu no Kazan (Gum Gum Volcano)!" Luffy shot his leg straight up into the air with more than enough force to blow the roof and the entire top half of the building off with the kick, "50 more!"

Naruto's eye twitched as he formed two Rasengans in either hand, "Oh yeah?" He started running through the crowd that Luffy had bypassed without doing much damage to and took advantage of their distraction towards Luffy's crazy attack of destruction. He pummeled through them with his twin Rasengans like a reaper cutting down wheat, "Rasenrengan (Spiraling Group Spheres)! I was created to do this kind of shit!"

The walls from the building Luffy destroyed fell down towards the Marines that were stuck between a dominant Naruto and a destructive Luffy, however they wound up paying for their indecision, "Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum Gum Gatling Gun)!" Luffy's punches hacked the walls up and turned them into large stones that ended up working like artillery as they hit the overmatched Marines.

"Spandam! Sir! 'Straw Hat' Luffy and 'Seed of War' Uzumaki Naruto aren't going to stop! They're running all over us!" A Marine screamed into a Baby Den Den Mushi on his wrist.

XxX

(With The Others)

The two massive Yagura Bulls that had dragged the Franky Family this far along the stormy seas of the Aqua Laguna had pulled themselves over the water fence of Enies Lobby amid the shouts of panic from the Marines that remained out front. The group of ship dismantlers were raucous and ready for a fight against the government troops. As they immediately began to engage the Marines and their newly posted gate guardians the received help from the Galley-La shipwrights Peeply Lulu, Tilestone, and Paulie.

With Naruto having busted the front gate open, the powerful train was positioned to rocket right on through once the way was cleared by the Franky Family and the shipwrights. However, a group of giants that had come to protect the front gate quickly tried closing it and broke into battle with the combined forces already ashore. In the ensuing battle, even a few of Naruto's clones diverted from their own job of causing as much havoc as possible to assist until they were dispelled.

Waiting for just such an opening as to when they could get in freely, Nojiko was laying down on top of the train with her rifle trained on the gate, picking off any soldier that wandered within her sights before stowing her rifle onto her back once more, "The gate is wide open! They signaled that they kept them from closing it! Go now!" She held on tight to the top of the train as she waited for it to burst on ahead through the iron gates.

Zoro and Soren stood out front on the head of the train with the swordsman of the two waiting for the train to charge ahead with some small talk, "So where did Yosaku get that huge sword he has with him?"

Soren chuckled, "It's from Uzumaki's stash or something. I swear, that guy has some super-weird stuff in his collection. That thing is heavy though, even for me I wouldn't be able to use it that well, but he swings it like a bokken. It's impressive."

Zoro closed his eyes as a smile crossed his face, "It doesn't seem that long ago that those guys were sitting back and letting me do most of the heavy lifting when we were bounty hunting. And now they're looking ready to walk right up to an army of Marines and take it right to them. I'm kind of proud honestly."

"You'd better watch your back Samurai-boy." Soren quipped as he scratched his nose, "Those two… all they want to do is prove that they're your equals in swordsmanship. And I'm starting to believe that they have more than a decent shake at pulling it off. Yosaku can already cut through steel like you with Kubikiribouchou."

Zoro blinked, "Then why isn't he out here with me to get rid of the gate instead of you?"

Soren pointed his thumb backwards, "Because as strong as he is with it and as good as he is with the sword we're going to need more than one or two slashes to get through. I'm here because I can melt stuff, remember? I'm a safer bet than those two." He heard the train gearing up to gain speed and prepared himself, "Alright let's do this, you going to be okay back there Nojiko?" The girl nodded as she held on tight to the powerful steel contraption, "Alright! Ibi Ibi no Hontai Gamen (Rot Rot Body Screen)!"

Soren stood straight up with his arms outstretched and focused heavily, forcefully pushing out a blast of acid that at first took the shape of his body before after flying through the air for a moment took the form of an ever expanding acidic wall that passed through the iron gate after hitting the bars on it and continued onto land where it hit the Marines standing in wait for the Rocket Man to hit the bars.

Zoro cringed when the attack that had been launched at a higher speed than it probably would have otherwise hit the Marines as he could hear them cry out in pain of being hit with Soren's acid, however he set that aside for the gate he still had to take out when the others called out from inside. Rolling his eyes at how complicated this thing was becoming, Zoro wasn't deterred, "Oi! Yokozuna! Some help here?"

The massive frog from Water 7 jumped on the front of the train between Soren and Zoro and hit the iron gate with a powerful strike to bend it over enough for the train to launch off of it and obtain elevation. As they took off into the air, Soren looked at the huge creature that had assisted them, "Uzumaki would totally dig you big guy." He looked at Zoro, not frightened at all about a train hurtling through the air, "Hey I thought you were going to try and cut through it."

Zoro sat calmly and explained it, "I never said I was going to cut it, I said I had a plan to get through it. Everyone just thought I was going to cut it. How would I reach it? There's a good ten feet from where we're standing to the very tip of the train."

Inside however was a different story as they found nothing to be excited about, hurtling through the air over the first gate, "You idiots!" Nami shouted at them as everyone inside screamed about how they were all about to die, "Did you ever think for a moment about how we were going to land this thing?"

"Leave it to luck." Zoro replied calmly.

Nojiko shouted at him from the roof she was gripping tightly as tears of fear fell from her eyes, "If I weren't about to die and I could reach you without flying off of this thing I would hit you for being so stupid!" The train flew over the gate and crashed right into the back of one of the giants that the Franky Family and the Galley-La had been fighting. The group that had been ashore were mortified that with all that fighting they didn't even go through the gate as it came to a stop not too far away with a dented front.

A wounded Paulie stood up and looked over at the train, "Man what a landing… is anyone even going to come out of that?"

Nojiko shakily pulled herself over the edge of the roof of the train, shaking uncontrollably as she slowly made her way up to her knees, "I'm not dead?" She asked herself as she checked herself for injuries of any kind and cheered loudly when she found none, "Yes! Woohoo! I'm not dead! Naruto-kun's damnable luck rubbed off on me at last!"

Johnny and Yosaku fell out of the train and immediately vomited as the sunglasses sporting swordsman recovered first, staggering to his feet, "That was not cool! You tell people when you're about to do something like that Zoro-aniki!" Yosaku followed suit, nodding his agreement to his best friend's view on the matter.

Zoro jumped off of the front of the train with two of his three swords drawn as Sanji ambled out and looked at the situation of the battle between their allies and the Marines thus far, "So now what?"

One of the Marines panicked at more people joining the battle and managed to shoot a series of small rockets at the train before any more could come out. After rocking the train with explosions they heard a growl from among them, "I was still sitting on that thing…" They turned to see that Soren had gotten within their defensive perimeter, "Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws)!" Before they could turn to respond he had cut down the offending rocket-launching Marines assertively.

The smoke hovering around the train then started becoming a solid cloud in the air above the Marines as Nami grinned with her staff separated in segments, "This Perfect Clima-Tact is amazing!" She commented on the weapon in her grasp, "Its speed and power are totally different from before! Now let's try it out!" She shot a ball of thunder from a compartment in the weapon that hit the cloud, "Sandauboruto Tenpo (Thunderbolt Tempo)!" Massive amount of lighting struck down from the crowd and hit the Marines under the cloud, although Nami was forced to swiftly flee before she was hit with the dangerous attack as well.

She ran over to Usopp and smacked him in the head with her weapon, "That almost hit me too damn it!"

Chopper freaked out that she had hit their 'superhero' friend, "Nami why'd you hit Sogeking?"

Nami crossed her arms and huffed as Usopp, keeping his 'cover' explained, "You're the one to blame for using it so recklessly like that. Usopp-kun said he never designed it be used like that! But, it is a really strong weapon. That actually beat a few dozen of them." He said as he looked over at the downed Marines.

"Hey damn it!" Muret yelled over to where she was patching up the wounded men from the Franky Family, "That almost hit me too! Watch that thing!"

Miss Valentine floated down from the sky with her umbrella, "Whew, that explosion was close. I'm lucky that it just wound up blowing me into the sky. But anyway…" She pointed off in a direction, "I think I saw the path of destruction the two idiots who rushed over here made." Just as she said that, a loud explosion took out a tower in the distance she was pointing at, getting a laugh out of her, "Kyahahahaha! See?"

Paulie crashed through a large number of Marines while riding one of the Franky Family's massive Yagura Bulls, "Get on! All of you! This isn't where you all need to be, don't forget why you're here!" As the crews all hopped on the Yagura Bull he noticed that the Marines weren't just going to let them leave, "When you see the CP9 guys tell them something for me would you? 'You're fired!'" He said as he jumped off to get back into the fight.

XxX

(Enies Lobby – Island Center)

"This is so stupid!" Naruto yelled as he grabbed one of the Marines and used him to slam into the other Marines as a weapon, "Why don't they just get the point and get out of the way already? They haven't laid a hand on us yet!" Naruto set the weaponized man up and kicked him hard in the face, sending him flying into a group of other attackers.

"Just keep fighting Naruto! Don't stop!" Luffy yelled back to him as he smashed his way through his own set of Marines with hard, looping punches before clasping the flats of his feet together, "Gomu Gomu no Yari (Gum Gum Lance)!" Luffy kicked a man in the body and sprung off of him to an elevated position, "These stupid soldiers just keep coming! We're stuck here!"

"Speak for yourself!" Naruto yelled as he found himself starting to get dogpiled, "Oi! Get off of me you idiots!" He shouted before the pile grew to a crushing size and shut him out, "Fuuton: Fuujorui (Wind Release: Wind Fortress)!" Naruto yelled out in feral rage as a burst of wind with enough raw power to send the Marines that had piled on him flying like human bullets all over the place, taking out many of their own partners that they hit, "Come on! Don't run away! I'm still being nice! I'm still being nice! I haven't even killed any of you on _purpose_ yet!" He taunted the Marines as he saw a large amount of them running away back towards the direction that he and Luffy had come from.

"Send half of our men to the front gate!" A government agent in a black suit and hat shouted at a regular Marine, "The other pirates have breached the gates! We have to stop them!"

"Finally!" Naruto said as a platoon of Marines got around him, all training rifles on him, however he appeared to be ignoring them, "It took them long enough!"

"Fire!" They all opened fire on Naruto to wind up with him disappearing in a puff of smoke and a bullet-riddled log covered with purple spores falling to the ground in his place, "What?"

"Mokuton: Houshi Ba-suto (Wood Release: Spore Burst)!"

The log exploded, covering much of the area in a purple haze that had Marines dropping like flies. The cloud hung over the area until the sounds of Marine struggle stopped, "Whoops. Okay, that one is obviously overpowered. Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" Naruto blew away the hazardous massive cloud for Luffy's benefit before it rose high enough to reach him and he took note of all of the Marines that seemingly had their skin bleached purple as they all lay either incapacitated or outright deceased by the effects of Naruto's jutsu, "Luffy! Where the hell did you go?"

"Hurry up Naruto!" Luffy yelled from far down the path, so far that Naruto was almost unable to make out his features. Naruto growled and pulled his single Hiraishin kunai from his pocket that he then threw right at Luffy, "Come on! You're so-!" In a flash of yellow, Naruto appeared in front of him with the Hiraishin kunai caught firmly in his grip, "Oh, nevermind. You're right here. You're really fast."

Naruto pocketed the kunai and patted Luffy on the shoulder wordlessly before turning him around towards more Marines heading their way, getting a tick mark to form on Luffy's head as he jumped into them intent on running right through this group as well, "Get out of the way you assholes!" He then stopped at a huge wall, "Huh? A dead-end?"

"Luffy, up here!" Naruto yelled from atop a high and very thick courthouse building that seemed to be able to overlook the dead-end. The rubber pirate quickly made his way up there atop the spacious area and by Naruto's side, "Look." He was pointing towards a massive tower that utterly dwarfed the courthouse they were standing on that sat across a huge chasm, "Can you jump that, or use some weird rubber power to get across?"

"No." Luffy said, "How are we supposed to get over there?" He saw Naruto pull out his Hiraishin kunai and stare at it with a frown on his whiskered features, "That weird knife of yours again. Is that how?"

"I wish…" Naruto said angrily, "This gap is like half a mile across. I can't throw this little thing that hard." His mood slightly improved to a dull smoldering anger when a door appeared out of thin air in front of them, "Finally. Rematch time you cow-looking son-of-a-bitch."

Blueno emerged from the door and looked at both Naruto and Luffy, "It looks like intelligence is screwed up."

Luffy pointed at him and shouted, "The cow guy with the pigeon guy!"

"I figured that we had more damage done than just five people down." Blueno said as he could see the trail of destruction that Naruto and Luffy had made all throughout the island, "Two men breaking into front fortification of the World Government… this is unheard of. Just how long do you two plan on struggling?"

Naruto narrowed his eyes at Blueno, "That's funny. You think that _you_ can actually make me struggle. Robin-chan isn't here to keep me from tearing you apart this time big boy."

"She kept you from fighting me for your safety." Blueno said, unintimidated by Naruto, "And by coming here you've thrown away her sacrifice."

Luffy clinched his fists, "Robin's in that building behind you, so get out of our way cow!"

"You all still haven't noticed…" Blueno said in a pitying voice, "This sort of thing is a global grand-scale offense. In the oceans of the world we boast influence in more than 170 countries. The all-powerful organization the World Government owns this island. When you invaded this place you all decided to revolt against it. You'll all be hunted down and crushed, suffering cruel deaths."

Naruto picked his ear, "I was never a member of your World Government in the first place. I'm from a place called the Elemental Nations. A place that you _don't_ own, and never will as long as I'm alive to say something about it." He then set himself in a taijutsu stance, "Now take me to Robin-chan or get ready to get your ass kicked."

"The Straw Hat already knows that you cannot defeat our Rokushiki (Six Styles)." Blueno asserted, "So why even bother when you know you're going to lose?"

Naruto grinned at him ferally, "Because I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I _never_ lose! We never even fought in the first place, all I did was kick the shit out of you one good time and watch you run away!" Naruto yelled as ran at Blueno, "Now let's try this again without all of the interference!"

"Naruto!" Luffy shouted childishly, "I wanted to test my new moves out on this guy!"

"Keep 'em in the holster for now Luffy!" Naruto shouted back at the captain, "You don't want to use your new aces when you don't have to!" Naruto cocked his fist back and had it held back at the ready with his other hand on his punching shoulder, "Chouseki Shougekiha (Tidal Shockwave)!"

Blueno simply stood still, "Tekkai (Iron Mass)." However he wound up paying for it when Naruto's punch connected in his belly and doubled him over, blood flying out of his mouth, 'What? When he kicked me on the train it hurt, but this is on a whole different level!'

Naruto used his arm that wasn't buried into Blueno's belly to push on the back of his punching shoulder, "Impact!" Like a piston, Naruto seemingly dislocated his arm at the shoulder and fired off a second punch of sorts that sent the man flying back and rolling along the ground until he retook his feet and glared at him, "Surprised? Good." He then noticed something about Naruto. His headband that had been on his head every single time he had seen Naruto was no longer in sight, "You see, I'm glad I came on this journey. I've been very uncomfortable for a long time, and meeting the guys that I've heard about on the Grand Line has me really excited. I had to come up with a way to block off a lot of the strength that I painstakingly developed in tumultuous times or else I would have risked hurting someone innocent just by being around."

He pulled the headband out of his pocket and turned it over to the back to show that the entire thing was lined odd markings that spanned the entire inside of the headband fabric. Seals, "These seals were meant to stifle my physical prowess. With this thing off of me I run faster, I jump higher, I have more chakra at my disposal, and I hit harder." He placed it back in his pocket, "I don't need it to beat you, but I came here to make a statement." He cracked his knuckles, "If I didn't have this on I would hurt people just by giving them hugs and handshakes. I needed it. And now I don't, because I couldn't care less if any of you CP9 losers survived this."

Blueno grit his bloodstained teeth, 'That one punch… I don't understand.' He cast away any doubts he had about fighting and continued to battle, "Soru (Shave)!" Blueno blurred out of sight.

"Aww…" Naruto said sarcastically as he watched him vanish, "You have a name for that? You want to know what I call it? I call it running!" The sound of the air cracking softly was the indication of Naruto blurring out of sight as well. A loud dull thud of a blow landing and breath exhaling preceded Naruto and Blueno reappearing with Naruto's foot buried in his stomach before he flew off and smashed into a wall that stood atop the fortification, "Damn, I've still got it! Get up! Get up so I can kick your ass in fast forward! I'm getting Robin-chan out of here and none of you can stop me!"

Blueno wiped the blood away from his mouth, "I underestimated you…" He said before jumping at Naruto, dashing seemingly on the air in a zig-zag pattern, "Geppou (Moon Step)!" He then threw a kick at Naruto that released a blade of energy from his leg, "Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!" He began to grow angry when Naruto simply stepped around his attack with not even a flinch, "Tekkai: Rin (Iron Mass: Wheel)!" He rolled at Naruto rapidly like a wheel, trying to take him down with the consecutive kicks, however Naruto seemingly dodged him like child's play.

Suddenly doors appeared under Naruto's feet that the blonde ninja caught sight of before he could step into them, "These damn doors again!" He kept himself from trapping his feet and charged right at Blueno, "I've fought a guy that had a power like this, and he was way better than you at using it!" He saw a door appear by Blueno in mid-air that he opened up and stepped inside, however before he could shut it, Naruto grabbed his wrist and jerked him back outside before he could fully step inside, "No you don't, there's nowhere to run this time!"

XxX

(With Straw Hat and Foxhound Pirates)

One of the King Bulls that had been assisting in the attack, Sodom, had been felled by constant mortar fire coming from the Marines and their dogged defense of Enies Lobby. Thus the strategy to get deeper inside the island had to change up a bit.

Nojiko lay atop the head of one of the massive King Bulls that were charging through the Marine stronghold with her scoped rifle at the ready, picking off Marines that planned on using mortars to attack and stop the huge animals, "How far ahead did they get?"

Nami yelled up to her, "Just keep shooting Nojiko! Are you running out of bullets?" She yelled to her sister in concern. After some near misses and some close-calls from some errant rocket fire, Nojiko took the initiative and began covering their advance. Nami had to say that she was very impressed. She had no idea her sister could shoot so well. She hadn't missed a single shot.

Looking down at her younger sister, Nojiko smiled, "Nope! I'm full up! I have more bullets than I know what to do with! Just worry about yourself for now and get ready to fight!" She rubbed the top of the huge Yagura Bull's head, "Gomorrah's doing a good job of keeping his head still enough for me to shoot!" She then went back to doing just that as she cracked off three more shots before reloading. She growled as Gomorrah had to move his head to avoid a rocket coming his way, "This main road is totally choked! I don't think we're going to be getting anymore support from Naruto-kun's clones either, I think they're all gone!"

"We've got to go to the courthouse!" Soren yelled over the sounds of battle, "That old conductor lady Kokoro said that's where Straw Hat and Uzumaki are!" He turned back to the side of the Yagura Bull and fired off an attack at the Marines trying to take them out, "Ibi Ibi no Jakan (Rot Rot Hose)!" From his arms, a steady stream of acid came and hosed the soldiers down, repelling the ones that avoided the hits away from their ride, "This sucks! Me and Nojiko are the only ones out of all of you with any ranged attacks!" He noticed something in front of them and shouted a warning, "Fuck! Watch out!"

A series of large iron balls attached to chains hit the large animal, wounding it heavily. Zoro glared at the new arrivals, a group of large men wielding the weapons that had injured Gomorrah, "Shit, who are these guys supposed to be?" The defeat of the second King Bull sent up a loud cheer among the Marines who finally saw this as a chance to rally and counterattack.

"Damn…" Sanji said as the Marines started surrounding them all, "If we get stopped here then we're done for before we even get started!"

Vivi pointed up at the large gate that Naruto and Luffy had made it to, "Look! That's where Kokoro-san said that Naruto and Luffy were! Are they fighting already?"

"We don't have much of a choice then." Zoro muttered as he and his fellow swordsmen Johnny and Yosaku hand their hands tightly on their blades, "We're just going to have to cut through straight to the courthouse."

Chopper yelled out before any of them could jump off and start fighting their way through the force of Marines, "Don't get off! Gomorrah said, 'Hold on tightly!' So hold on tight!"

Nojiko rubbed Gomorrah head as he slowly raised it off of the ground, "You don't have to keep going. You can stop fighting now." However he still painfully got up off of the ground to keep moving.

Soren patted the King Bull on the back as it stood up, "This thing… this thing is tough as nails…" He took notice of the Marines planning to open fire on Gomorrah to put him down for good this time, "No you don't you bastards! Ibi Ibi no Danmaku (Rot Rot Barrage) He started firing small acidic bullets, machine-gun style from his mouth that hit Marines with deadly accuracy, clearing the area around Gomorrah for the massive animal to struggle to his feet.

As he stood up, Gomorrah immediately ran into a building at his side, quickly alerting Chopper to what was wrong, "Oh no! He can't see! That attack damaged his retinas, he's lost his eyesight!" Gomorrah kept charging forward amid the combat raging around him, "He said that he promised Sodom!" He then noticed that Gomorrah was running right towards the wall, "No stop! It's a dead end! If you hit that wall you'll die!"

Zoro narrowed his eyes at the destination of the King Bull, "I don't see any dead end."

Yosaku took Kubikiribouchou from his back preparing for a fight the second they got past the Marines and their defenses, "You need your eyes checked Chopper, there's no dead-end here." He said solemnly as everyone riding the animal prepared for the sacrifice it was about to make to get them through.

Nojiko stood up on top of Gomorrah's head sadly and gave him a kiss on the top of his head as she prepared to jump off. As everyone prepared for impact, the powerful animal smashed right through the sturdy wall before finally collapsing on the ground, fully spent.

Nojiko landed on her feet and ran to the injured Gomorrah, rubbing the gravely wounded animal's head, "You did great. You got us all in. We're going to get your brother Franky back, and Robin too. Thank you." She put her rifle up and pulled out her pair of pistols as everyone else climbed off of the back of the King Bull. She then ran to the large courthouse that Naruto and Luffy were spotted atop, "Are they up there?"

"There's no way up there." Nami said, before seeing Soren start to claw his way up the side of the wall with his acid technique and Miss Valentine float up above everyone else with her powers, "Nevermind, they can get up there just fine… wait, how is she doing that? I thought she needed wind to do that."

Vivi nodded, "She does. Naruto put something that looked like weird drawing on the inside of her umbrella that activates whenever she opens it up, giving a small gust of wind that lifts her off of the ground." The princess then frowned, "But that doesn't help us though… and the longer I'm out in the open like this the worse things can get for me. What if they can identify me as the princess of Alabasta? We need to get up there and drop that bridge so we can cross."

"Follow us!" Members of the Franky Family said, "We know how to get you up there with Straw Hat and Uzumaki! Follow us through the courthouse!" Seeing the opening to leading inside of the place, they ran inside and engaged the Marines stationed inside waiting for them.

Meanwhile, in the air, Miss Valentine hovered over Naruto's fight with Blueno and couldn't help but smile at what she was seeing.

XxX

(Naruto vs. Blueno)

Blueno was in dire straits as he was using every bit of the speed that Soru provided to keep out of Naruto's reach, and was failing miserably, 'How could someone this strong exist without the World Government taking his seriously sooner?' He was knocked back with a single punch to the face that almost turned his lights out, yet the man with the bull haircut proved to be durable as he never fell down from the hit. He took the punch and attacked Naruto with a single finger, "Shigan (Finger Gun)!"

Naruto backflipped out of the way of the attack, "And you fail again! I was right on the money when I thought that you weren't the strongest! It's probably that Rob Lucci guy!"

Blueno used Soru again while Naruto was in the air from his backflip and rushed at him with his fist drawn back to strike at Naruto's prone body, "Tekkai: Sai (Iron Mass: Smash)!" He hit Naruto's body and watched as it burst into smoke, "What? How?"

"There's never just one of me." Naruto said from a distance away from Blueno, "My clones are always around somewhere, and they're always good enough sports to Kawarimi with me when they see the opening. That's why I love Kage Bunshin no Jutsu so much. My clones are good soldiers." Naruto shook his fist out, "You're fast, but you're not even close to being on the level of that Kizaru guy. I could never keep up with him naturally, but you… it's really easy." He pointed at Blueno, "I'm the strongest man in the entire world. And you may think that's all talk, but I'm going to be proving it very soon. You can say that you fought Uzumaki Naruto before he became famous… if you survive this that is." He looked up at the tower across the way with a glare, "There's only one reason I didn't just dust you here and now. Because I need people to see this, and know that I'll kill them if they don't give me Robin-chan back!" He saw a figure shirk away from the window once he shouted that.

"All talk." Blueno said, "You may be getting the best of me, but there's no possible way that you can beat me in your next move the way you're suggesting you can."

"I said I was going to dust you." Naruto said threateningly, "I never said I was going to do it in one move. Like I said, you're an example. Eat this." Naruto disappeared from his sight.

'I'll counter with my strongest attack, Tekkai: Gou (Iron Mass: Strength)!' His body stiffened up as he shored up his defenses for Naruto's own assault. The stonewall look he took on didn't last as he ended up eating a punch to the face that he swore cracked his jaw.

Naruto followed through with a spin kick to the face, multiple shots to his face and body, and a rising uppercut that launched him into the air. With a mighty yell, Naruto jumped high into the air as well and spun his body around rapidly before kicking Blueno down to the ground hard, "Konoha Moeru Sora (Leaf Burning Sky)! Get up from that big man!"

Blueno's body hit the ground with enough force to crack the entire ceiling portion of the courthouse they were fighting on top of. As Naruto landed, he looked into the smoky crater and saw Blueno's bloodied, motionless body amid the rubble caused.

Naruto took his headband from his pocket and strapped it back around his head, feeling the constricting effect of his seal take hold, "Wrong place, wrong time, wrong person to piss off. Hope you're not paralyzed, but you were just shit out of luck. You all tried to exploit the wrong archaeologist." Naruto sighed and turned to Luffy who watched the entire fight with a grin on his face, "Man… that guy wasted a whole lot of my time."

Luffy laughed, "You kicked his ass! But that still only counts as one person you beat." Naruto rolled his eyes, get Luffy to laugh even more, "I still wish I could have used my new special moves though. But they mess up my body so I guess this is okay too."

Naruto patted him on the shoulder, "Don't worry Luffy. You'll get a crack at one of them. That guy wasn't even the strongest." He then felt the light-as-a-feather feeling of a certain someone drape over his back, "Hi Valentine-chan."

Miss Valentine gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as she looked at the beaten CP9 member, "He didn't hurt you did he? We just now got here and I just now saw the end of the battle."

"I'm fine." Naruto assured her, "He didn't even hit me." He then noticed Soren finish pulling himself to the top of the wall, "Hey Soren, I've got a question."

"Shoot." The acid-spewing man said in reply as he deactivated his claws from climbing.

Naruto pointed to Blueno, "This guy moves a lot like you when you fight, with his speed technique. Do you know anything about it?"

Soren nodded, "Yeah it's called Soru." He laughed sheepishly, "When I first started fighting Marines I kind of stole it from a few of the higher-ups that wound up pursuing me. It took a few years to get down though."

Naruto nodded, 'The way he said that it sounded like he didn't know about the other powers this guy had. Maybe that Soru thing is just the easiest one to learn. That weasel guy on the train apparently hadn't learned them all and he could use it. Meh, it doesn't matter.'

"That's not such a big deal Naruto." Miss Valentine piped up cheerfully, "You torturing me with working on my powers gave me a pretty good speed technique to use in battle as well… among some other techniques that I learned."

Luffy grinned and added his own two cents, "Well if you would have let me fight him you would have seen that I can move that fast too."

"So it _is_ learnable." Naruto said before a grin broke out across his face, "That is just great to know for after we get out of here."

Luffy turned towards the tower across the chasm and shouted at the top of his lungs, "Robin! I've come to get you out of here!"

Naruto's good mood that came after winning a battle then quickly faded as he picked up Blueno from out of the crater his body had been laying in, "If this is the best you assholes have got then cough up Robin-chan right now! Last warning!"

The two waited outside for a long while until Naruto got sick of waiting as did Luffy who actually voiced it out, "Hey! I know that you guys are all in there! Get out here!"

Naruto was seriously considering just taking the whole tower out then and there, but he didn't want to use anything too powerful and wind up bringing the whole tower down, Robin was still inside. Before he could throw the kunai and see if he could make it over someone burst through the front of the tower holding another person, "Franky? And he's got Robin-chan!"

Across the way, Franky used a fence that had been surrounding the portion of wall that he burst through to pull himself and Robin back up, "Super! Alright, that was really close!" He looked over at Robin who he had set down, "You aren't hurt are you?" He looked across the chasm at the courthouse, "Damn if I had one more bottle of cola then I could just clear the gap with a few Coup de Vents and get to the other side… but I can see Straw Hat at the very least." At the sound of more Marines coming after them from inside the tower, Franky turned around angrily and fired off the installed weapons in his left arm, taking out many of them.

"Alright!" Naruto yelled as he flipped the Hiraishin Kunai in his hand, "Luffy, throw me at the tower so I can get the distance to throw the Hiraishin kunai and make it over!" Naruto yelled across the gap, "I'll be over there in a flash Robin-chan! Just wait and I'll get you out of there!"

"It's kind of far." Luffy said as he stretched his arms to get a hold of the edge of the wall as he and Naruto ran backwards to use his rubber body like a slingshot, "But it should still work just fine! Gomu Gomu-!"

"Wait!" The sound of Robin yelling out to them stopped Luffy from attempting to rocket Naruto closer to the tower, "I told you all several times that I'm not coming back so go away! I never want to see any of you again!" She continued to shout angrily at them, "Why'd you come to rescue me?" In surprise to her enraged yells, Luffy let his arms go slack and return normally to his body, "When did I ever ask you to do that?" She took a moment to block a sob before yelling again, "I just want to die!"

Franky looked at her in shock, "What's the matter with you? They risked their necks coming this far and now this?"

"They did that on her own." Robin replied coldly.

"Don't be stu-!" Franky tried to yell back at her before a kick to his head drove him face first into the nearby wall by Kaku.

"Damn it!" Naruto yelled when he saw Franky's figure go down from the attack, "Luffy launch me into the air!" Naruto ran at Luffy and was catapulted into the air by the powerful rubber-man who shouted in exertion from throwing Naruto so hard. As he was high in the air, Naruto put everything he had behind throwing his kunai at the tower, "Robin-chan I told you to never say that stupid shit ever again!"

A man inside the tower with long hair and a strange mask on his face yelled in horror as he saw the lone knife sailing at the tower, "CP9! Stop him!" Blurs landed on the ledge out front of the tower at the man's behest, revealing the four members that had been confronted on the train as well as three new members that Naruto had never seen before.

"Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!" A large number of blades of energy flew from the tower and hit Naruto's kunai, knocking it away.

Naruto growled in anger, "Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu)!" He flashed to the spot where his kunai was in mid-air and as he began falling, he threw it again at the tower only for it to be knocked away again, "You're all just pissing me off more by doing this!" He kept trying to throw the kunai at the tower, but it kept being knocked away. The space between the courthouse and tower were filled with a mini-battle of sorts between repeated bursts of yellow and blue blades of energy in the sky.

Naruto finally threw his kunai back over at the courthouse with Luffy and stood, seething alongside the Straw Hat captain who glared at one CP9 in particular. The man in the black top hat with the pigeon on his shoulder, "I call that guy when we get over there." Naruto simply grunted angrily in response.

Kaku crossed his arms, "Spandam everything is fine. He isn't getting over here like that. If that throwing knife of his makes it over here he can immediately come to wherever it is. It's faster than our Soru, exponentially faster. It's more like Blueno's ability to enter a pocket dimension to move, but it's completely reliant on him getting that weapon where he needs it to be."

The masked man, Spandam laughed raucously at hearing that Naruto's utra-dangerous technique was neutralized from being used here, "Ah, I'm glad that I have the CP9, such powerful people. But this is extremely amusing though as well! The Straw Hat crew is falling apart right in front of us!"

Kalifa looked down at where only Naruto and Luffy were standing, "They made it this far all alone?"

A man in a black suit that looked remarkably like a kabuki player did a strange pose that reminded Naruto strongly of his old sensei, "Yoyoi! Even if they're alone they still made it this far unscathed! That's rather praiseworthy!"

A man with a fu Manchu mustache and a long braid on the back of his head that wore an open suit and no shirt underneath grinned ferally down at them, "Blueno got destroyed by these guys."

Rob Lucci sighed as he stared with his hands in his pockets, "I guess he's lost his touch after being a bar owner for so many years."

"Still…" Kaku said at his side, "Even if he had lost his touch, would he really lose that easily?"

A large man in a black suit with a zipper on his mouth opened it and spoke, "It shouldn't matter, he still lost."

XxX

(With Muret)

Muret sat on the shoulder of one of the two giants that were carrying her, Usopp, and the Galley-La shipwrights further inland. She looked over at Usopp, "I don't know how you managed to get these guys to help us, and I don't really care."

"The courthouse is right there!" Usopp yelled and pointed at the two giants he had managed to turn to their side kept moving forward, "Charge!" The two giants smashed through the unsuspecting defenses of the Marines that had surrounded the courthouse and were trying to get inside to take down the Straw Hats and the Foxhound Pirates who were fighting their way to the top, "We'll be with your comrades in no time my dear doctor!" He tried to say heroically.

Muret turned away and palmed her face, "Yeah… sure." 'Why do I always have to be the one hanging out with the idiots?' She then blinked, "Wait, I might be able to get through more than a few of these guys, but how are we going to fight our way through all of those Marines? You're a long-range fighter anyway." The giant they were riding on grabbed them both from his shoulders in his hands, "Huh?"

Grinning down at the tiny humans in his hands, the giant gave them both a confident smile, "I've got a way to get you two up there!"

XxX

(With Naruto and Luffy)

Luffy stood, not moving an inch for the longest time while Naruto was thinking of some way to get over to the other side. Luffy finally spoke, "Robin do you really want to die?" He asked disbelievingly.

"Yes!" She yelled back.

The man Spandam laughed cruelly, "I don't think I've ever seen anything funnier than this! The captain that came all the way to save his friend and it's all been for nothing! He's been rejected for just trying to rescue her!"

"Naruto was right!" Luffy shouted back in immediate response to Robin's desire to die, "That's really stupid to say out loud!" An explosion directly behind Naruto and Luffy led to Chopper, Nami, and Nojiko emerging through the ceiling to join the scene, "No matter what you say we're going to rescue you anyway! And if you still feel like dying then die afterwards!"

Naruto rapped Luffy on the head hard, "No stupid! It'd be better if she didn't die at all! At least as far as _I'm_ concerned!" While Luffy poked at a lump that rose on his head, Naruto turned to Robin, "But he is right about one thing though. No matter what you say we're getting you back. You don't get a choice in the matter because after all, 'I'm responsible for your ongoing existence.' Am I right?" He said with a grin.

Suddenly, Zoro burst his way through the ceiling followed by Johnny and Yosaku, both of whom were all fired up from having fought their way all through the courthouse to get to the roof, "Man… If we'd thought of just breaking the ceiling in the first place we wouldn't have had to fight so many of those guys."

Yosaku stabbed Kubikiribouchou into the ground and leaned on it, "You suck at following directions Zoro-aniki. How do you get us lost when all you have to do is follow the stairs up?"

Before Zoro could yell at Yosaku about his lack of navigational skill, Sanji broke through the ceiling with a kick before turning to help someone out, "Let me help you Vivi-chan." He said without even noticing the others on the roof, "We're the first ones to get here after all."

Vivi accepted his help as he pulled her up through the hole, "Thank you Sanji, but I don't think we were here first." She said, pointing at all of the others amassed on the roof waving at them.

"Damn it!" Sanji shouted angrily before pointing at Zoro, "How did your directionless ass get here before me?"

"You must have gotten lost." Zoro said with a smirk before a masculine yell and a feminine shriek broke through the air, "What the hell is that?"

Usopp and Muret flew over the side of the courthouse, yelling in fright at the top of their lungs. Nami looked at them in the air, "Sogeking? What's he been doing since we got on the island? And he's got Naruto-kun's doctor with him."

"I wonder if they can land safely." Zoro wondered until the sounds of them crashing into the roof answered his question, "Nevermind…"

Muret stood up and stormed over to the edge of the building she had appeared from, "Don't you ever do that again! Ever! You could have at least said something before you threw us!" She yelled down all the way to the giant that threw her and Usopp.

Standing on the Tower of Justice, the CP9 watched as the area filled with more and more of them, "They just keep coming…" Kaku said before squinting and taking note of a particular blue-haired girl on the roof across the gap, "Hey is that-?"

"Yes." Lucci said, finishing his thought for him, "That's the princess of Alabasta. Nefertari Vivi, the one that has been kidnapped by Uzumaki Naruto."

Hearing Lucci say that Vivi was actually in his presence sent delusions of more power and prestige in the head of the CP9 shot-caller, "This is absolutely incredible! Both Nico Robin and Nefertari Vivi in the same day! In the same area! I'll be the man that captured and delivered the Demon of Ohara and returned the kidnapped princess of an allied nation to her home! They'll promote me right up the ladder, I might even wind up taking Aokiji's spot with this much stature to my name!"

Vivi gasped softly before Naruto moved in front of her, keeping her from seeing the ones that had identified her, "They don't know you're with us on your own Vivi-hime. Don't worry about it. As long as they don't get you I'll still wind up taking the heat for this. Just don't fight."

Taking the placement of the newly added suffix to her name with a smile, Vivi nodded, "Okay Naruto. Does this mean I'm on the crew now?"

Naruto laughed a bit, "Well you came all the way here with us didn't you?" With that said to ease the princess's nerves, Naruto looked back at the tower, "You see Robin-chan? We all made it this far for you and we're just fine! You don't need to sacrifice anything for any of us!"

Luffy nodded in agreement as tears started forming in her eyes, "Whatever you wind up deciding that you want to do, live or die, we want you to say it while you're with us!" All of the Straw Hats called out for Robin to come back with them.

Lucci ignored all of this as he gave orders to his people, "We now officially have permission to kill them."

Spandam laughed again and shouted, pulling a Golden Den Den Mushi from his pocket, "You moron pirates! You need to realize that no matter how brave you are there's nothing you can do in the end! We have the full strength of the assassin group CP9, we have the Gates of Justice that no amount of mere human power can open, and moreover now I have the power to use this Den Den Mushi to trigger the Buster Call!" He noticed Robin gasp in shock at recollection of what that meant, "That's right! It's the power that obliterated your hometown 20 years ago Nico Robin! The name Ohara was never seen on a map again afterwards was it?"

"Stop it!" She shouted at him, "Don't do it!"

Spandam continued to taunt Robin with the use of the Golden Den Den Mushi, "Oooh I like that response, it's very thrilling. I don't know though… I think I _should_ press this Buster Call trigger! What do you think about that?"

Robin screamed at him, "Don't even joke with it! Do you even know what's going to happen when you press that?"

"Of course I know…" Spandam said with a victorious grin, "The chances of these foolish pirates escaping will be zero. With just a push of this button-."

"Shut the fuck up and hit it already then!" Naruto yelled at him, getting everyone's attention, "If _you_ won't fight me, and your CP9 won't fight me then you might as well send _someone_ to fight me!" His foot was tapping the ground impatiently.

"Naruto be quiet, it's not that simple!" Robin cried out to him before turning to Spandam, "You said Ohara disappeared from the map didn't you? But you never said anything about the people that were supposed to be on that map! Something like that should never be used on anything! Ever!" She dropped to her knees in near grief, "If you use the Buster Call now, all of Enies Lobby will be destroyed… along with every single one of us here."

"That's insane!" Spandam disputed, "Our own people won't be killed! Quit babbling!"

"I know from watching it happen myself…" Robin said, "20 years ago the Buster Call took everything away from me. It ended the lives of so many people from just one attack. And now you're going to target the only people that have ever trusted me. The only ones I've ever placed my own faith in. The longer I stay around them the more danger they're all in! No matter what there will always be people in the world that want my life, because my enemy is the entire world!" She yelled off of the tower at the two crews amassed in front of her, "First it was with Aokiji and now this! I've gotten you in terrible danger twice! If this keeps up then you'll all only see me as a burden and eventually you'll betray and abandon me! That's what I'm afraid of! That's why I didn't want you to rescue me!"

Spandam began laughing tauntingly at Robin, "That actually makes sense! It really would be stupid for someone to lug you around all of the time with all of the problems that come with you." He pointed to the top of the building, "See that flag pirates? It represents 170 countries! It spans the 4 blue seas and the entire Grand Line! It _is_ the world!" His yelling seemed delirious at this point, "You have no idea how small you all really are in the grand scheme of things! You all have no idea how great the odds are that are stacked against this woman!"

Luffy shook his head, "I do know who Robin's enemies really are. I completely understand."

Naruto was still anxiously flipping the Hiraishin kunai around in his hand, "I got the point when I fought your CP9 buddy down here. I didn't care then and I still don't care now."

Luffy turned to Usopp, "Sogeking, I want you to burn that flag down."

Usopp nodded and pulled out a long staff with a slingshot base at the end of it, "This is my new weapon, the giant pachinko shooter the 'Kabuto'." Nojiko looked at the pistols in her hand and at Usopp's new sharpshooting weapon with a sense of envy… all it needed to her was a thick part to hit idiots with, "Check out this firepower! Certain death, Hi no Tori Boshi (Fire Bird Star)!" He fired off a fireball that took the shape of a phoenix and went right at the massive flag on the top of the Tower of Justice, engulfing it in flames and incinerating it.

Robin went wide-eyed as she saw how casually they took to doing such an action, "You can't… Do you know what you've just done? Do you know what it means to burn that flag?"

Naruto locked eyes with Robin all the way across the chasm, "Yeah, I do. And I still. Don't. _Care_." He stomped at the edge of the building and leaned forward on his knee, "I'm an old soldier Robin-chan! I couldn't care any less about going to war! I'll fight for you because you're just like me!"

Spandam was beside himself. He thought that his little monologue would have unnerved them enough to keep them away, "You're all out of your minds! Do you really think you all stand a chance against the World Government!"

Luffy shouted angrily at the masked man his exuberant answer to the question, "You're fucking right we do!" He then focused on the captive member of the crew, "Robin! I haven't heard you say it yet! Say that you want to live!"

Freely crying at this point, Robin looked down at everyone that had come this far just for her, 'I thought I wasn't allowed to have a right to live. But if I'm allowed to keep at least a few words alive, then…'

"Come on Robin-chan…" Naruto said under his breath to himself, however he knew that she could understand him, "Say it… give me a reason to tear this place apart for you…. Let me know you really need our help! Say it!"

"I want to live!" She finally exclaimed as loudly as she could, "Take me away from here! I want to keep sailing with all of you for as long as I can! Please get me out of here!" Robin yelled to the heavens.

As if magic, the massive bridge spanning the gap to the Tower of Justice began falling after her declaration to the others, "No!" Spandam yelled in cowardice at the sight of the only thing keeping the two powerful crews away coming down to allow them passage, "Get away! Don't any of you come any closer!" Rob Lucci looked down at both Naruto and Luffy with a grin reflecting excitement at the prospect of battle.

Miss Valentine held her umbrella on her shoulders laughing casually as the bridge slowly fell, "Kyahahaha! It looks like the others finished their job after all." She panned her green eyes over to Naruto, "Orders?"

Naruto looked over at her and back at Vivi, "Keep any and everything that has even the slightest chance of recognizing Vivi any further away from her. If they get her they won't take her home. She'll be a glorified political prisoner of the World Government."

Miss Valentine nodded and looked over at Johnny and Yosaku, "Oi, you two rottweilers, you heard him. No one touches Vivi without losing a limb or two."

Muret pointed her thumb back where they had all come from, "I'm staying here. The Franky Family and the Galley-La guys are still fighting. Maybe I can keep too many of them from getting overly hurt or dying." She smiled humorlessly, "I don't think I'd be any help against anything past this point anyway. I'd just be a hindrance."

"I'm with Nami." Nojiko said, smiling to her sister who returned it, "We never have time to just talk anymore and we need to catch up anyway. And what better way to do that then to fight along with her?" She said cheerfully.

Soren rolled his eyes, "I don't know, maybe talk? I'm just putting that out there." He flinched when he saw Nojiko flip her pistol around in her hand to grab the barrel, "Alright! Just no pistol-whipping please, we're supposed to be on the same side here." He then raised his hand, "I want that guy with the pigeon! He seems like he's got some bite to him!"

"No way!" Luffy yelled in dispute, "I already called that guy when Naruto beat the cow man that came down here earlier! Get your own!"

"Aww…" Soren whined at the fact that Luffy had long since called dibs, "But the rest of them don't look like they're worth it…" He smacked his lips as he looked over the rest of the potential enemies, "Okay then. I call mask-boy." He said pointing at Spandam and grinning evilly as he elicited a yelp of fear from the man, "Yep, he looks like one of those Marines that I told you the world would be better off without. I'm going to savor that one."

Johnny was bouncing on his toes waiting for the bridge to drop, "Come on already… I want to show Zoro-aniki my mad skills."

"You don't have any 'mad skills'." Yosaku taunted, "I'm the talent here, you're my sidekick." He said before getting kicked in the side of the head by an angry Johnny.

Zoro ignored them for the most part and stood with his fingers drumming the hilt of one of his swords, "Drop the bridge, let's go!"

Naruto locked eyes with the teary-faced Nico Robin in the Tower of Justice and gave her a calming smile, "We're going to get you out of there Robin-chan. It's the promise of a lifetime. These guys can't stop any of us."

Luffy punched his palm hard and grinned, ready to fight as he started cracking his knuckles, "Just hold on tight Robin. We'll be right there in no time!"

* * *

**Chapter done. And I'm feeling rather inspired to get to the portions of this that I actually want to write very, very badly. Namely, the Foxhound Pirate fights for this arc, because I'm not having them fight CP9. I have something cool planned for them and the CP9 fights were all litmus tests for the Straw Hats, so I can't take them. Naruto especially will be having quite a cool conflict in this arc. One that everyone should enjoy very much for multiple reasons mark my words. I will be skipping the bulk of the CP9 fights except one because it directly involves one of Naruto's crew and nothing will change for anyone else.**

**Anyway, expect another chapter of this in the next one or two days at the most because I won't be doing jack shit Saturday morning and afternoon, and I can sit down and write a chapter up in that much time. It's all in my head already planned tit for tat, I just need to type it.**

**So until next time friends. Same Kenchi profile, same Kenchi style… um, Kenchi out.**


	25. Get Down To Business

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I do however own the hearts and minds of thousands… and by thousands I mean YOU! Now rise up! Rise up my army of disgruntled readers! Rise up and get me the rights to Naruto and/or One Piece… so that you actually have to pay me for shit like this instead of reading it for free.

Actually… the vast unadulterated majority of you would still read it for free no matter what so nevermind. BUT, I would get the licensing rights and that is more dollar than I would know what to do with.

**Chapter 25: Get Down To Business**

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On the inside of the Tower of Justice on the bottom floor, a battle continued to rage between the Marines and the government agents against Johnny and Yosaku.

"Hey Johnny." Yosaku asked off-handedly as he swung Kubikiribouchou mightily in a horizontal direction, cutting down six Marines in the process, "Do you ever think that we're always going to be the ones stuck with playing clean-up, or buffer, or whatever?" He pondered to his partner as he lifted the massive sword in his grasp to block a wave of bullets with the flat of the sword.

Johnny was standing roughly twenty feet away with his sword in his sheath as he dodged and weaved through the strikes from the Marines after him, "I'm pretty sure that I don't know what you're talking about." He said in an exasperated manner before quickly drawing his sword and slashing so quickly that all that was seen was a silver blur, "Yosen Ikssen (Primary Flash)!" The single motion took down several Marines unlucky enough to be in his range.

Yosaku lifted Kubikirihouchou over his head and slammed it into the ground, "Inryoku Tsukamidasu (Gravity Grabber)!" A destructive trail ripped through the ground straight ahead, engulfing the tons of Marines that had been storming towards him until that point, "You know what I'm talking about Johnny! How we never really get cool fights and we always end up fighting the weak guys like this, only we have to fight like a hundred of them."

"We've fought way more than one-hundred at this point! We've been doing this for fifteen minutes!" Johnny jumped over am attacker, landing before breaking into a sprint towards another group of Marines with his superior speed, pumping an absurd amount of force to his leg muscles, forcing him to blur as he appeared sporadically in elaborate slashing motions in the middle of the crowd before blurring again and again, finally appearing on the other side of roughly twenty Marines as he kept running off to fight more, "Suberu J (Sliding J)!" As he ran off, a spray off blood emerged from the Marines he had just run through as they dropped to the ground defeated, "We'd probably be fighting someone important if _you _didn't grab onto me like a scaredy cat when that train came through to jump the half-bridge. You got us both knocked out! I could have grabbed a hold of Luffy's rubber body like the others!

Yosaku groaned, "Shut up about that you crybaby! It wasn't my fault I got knocked out by that big ass train when it flew through! Who jumps a train across a half-extended bridge? Even Naruto-aniki carried Nojiko-aneue and Vivi across with his Hiraishin instead of taking that crash!" He said as he blocked a flying iron ball with the flat of his blade, "Don't break the sword you asshole!" He yelled as he attacked the large man that threw it.

Johnny grit his teeth as he resheathed his sword and ducked through the attacks directed at him, "Where the fuck did all of these people come from? I thought that the CP9 guys were the only ones in here!"

"Yeah, sure, just seven people guarding this whole tower? Shut up and keep fighting!" Miss Valentine said from the top of the stairs as she kept Vivi behind her in case anyone got past the two swordsmen, "We can't follow directly after them because we don't need these idiots trying to slow our guys down from behind."

Both Johnny and Yosaku yelled at the bright blonde woman at the same time as they stopped fighting to glare at her, "Then get your ass down here and fight if you don't like how we're doing it!" Yosaku then pointed at the Rocket Man train that had launched into the tower, "And why'd you get out of the train? You should have kept her in there with the old lady conductor and the little girl!"

"They're civilians you dumbass!" Miss Valentine yelled down at them as the two embattled crewmates continued hacking through any Marine that got close enough for them to vent on, "The Marines think that we kidnapped them and made them get us in! We can't take cover with them or they'll think something's up and we'll have to protect them too!"

"This sucks!" The two young swordsmen yelled at the woman who apparently directing Foxhound Pirate traffic as they continued to battle their way through the Marines when Johnny identified where they were coming from, "Oi! There's stairs going down over there! How many floors in this place are there? This tower is huge!" Johnny pushed his sunglasses up on his face, "I'm going down there!"

Yosaku swung Kubikiriboucho, smashing the flimsy swords that the Marines wielded, "If you're going to go then hurry your ass up." Before he could even add anything to it, Johnny had vanished in a blur, "Man Naruto-aniki was right when he said we don't need the weights anymore." He decided to pick up the slack for his partner with one attack, "Keruberosu no Hitsuuna Koe (Yowl of Cerberus)!"

Yosaku swung the massive sword three times, letting off three blades of jagged energy in forward directions that hit the Marines in groups and cut into them. A grin came to himself when Johnny came dashing through the advancing crowd of ever present Marines, cutting them down and returning to his side, "So what'd you find?"

Johnny held up four fingers with a deadpan look on his face, "Four floors… There are four floors underneath this one and we're on the ground level." He then threw a mini-fit, "Who the fuck built this place?" He then lashed out at a misplaced Marine with his uchigatana, "Gah!"

"You'd better be glad that this place is so huge." Yosaku said, taking cover behind Kubikiribouchou to prevent being hit by bullets, "Because this place is going to be torn apart by the end of the day." He then looked over at the crashed Rocket Man and blinked, "Wait… where did that little girl and the rabbit go?"

_(Flashback)_

_Appearing in a yellow flash, Naruto kicked an unconscious Yosaku in the body after setting Nojiko and Vivi onto the ground safely, "Wake up already and watch Vivi." He looked at the princess, "Stay with Yosaku, Johnny, and Miss Valentine. Do not let anyone get a hold of you, okay?" Vivi nodded and stood by Yosaku trying to awaken him._

"_Stairs!" Luffy said as he pointed at them, "Let's get to where Robin is, quickly!"_

"_Wait!" There was the large man with the zipper on his mouth attached to the wall in a corner of the room with his hands and feet, "Chapapapa! You've invaded! Well-!"_

_He was cut off from talking when a Hiraishin kunai appeared in front of him, followed by a yellow flash, an angry look on Naruto's face who had his headband off, and a fist with nothing but bad intentions behind it that pounded the unprepared man into the wall harshly, cracking the super-thick stone behind him, "I don't have time for this tons-of-fun, I'm going to get Robin-chan back." He jumped off of him and went his way up the stairs._

"_Wow…" Nami said in complete awe. She had never seen Naruto's Hiraishin before, and neither had anyone else on the Straw Hat crew other than Luffy._

_Dropping from the wall, the man, Fukurou, stood up with a violent red mark of Naruto's fist on his face, "Ugh… measuring…" He said to himself before his eyes went wide, "That Douriki… there's just no way." He said as blood came from his busted mouth, "It must have been wrong. He caught me unaware and I wasn't able to accurately measure it. Yes, that has to be it." He wiped his mouth and continued talking, "You cannot rescue Nico Robin unless you beat us and get these keys to the Seastone cuffs that bind her."_

_Nami palmed her face, "God, I wish Naruto-kun would have been able to see that when he knocked this guy's block off… now we _have_ to fight him._

"_Without the key you'll never get the cuffs off." Fukurou taunted, "They're as hard as diamond and will last an eternity!"_

"_Hand it over!" Luffy said, launching a punch that missed him and hit the wall, cracking the thick stone further, 'This guy can use that speed technique too?'_

_Fukurou held up his hand, "Hold on there hot shot! I haven't even told you if this was the real key yet." He said surprising them all, "In this tower there are five CP9 agents and each of them has a key. Any one of them can be the real key to the Seastone handcuffs."_

_Nami grit her teeth, "They're trying to buy time to get Robin to the Gates of Justice. Damn it, we have to scramble to take the key because we don't know which one is real."_

_Nojiko had a smirk on her face, "Well then Naruto-kun has the right idea. Get Robin first and _then_ we can worry about the keys."_

"_True…" Fukurou said before holding the key up, "But then again I could just throw the key into the sea and then you have nothing! We were just giving you a chance! Goodbye!" He said before running away with Soru._

(End Flashback)

XxX

While Naruto and Luffy searched the tower like mad for Robin, the other Straw Hat pirates along with Nojiko had engaged the members of CP9… while Soren looked for Spandam so that he could, for lack of a better term, melt him.

As the battles began throughout the multiple floors of the monstrous tower, Naruto and Luffy had somehow found their way to the floor where they knew Robin had been on. Naruto beat Luffy there and was frantically looking around, "Come on… there's a trapdoor or something here somewhere." He said to Luffy as he darted all over the room in search, "Where could they go from here?"

Luffy and Naruto ignored the sound of the crashes of battle all below them, only stumbling slightly as it felt as if the upper levels of the tower had shifted slightly as the rubber-man spoke, "We know where they're going. Then we'll just have to head straight there."

Naruto's eyes widened as he remembered the massive gate that they all saw looming behind the island, "Luffy you're the smartest dumb person I've ever met in my entire life and I love it. Let's go!" He yelled as they both ran towards the hole that Franky had made in the wall and jumped out.

Landing outside on a stone wharf, the two stared out at the ocean between the Tower of Justice and the imposing Gates of Justice. Luffy frowned and scratched his head, "For some reason I thought there was supposed to be a bridge or something. But what the hell is with the water? Can a regular boat even get us there?" He said as he saw a small little rowboat nearby.

Naruto frowned as he looked at the water, "Whirlpools." Huge whirlpools with absolutely no wiggle room between them completely spanned the miles of water between the Tower of Justice and a prominent platform in front of the Gate of Justice, "I can't walk on that, and all of my water ninjutsu make the waters tumultuous, not calmer."

"What if she's there already?" Luffy said worriedly, "We don't have time to just sit here and think about it, we have to do something!" He immediately jumped in the rowboat and started paddling as fast as he could.

Naruto screamed far more shrilly than any grown man should sound, "Aah! Luffy! Stop being stupid!" He yelled as Luffy immediately was overturned in the violently churning waters and nearly drowned, "Suiton: Mizu no Muchi (Water Release: Whip of Water)!" A whip of water formed from the ocean into Naruto's hand as he wrapped it around Luffy's wrist that was flailing about above water. Once he had Luffy back on land he stepped on the back of his head, "You can't get across whirlpools in a boat!"

"He's right you know!" A little girl in pigtails accompanied by a rabbit said, "You're pretty dumb for trying that! I know the way to the gate! Baldy with the acid powers found it and told me to tell you guys that pigeon-man went down there!"

Naruto blinked, "Soren found it? And that jerk didn't even try to tell anyone else?" He said angrily, "I'm going to kick his ass when I see him again after this is all over!" He started ranting to himself angrily, all fired up about Robin being gone towards the gate.

"What are we waiting for!" Luffy shouted, picking up the little girl and the rabbit, "Let's go!" He took off with them, leaving Naruto behind as he kept fuming about stupid bald guys and how they can't inform their captains about anything.

Eventually he stopped ranting to himself and realized that Luffy was gone. Naruto looked around and yelled, "Yeah okay! You go that way! I'll be fine out here… not knowing where the tunnel is!" He looked at the Tower of Justice, "It's going to take too long for me to search that thing on my own and I can't send off more than a few Kage Bunshin right now after what I set up for."

He then turned back towards the turbulent water and the Gate of Justice off in the distance, "This is going to suck… because I am not risking the Hiraishin kunai on that water…" He stepped back a far distance and got a running start before jumping as far and as high as he could, not getting anywhere near getting close before forming the Kage Bunshin hand-sign, "Kage Bunshin Kyoudan (Kage Bunshin Platform)!" A clone formed under his falling body that Naruto jumped off of, allowing him to jump further over the water. He repeated the process with another clone, and then another, as he used this to cross the way, "I'll cut 'em off at the pass, dattebayo!"

XxX

(With Luffy)

He had followed the little girl's directions to get to a hidden stairwell where at the bottom he found an unmovable and tightly sealed iron door that would take some serious force to open were it not for the fact that-, "He burned his way through?" Luffy asked the little girl with him.

"Yep!" She replied cheerfully, "I told baldy that I heard that ugly masked guy laughing behind a wall somewhere and he just melted a hole where I told him I heard it and we found the stairs down here… then he just pressed his body up against the door and he just started burning through it and said 'come back in a few minutes and it'll be open' so I went to find you!"

Luffy grinned, "Thanks a lot Chimney! I'll be catching up in no time now!" He said as he thanked the little girl as ran through the human-sized hole in the door through an underground passage, "Just wait for me Robin! I'll send that pigeon guy flying and get you out of here!" Luffy sprinted at full-speed through the tunnels in an effort to catch up to the people that had Robin

XxX

(With Soren)

Further down the path, Soren was running at a swift pace however he was moving slower than he could as he pondered what he had gotten himself into, "I am a pirate with a 200 milion beli bounty running through a narrow-ass tunnel towards the Gate of Justice all by myself and I'm operating on half a tank right now… This is hands down the single stupidest thing that I have ever done." He chuckled bitterly, "I am moving towards the gates that can take me to Impel Down because Uzumaki wants Nico Robin back… the things I do for friends." He then stopped as he heard loud rapid footsteps behind him, "Is that Uzumaki or-?"

His question was answered when Luffy barreled past him, knocking him aside into the wall of the tunnel, "Sorry acid-guy, but you were all in the middle of the tunnel and you weren't moving!"

Soren sat on the ground against the wall, holding a lump on his head with an angry look on his face as he stood back up and dusted himself up, "Don't turn Straw Hat into a puddle… you need that acid. Don't turn Straw hat into a puddle… you need that acid." He kept repeating this mantra to himself as he began to run after Luffy through the tunnel.

XxX

(With Nami and Nojiko)

Both girls lay on the floor of a large bathroom right by the door to the room. Nojiko pulled herself on her hands and knees, gripping her pistols tightly and shakily as she was unable to pick them up, "Nami… did we just get the crap kicked out of us by some woman laying in a bathtub?" She asked as she glared at Kalifa who was carelessly taking a bath as if they both weren't in the room with her.

"Um… yep." Nami said, crawling up as well, trying to get back to her feet, "I can't even sit here and pretend that we didn't just walk in here and get smashed just now. What even happened? All I remembered was walking in and then feeling my energy leave me."

"What exactly was that supposed to be girls?" Kalifa taunted from inside the tub, "You're both done already? The fight has just started and it's already over."

"Shouldn't she be powerless?" Nami asked her sister as for some reason they both found it hard to stand up, "She's submerged in water."

"Don't you worry your pretty little head about that. Right now you're both as powerless as me." Kalifa said as she stood up out of the tub to dry herself off and change into her clothes, "Excuse me for a moment."

Nami snapped at her as the woman began placing her clothes on, "What did you do to us?"

"Half the fun of fighting a user of the Devil Fruit is finding out their powers for yourself." Kalifa said as she slowly kept getting dressed, "I won't take away the last bit of fun you two will be having with the short remainder of your lives."

Nojiko finally found the strength in her body to lift her pistols up, "I'm getting my strength back. How about you Nami?"

"I can move my legs again…" She said, as the two slowly stood back up, "Alright, it's time to show her just how strong the Perfect Clima-Tact is!" She charged up the thunder ball portion of her staff and swung it at Kalifa, "Sanda Chauji: Suingu Aumu (Thunder Charge: Swing Arm)!" She sent a powerful electric attack at Kalifa who seemed as if she hadn't been fazed. Not deterred, Nami smirked as she detached a portion of her staff, "Well I wasn't just laying around the entire time that we were down." She fired a thunder ball at a cloud that had subtly amassed over Kalifa close to the ceiling, "Sandauboruto Tenpo (Thunderbolt Tempo)! This is what you get for underestimating us!"

Lightning from the cloud blasted Kalifa's body harshly before the smoke from the attack cleared to reveal a shield that then dissolved to reveal Kalifa unharmed. Nojiko narrowed her eyes at the dissolving substance, "Are those bubbles? What the hell?"

Nami was sweating nervously, "Maybe that fruit she ate turned her into a soap-woman or something?" She noticed Nojiko giving her a deadpan look and took on a defensive tone, "Hey don't say anything about it. I've seen weirder powers than that out here."

"That's right though, good guess…" Kalifa admitted to them rather reluctantly before regaining her confidence, "I've become a soap-woman after eating the Awa Awa no Mi (Bubble Bubble Fruit) and I can now produce bubbles from any part of my body. I'm cleanliness personified."

Nojiko raised an eyebrow and rubbed her head with his pistol, "But isn't a fruit like that inconvenient for fighting? It doesn't look very strong. I think I can shoot right through it."

Kalifa laughed slightly, "But I can control the bubbles any way I want to." She used her hands and motioned them towards the tub she had just gotten out of to begin directing the large amounts of bubbles from it. Instead of attacking, she used the bubbles to form a shape around her body, "Awatsukai: Sekkenyou (Bubble Master: Soap Sheep)!"

Both girls stared at her with twitching eyebrows due to the stupid looking technique before Nojiko lifted both of her pistols and took aim at Kalifa, "Right… I'm going to shoot her now." She said, getting a reply of 'feel free' from Nami.

"Appearances can be deceiving girls." Kalifa warned, "Hitsuji Gumo Relax Awa (Sheep Cloud Relax Bubble)!" Large puffs of the foam that had been forming the sheep shape on her body flew off of Kalifa at the two girls, "Why do you both think you lost your power when your first came in?"

'We walked in and the floor was covered in bubbles!' They both concluded in their minds as Nami was caught in the shoulder with one of the puffs. Nojiko tried to shoot through the bubbles but before she could pull the trigger, she was hit on her right hand and left forearm with bubbles.

"Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!" Kalifa launched a wave of energy at the two girls that hit them hard and knocked them along the ground, "Don't forget that I'm still an assassin in addition to having these powers of mine."

Nojiko growled and stood up, as the last attack blew the bubbles off of them both and gave her enough strength back to get up, "Hinekuru Kanaria (Spinning Canary)!" Nojiko spun around rapidly and fired off every shell of both of her pistols before pulling her shotgun from her back and letting off a thunderous blast at Kalifa.

"Soru (Shave)." Kalifa vanished from Nojiko's view, however, as if directed by a sixth sense, the gun-toting girl turned around before Kalifa could attack her from behind and attempted to smash her with the butt of her shotgun only for it to be blocked by Kalifa's forearms, "I don't know how you kept up with me. Your eyes shouldn't have been able to follow me at that speed." She then proceeded to kick Nojiko in the stomach and send her across the room once more.

Nami watched her sister take the damaging kick and shouted out to her, "Nojiko!" However before she could respond, Kalifa was behind her now, rubbing the bubbles from her Devil Fruit on her legs, "Wha-? I can't move!" She yelled as she fell to the ground, "My legs!"

Nami's legs were coated with a shiny luster and altered in appearance. Kalifa laughed at Nami's immobile form, "Gouruden Awa (Golden Bubble). Isn't it beautiful? Allow me to make every inch of your skin shiny, just like this."

XxX

(With Soren – Bridge of Hesitation – Prop Interior)

"Stupid Straw-Hat…" He muttered as he continued to run, "Knocking me out of the way… couldn't even say excuse me or anything… Jerk." He then came upon a door that had been busted open, leading to an open area where he saw Luffy and Rob Lucci facing off with one another, "Oh shit…" He muttered to himself as he stuck to the far wall and slowly tried inching his way around the length of the room intended for their battle, "I'm not here… I was never here... None of you saw me…" He whispered softly as the two stared at each other intently ignoring his presence, "I'm just going to go around… and let you two hash this one out."

He made it to the other end of the room and smirked as he had bypassed the conflict, when he saw a shut massive steel door ahead of him, "Fuck… This again?" He whispered to himself before he activated his acidic skin and pressed his body to the door as he slowly began eating through the thick metal with a low hiss noise emitting from it, 'This is going to take even more time. And it's draining my acid stores doing this for so long.'

As Luffy and Rob Lucci began coming to blows, Soren blocked the sounds of the tumultuous battle going on behind him out as he focused on working through the door.

XxX

(With Spandam and Nico Robin)

Spandam was crying tears of fear as he ran frantically and dragged the shackled Nico Robin with one arm up the stairs, "Hurry up! Damn it! What did I do to deserve this? How did those pirates make it all the way down here?" He quickly pulled a Den Den Mushi from his pocket and pushed it down repeatedly, "Hello? CP9 respond! What are you doing? There's pirates down here!" He got no response and panicked further, "Goddamn it are you listening to me!"

Robin noticed what he was pressing on and gasped. It was the _Golden_ Den Den Mushi, "What? No!"

Spandam was now crying freely in fear, "No! What the hell did I do now? I triggered the Buster Call! This island is done for!" He pulled out the real Baby Den Den Mushi that he was trying to use to communicate with the other government troops on the island, never realizing that he had turned that one on as well… and had projected his ranting to the CP9, the pirates currently fighting them, the entire island of Marines, and all of the other troops.

"What the hell have you done?" Robin cried out, "Cancel it! Cancel it now!"

Spandam sneered at her and continued dragging her along, the Den Den Mushi still active, "Cancel it? Who do you think you're talking to? Bring it on! I'm the chief of Cipher Pol No.9! In order to deliver you to the World Government and return the princess Nefertari Vivi to her home safely I triggered the Buster Call! That's a good enough cause to do so isn't it? It will slaughter all of the pirates and save the day!"

"You're such an idiot!" Robin yelled as he continued to drag her up the stairs, "There's absolutely nothing controlled or even remotely human about that attack! It will raze every single thing on the island to the ground; the buildings, the people, even the island itself! It will eradicate everything without prejudice to carry out its goal! That's what the Buster Call truly is! You have your own stupid way of categorizing it because you weren't at Ohara 20 years ago!"

"That's fine!" Spandam said manically, "That just shows how important this is for the government! Now that the Pluton blueprints are gone you're the only way to get us the ancient weapon! And returning Nefertari Vivi from that upstart Uzumaki Naruto will only assert our power and strengthen ties with Alabasta! We will have free and full use of their soldiers as our own! Military strength that will overturn an era is dependent on it. Even if several thousand soldiers die here, as long as the idiots who are trying to take you away are dealt with we can say that it's a necessary sacrifice for a glorious future!" He cruelly laughed even more, "Most importantly my promotion depends on this!"

Robin tried to dig her feet in, but with the Seastone cuffs on her she was as weak as a normal powerless woman, "What do you think human lives are?"

Spandam jerked her along angrily, "CP9 is the World Government's secret intelligence organization. If 100 need to die to save 1000 then we'll kill those 100 on the spot. Sacrifice is required for true justice. And either way those useless soldiers are better off dead! They couldn't stop a group of measly loser pirates!"

Nico Robin smirked as she could see the Baby Den Den Mushi he was still holding in his other hand, "That Den Den Mushi is active."

Spandam paled and stopped to look at it to find that she was right, "Um…B-By the way… This is Straw Hat Luffy." He lied pitifully to try and cover up everything he had said out loud.

Robin shouted as loud as she could so that the others could hear her, "Everyone please get off of the island! The Buster Call is aimed at Enies Lobby! No one that remains on this island will survive!"

Spandam reared back and slapped her across the face, dropping her on the stairs, "Don't tell them that!" He said as he dropped the Den Den Mushi, allowing the broadcast to end as he kept dragging her along.

XxX

(With Soren)

Soren had finally burned his way through the door, nearly completely exhausting the acid in his body so that he could subtly eat his way through without alerting Lucci away from his fight with Luffy. After making his way through, he slowly started making his way up the massive stairwell that lay behind when he heard all of Spandam and Robin's conversation far further up in the massive spiral staircase, 'Oh man, oh man, oh man! I'm heading right towards the Gate of Justice with this Buster Call thing coming right for me! I'm so screwed! Whatever it is I'm going to be hit with it first! And I haven't rehydrated since we left Water 7 to come here! I've been running and fighting and using powers nonstop!'

He stopped and leaned against the wall on the side of him before he quickly squashed that negative thought, 'Fuck it! If this is really how I'm going out then I'm taking that woman beating piece of shit ahead of me down kicking and screaming with me!'

Taking a deep breath of courage as he was about to face off first, right off of the bat, against a military power that struck fear in the heart of one even as notoriously infamous as Nico Robin, Soren pulled his flask of lemon juice from one of his pockets and took a deep and long swig. As he sighed in contentment of his thirst being quenched, Soren smacked his palm against the wall as it began to slowly melt a deep handprint into the stone, signifying that he was refilling his acidic stores of power, "Spandam! I'm going to melt your still beating heart in your chest you bastard!" He yelled up the towering stairs as he felt his body's hydration refill and his acid regain its potency, "Just need to wait to finish recharging…"

XxX

(With Johnny, Yosaku, Miss Valentine, and Vivi)

The pirates and the Marines all stopped fighting after the announcement from Spandam echoed from the Den Den Mushi that was downstairs. Everyone stood with looks of shock, awe, and in some cases complete and utter horror on their faces.

Miss Valentine raised her hand to offer up a thought, "Um… how is everyone getting out of here?"

With that being said, all of the Marines yelled in fear and ran outside of the tower, scrambling all over the island in terror and panic. Johnny pushed his sunglasses up on his face to hide his bulging eyes, "All for getting our asses the hell out of dodge?"

"Aye!" The three others all chimed unanimously as Vivi eagerly hit her palm with her fist, "That's it! All we have to do is find that way to the Gate of Justice that the strange man Spandam took Nico Robin through. That should be far away enough from this island shouldn't it?"

Johnny and Yosaku both shot her an enthusiastic pair of thumbs-ups, "Good plan princess!" Johnny patted his friend on the shoulder as Vivi giggled and gave them a victorious peace sign, "You see? I guess that whole thing about royalty having more common sense was true after all."

"Right!" Yosaku said before taking on a pondering look, "That, _or_ she had to have a kamic balance for all of the shit that she walked us into that nearly killed us in Alabasta's desert, and that made up for it in the form of her _actually_ coming through with a common sense idea." Vivi glared at Yosaku, pumping her fists angrily and wishing that she could just hit him and be done with it.

"Or…" Miss Valentine started, "And stay with me here..." She said, getting everyone's attention, "You guys can all run for your lives trying to find that tunnel and get to somewhere that might not kill you but still probably will, and I on the other hand will fly away with my umbrella, _away_ from the Gate of Justice… and avoid everything altogether!" She started laughing when she felt all three of them direct intent to kill at her, "Kyahahahaha! I was just kidding! …Kind of…" She added under her breath before perking back up, "Now let's find that tunnel!" She said, getting everyone to begin scrambling about looking for the way to the Gate of Justice, "…Because no matter what I'll still be able to fly away even if we don't." Miss Valentine said to herself before laughing and searching for the way out herself with the others.

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto was still jumping from clone to clone over the seas that he was repeatedly forming and dispelling in the air one-by-one as he felt a tickle in the back of his head that was trying to tell him that something important had just happened, "I'm so glad I made those clones to go off and hide on those summoning scrolls earlier… because I think I'm going to have to act a bloody fool in just a bit." He then growled at the ongoing waters he was passing over, "Why is this bridge so far out of the way! How is this convenient to anyone?"

XxX

(With Nojiko and Nami)

"Poor little dears." Kalifa said as Nojiko coughed up blood, pulling herself to her hands and knees, "You don't even have the slightest hope anymore do you?"

Nami, still unable to stand up, scoffed, "Please, save all of that overflowing concern you have. We're all used to situations like this. Each and every one of us!"

XxX

(With Muret)

All of the members of the Franky Family and the Galley-La shipwrights that had been defeated earlier had been captured and left in the courthouse as the Marines all fled towards the front of the island to escape, "We're all going to die… They left us all here." Peeply Lulu said.

Paulie sighed as he had a lit cigar in his mouth, "Oh be men will you? If we're going to die then go out with some pride. If it's over it's over, right?"

"Not really." Muret said, as she ran down the stairs leading from upstairs, "I'm still here." She pulled a pair of razor-sharp scalpels from her pack and began cutting them free, "I'll have you all free in no time at all!" She winked reassuringly at the captured men as she began to cut them free, "I still need you guys to help me get out of here. I can't do anything on my own."

When she got to Paulie he responded calmly, "No that's okay." He said as the ropes around his body dropped and she remembered his ability.

Muret's eye twitched as a tick mark formed on her head, "You tied yourself with your own ropes… that's why you were trying to act so cool just now." She palmed her face, "Ugh, just… just help me get everyone else free." She fumed to herself and returned to freeing the captured allies of her crew, "I'm always around the most uncool people that just swear that they're awesome."

XxX

(Nami and Nojiko vs. Kalifa)

Kalifa pocketed the Baby Den Den Mushi she had heard Spandam's message through, "Well it looks like things will be getting busy around here soon. If we stay in the tower with the rest of you our lives will be in danger too."

Nami glared at her and stood back up with help from her staff as her legs were still covered from Kalifa's last attack, "If you're going to run then drop your key and leave. You won't need it."

Kalifa vanished with Soru and appeared behind Nami, "I'm sorry. I wanted to have more fun with you first." She grabbed her around her body as bubbles flowed from her body and began coating Nami completely, starting with her waist and going up over her hands, just like her legs, "But it's unfortunate that we have to evacuate so quickly. Goruden A-!"

"Get away from my sister!" Nojiko shouted with her pistols lined up directly beside each other. The tops of them each had a semi-circle with designs drawn on them that when joined made a complete seal, "Sora no Kajougakifuu (Wind Blank Bullet)!" From the barrels of both pistols, a ball of air formed, slightly larger than both holes of both barrels and fired with a small shockwave of air emitting instead of a muzzle flash that would occur with regular bullets.

Kalifa let go of Nami and encased herself in a hardened shield of bubbles to escape harm instead of using Soru to move. However when the compressed ball of air hit the wall it burst with incredible concussive force and knocked Kalifa's shield back into the far wall, cracking both the wall, and blowing away most of the shield on impact, revealing a slight portion of Kalifa's body before the shield dissolved back into normal bubbles.

Still unharmed from the attack however, Kalifa glared at Nojiko who had let both pistols fall to her side as she was breathing heavily, "That attack was rather lucky. I wasn't aware that you could use attacks like that. I just assumed you were some little girl with guns. I won't let this happen again." She vanished in a blur and reappeared in front of Nojiko who was once again ready to respond, but still didn't seem to have the speed to do so, "Shigan (Finger Gun)!" She stabbed through Nojiko's body with her finger only for it to be revealed as a fake that dispersed into haze.

"That's so cute…" Kalifa heard Nojiko's voice from the other side of the room, "You call that a gun." She thought she saw Nojiko and rushed over again to stab her only for it to be revealed as another fake.

Nami's voice laughed as it echoed in the massive room, "She really can't find us. You're a good distraction Nojiko."

"Shut up Nami." Nojiko grumbled in response.

Before the fight could continue, through the floor of the room crashed a massive furred figure with a large red hat on its head. It let out a roar, alerting Kalifa to its presence as she turned to fight it, "Which one of you two were the Zoan Devil Fruit user?" She said, mistaking the monster as either Nami or Nojiko.

The appearance of the monster was actually very similar to one other person that they knew, especially the red hat on its head, "Chopper?" Nami wondered as she could finally find the resemblance, 'How could this monster be sweet little Chopper?' She saw Nojiko slowly lift her pistols for another attack and lowered her sister's arms to prevent her from shooting Chopper. In this case it would either injure him, or just piss him off.

Kalifa didn't get that memo, "Geppou (Moon Step)!" She began jumping off of the air at Chopper before kicking him right in the face, "Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!"

Chopper took the kick as if he had seemingly wondered what had just happened. Nami moved forward slightly, "Chopper are you alright? Why do you look like that?"

Instead of any kind of intelligible response, Chopper attempted to smash Nami and Nojiko into the ground with a massive paw. Nojiko had to grab Nami due to her immobility and dive with her out of the way, "Yes, because calling out to the giant monster that just busted through the floor is always a good idea." She said sarcastically.

"Why doesn't he recognize me?" Nami asked as she saw Chopper attacking a dodging Kalifa, "My upper body still looks normal, or is it because he isn't Chopper anymore?" She and Nojiko stood back up, ready to move again, "Chopper what happened to you? It's me, Nami! Calm down!" Chopper ripped up Kalifa's massive bathtub straight out of the ground and threw it at all of the women, missing them and sending it sailing through the wall to Kalifa's room and down over the balcony outside, "No! Sanji was supposed to be at the bottom of the stairs out there!"

Letting out a loud roar, Chopper charged at Kalifa, Nami, and Nojiko. One of them avoided him better than the other two did, as he ran through the wall he had already broken and ran through the halls of the tower on a rampage.

Nami tried to stand up on her hard to mobilize legs, "We need hurry and stop Chopper before he does something to one of the others."

Nojiko held her head where a piece of wall had hit her and gave her a nasty gash, "How are we going to do that? This bubble-lady kicked him right in the face and he barely even flinched."

"That's your comrade?" Kalifa asked incredulously, "What a creepy pet. You sure are a weird group of pirates." The CP9 assassin got a tick mark on her head when she realized that the girls were ignoring her in favor of Chopper, "How insolent… It's none of my business how you stop that monster, but my duty is to stop _you_ so I'll just end this quickly! Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!"

Nojiko shoved Nami away from her as the blade of energy passed between them, "How am I supposed to try and fight her and help Nami escape at the same time? If I break off to try anything she'll just keep attacking Nami and she can't dodge any attacks with her legs covered in that slippery stuff."

"Nojiko cover me!"

The gunslinging girl turned and got a mortified look on her face when she saw Nami running away on her own, "Nami! What do you think you're doing?"

"I can get the soap off with water!" She yelled to her sister.

Nojiko gasped and then nodded before lifting her pistols back at Kalifa.

_(Flashback – Day Before Arrival at Water 7)_

"_Okay Noji-chan, check it out. I am a genius." Naruto said as he showed her all of her arsenal of guns laying on the desk in his room._

_Nojiko looked over the firearms appraisingly as she wondered what he was referring to. All she could see were some weird markings she hadn't seen on her gun drawn until he had taken them away from her, "Okay… you're a genius. Why are you a genius Naruto-kun?_" _She noticed a huge grin on his face, "What? What's the matter?"_

_Naruto held up one finger and pointed it at the guns, "Guns that fire without bullets." He laughed at the astonished look on her face, "You may feel free to do whatever you wish as a thank you to my greatness!" He said as he outstretched his arms and shut his eyes and waited for Nojiko to 'thank him' accordingly. After a moment when he didn't feel her barrel into him and knock him onto the bed he opened his eyes, "Oi! Where's my thank you sex?"_

_Nojiko had one of her pistols in her hand and was looking it over before she pointed it and pulled the trigger, getting an empty click, "It didn't fire." She said with a frown._

_Naruto muttered as he took the pistol from her, "Ungrateful girl has no faith in fuuinjutsu…" He grabbed the second pistol from the table and held them both together side by side, "Now check it out!" He pulled the triggers and a powerful ball of wind flew from the guns, smashing through one of the walls to his room, "Fuck… I can fix that."_

"_What the hell was that?" He heard Muret yell from the common area._

_Naruto yelled through the hole, "Experimental accident. I shot a gun inside of the ship!"_

"_Who shoots a goddamn gun inside of a ship?" Muret yelled in response, "Grow up Naruto-sama!"_

_Naruto ignored her with a twitching eyebrow and turned back to Nojiko who had picked up her shotgun and had it aimed from her hip, ready to fire, "No!" He yelled as he threw the pistols into the air and snatched the shotgun. Nojiko caught the pistols and grinned, aiming them the way she had seen him do, "Damn it Noji-chan, stop trying to shoot these in my room, go outside!"_

_Nojiko pouted and lowered the pistols, "Aww, no fun Naruto-kun." She handed him back the pistols when he held his hand out._

_Naruto took the guns and began to explain, "This is the single most hazardous thing I have experimented with in years, but it's a total success." He said in a prideful fashion, "Whenever you're out of bullets these guns can now also fire using your chakra in a myriad of super-fun ways. Wind, fire, lightning, water, and earth… like a mini-jutsu. These elements, depending on the state of mind you're in will fire from your guns when you pull the trigger. With some practice though, you'll learn how to use each element. This is something you'll have to do on your own because I don't know which of your emotions would control which element. Every person is pretty different with that kind of thing." He pointed at the pistols, "These were too small to inscribe the seals on both equally so I had to split them. You need to join them together to fire an elemental attack with them."_

_Nojiko took all of this in and nodded, "So… theoretically of course, I can shoot fireballs at people?" She looked at her pistols inquisitively as she took them back._

_Naruto nodded, "Theoretical nothing. Yeah, your bullets will be elementally enhanced too if you shoot a loaded gun with your element, I just wouldn't try using bullets with fire… especially with the shotgun. Don't do that. Seriously… I'm not kidding, don't even fuck around with that." He stopped her from going outside, "One more thing. These actually forcefully convert your chakra to the right element you're using. Depending on the element it will use more or less chakra with the attack."_

"_Cool!" Nojiko gushed as she rubbed her pistols against her cheek, "I can use that chakra stuff you told us about all the way back then!"_

"_No you can't." Naruto said, unfortunately shooting her down on that front, "It _forcefully_ takes your chakra when you fire. Everyone has chakra, I'm just forcing it out of you for attacks with the seals on your guns." He poked her on the forehead, "Right now you have the same amount of chakra as an eight year old shinobi prospect just about to undergo training." Nojiko smiled at the comparison until he shook his head, "That's not much at all. Right now at full capacity of your reserves, and the incorrect theory that all elements will take the same amount of chakra, I would say that you have about five good shots with the pistols, two good shots with the rifle, and one good shot with the shotgun... well that will pretty much take everything you've got right now. So until you build up your amounts of chakra never use the seals on the shotgun, especially if you've already fired something else. The shotgun blast is a monster."_

_Nojiko looked at her pistols wantonly and then gave Naruto puppy-dog eyes, "Please? Can I?"_

_Naruto rolled his eyes and looked at the hole he had created in his wall, "Fine, go ahead. But you do know that we can't have sex if you shoot down my walls, right?"_

_Nojiko smirked at him, "I still have _my_ own room Naruto-kun." She said before taking aim at the same wall that Naruto had hit, finally pulling the triggers and releasing the ball of wind that Naruto had let loose earlier only smaller, leaving a deep crack in the wall that one could see through, "I wasn't thinking of anything when I fired that shot."_

_Naruto grinned at her, "Then that means that your natural chakra element, if you were a ninja, would have been wind… just like me." He gave her a kiss on the cheek, "Take care of those. I know you'll do well with them. Now I need to patch my walls with something."_

_Nojiko placed her pistols in the holsters around her waist and grabbed Naruto by his wrists with a sugary sweet smile, "Grab the other guns and take them to my room for me… then I can properly thank you Naruto-kun." She purred to him._

_Nojiko had never been transported from Naruto's room all the way to hers so quickly since she had joined the crew._

(End Flashback)

'This is two.' Nojiko thought to herself as she fired the shot, "Sora no Kahougakifuu (Wind Blank Bullet)!" She shot off her ball of wind from the guns at Kalifa who simply blurred out of the way. Nojiko jumped forward and cried out in pain as blood flew from her back and she hit the ground. She gasped and lay face down on the floor with a fingertip-sized wound in her back.

"You're very good with your surroundings." Kalifa said as she looked at the blood coating the top portion of her finger and the bleeding wound on Nojiko, "I missed severing your spine with that last Shigan attack. But you shouldn't be getting up from that anyway little girl." She turned to Nami who was struggling to reach the water pipe that was gushing from Chopper ripping the tub out, "Now for your sister." She blurred over to Nami and kicked her in the face away from the pipe, "That was a little too simple wasn't it? There's no way I'd let you undo Goruden Awa just because you figured out how. Hitsuji Gumo Relax Awa (Sheep Cloud Relax Bubble)!" She fired off her torrent of bubbles at Nami again.

"I'll just use wind and blow them away!" Nami shouted before her Perfect Clima-Tact slipped from her hands, 'No! Not the Clima-Tact!' She thought as the bubbles hit her and she felt her strength fading.

Kalifa rushed towards her with an attack that forced her arm to resemble a whip, "Shinaru Shigan: Hoippu (Bending Finger Gun: Whip)!" Her finger stabbed Nami in the shoulder and sent her flying back, "I let your sister live for a little while longer so I guess I'll give you the same chance to struggle a bit more."

Nami got to her hands and knees and looked over at Nojiko who was painfully crawling towards her pistols, 'Nojiko… I'm not going to be weak enough to let what happened to mom happen to you too.' She turned and glared at Kalifa who seemed to be far too overconfident in her ability to win, however the woman didn't seem to realize that her bubbles that were keeping Nami from using her body to its fullest were growing weaker, "The weather is cloudy bitch. Kumori Tenpo (Cloudy Tempo)!" She shot out a cloud that took shape over Kalifa's head.

"Oh…" Kalifa said off-handedly, "Are you going to make more lightning? I'll just block it again."

"The clouds are too small for that." Nami said as she quickly reconfigured her staff and shot a cool ball at the cloud, "I'll just condense it! The weather is rainy!" Kalifa narrowed her eyes and attacked with a quick kick to try and stop her when Nami blocked it using her staff, "Ame no Tenpo (Rain Tenpo)!" A rainstorm formed in the room and washed the layer of slick substance off of Nami, returning her fully to normal.

"You're not very cute anymore are you?" Kalifa taunted as the water poured down, "I made your skin all shiny and pleasant and look what you did."

Nami glared at her, "If being cute meant letting my sister die then I'd rather not be!" She swung her staff again, "Kuuru Chauji: Mirajuu Tenpo (Cool Charge: Mirage Tempo)!" Nami's body vanished from Kalifa's sight, keeping her from view. The CP9 agent turned to search for Nojiko only to find that she was gone too, but a small trail of blood gave her the direction that she had taken off in. She took off to search for the easiest one first when five different wavy forms of Nami appeared in the room; one fat, one tall, one chibified version, one that was muscular, and one that looked normal, "I don't care how strong you CP9 all are. But as long as there are people that I have to protect I can't let you win! Mirajuu Tenpo: Fata Morugana (Mirage Tempo: Fate Morgana)!"

"It doesn't matter!" Kalifa exclaimed, "Only one is real! The rest are illusions!"

Nami and her copies all smirked at her, "You're right. It doesn't matter, but all of my attacks are copied too!" She said, all of her clones sending thunder balls at her, "Only 20 percent of this attack is real!" Kalifa was intent on focusing on dodging each one, not willing to risk any guesses as to which were fake, "Too bad that was all just a decoy!"

"Sora no Kajougakifuu (Wind Blank Bullet)!"

Kalifa was smashed from behind as a hard burst of wind hit her with hammer-like force and sent her flying directly into one of Nami's real thunder balls that wound up shocking her. Nojiko appeared from behind her, breathing heavily, "And that's three shots… Whew. I didn't know that using chakra was so tiring. Naruto-kun throws the stuff around like he can't even _give_ it all away."

Smoke came off of Kalifa's body as she stood back up, bleeding from the mouth and angry at being wounded by the two girls, "So what if you control the weather and the elements? Rokushiki is a technique that surpasses human comprehension! Soru (Shave)!" She rushed at the Nami that looked real and kicked through it, revealing it to actually be the fake, "This isn't the real body?"

As she had kicked the wrong body, the original Nami who had been masquerading as the fat mirage, formed a dark cloud on the end of her staff that was rumbling, "Today's forecast is in a stable atmospheric pressure. Small black clouds that contain severe air currents will remain… and lightning will eventually strike your heart. Kuraikumo Tenpo (Dark Cloud Tempo)!"

"I protected myself from your lightning earlier!" Kalifa said as she formed the soap sheep around her body, "I'll just take you out before you can even try it again! Hitsuji Gumo Tsunami (Sheep Cloud Tidal Wave)!" She sent every last sud of bubbles she had at Nami, "Even if I have to pick from your clones this will hit them all! Whoever's left is the real one!"

"Saikuron Tenpo (Cyclone Tempo)!" Nami bent one end of her three piece staff and disconnected the two bent pieces that she threw to blow away the bubbles coming her way.

"She blew them away!" However as the chibi-Nami ran ahead and picked up the staff pieces and reattached them before continuing towards her she figured which one was real and formed her solid soap defense.

"No you don't!" Nojiko yelled as she pulled her shotgun out, "You blocked the other one, well block this! Sheru o Houkai-fuu (Wind Collapsing Shell)!" From Nojiko's shotgun, a thunderous blast of wind took the form of a large jagged arrow three times her size and hit Kalifa's shield, tearing it apart instantly on contact and even immediately cutting Kalifa herself in multiple places on her body.

"Is that is?" She said swaying in place, as she was still standing due to her Tekkai ability and her shield having done most of its job before being blown away, "Is that all you two have left?" Nojiko fell to the ground on her hands and knees from exhaustion.

"You really should listen to a navigator's forecast." Nami said from beside her sister as she held up her staff with the black cloud on the end, "The thunder from this attack comes to the Clima-Tact from a black cloud I've left already." She pointed behind Kalifa to the spot she had been in where she reattached her staff. A black cloud hovered slightly off of the ground.

Nojiko smirked though she was on one knee at this point, "I guess you were right Nami. I am a good distraction after all."

"Sandau Ransu Tenpo (Thunder Lance Tempo)!" A lightning bolt struck Kalifa from the cloud as it was attracted straight to Nami's staff and the CP9 agent had been standing between them. As Kalifa's body hit the ground, Nami helped Nojiko stand up, "No matter how strong you are you should never try to fight a pair of navigating sisters." She helped Nojiko over to Kalifa and reached down to her body, "I'll be taking that key that you have on you now."

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto was still using his clones as platforms as he was clearing the ocean towards the bridge of hesitation as fast as he could form clones and jump, "I don't know why they call this Enies Lobby place one whole island! The way I see it there are three! Since none of the fucking islands are connected above water and this shit is separated by miles! If I didn't need to keep my number of clones down I would have made a pile of them in the air so I didn't have to wait for one to dispel!"

He then saw the gates in the distance slowly open down the middle and he grit his teeth, "It's not ending like this! If Robin-chan goes through that gate I'll just tear it open and get her back that way! I'll find a way to jump _over _the damn thing! It doesn't matter! I'm getting her back!" He renewed his efforts to reach the gate.

XxX

(With Nico Robin and Spandam – Bridge of Hesitation)

Spandam was panting heavily as he started dragging a beaten up Robin over the bridge by her hair. Due to her trying to escape he had to stop her himself, being all alone, and drag her all the way out onto the bridge, "Do you see it Nico Robin? We're here! The Gate of Justice is already open and ready to welcome me! It's been a long journey, but once we pass through the gate I will be the government's-! No, I will be the entire world's hero!"

Robin continued to try and struggle, but with the cuffs on she was powerless to do anything but continue to be led on by the wicked director of CP9, "Now let's go! It's time to cross!" He pulled out his Baby Den Den Mushi and yelled into it, "Hey guards! Get out here and salute the hero that has captured Nico Robin and discovered the location of princess Nefertari Vivi! Spandam-sama is marching through!" He sneered as he hung up and looked at an archway up ahead, "Ah, look at that! That small entrance is practically the entrance. The first step through there will be the border of heaven and hell for you, and the moment that I carve my name in history."

Robin saw the archway and jerked herself out of his grip, pulling out some of her own hair in the process as she turned to run. Spandam recovered quickly and tackled her to the edge of the bridge, "I really do sort of sympathize with you, but what can I do? Your life is worthless." He tried pulling her up by her hair to find that she wasn't moving, "That bitch! She's stuck!" Robin was actually biting into the side of the bridge to keep herself from being taken any farther, "You're such a terrible loser!" He yelled as he tried to pry her away, "You're nothing more than a greedy criminal! You can only make anyone happy by dying! How many times do I have to say it, this is hopeless for you!"

He got off and began kicking at her harshly to make her let go, 'I won't quit here… I know someone will save me.' She thought to herself resolutely until a few kicks to the head finally dislodged her grip on the bridge.

Spandam laughed as he grabbed her and began dragging her towards the now wide open Gate of Justice, "Now let's finish securing my future shall we?" He looked down at her and grinned cruelly, "You want to know something? I planted a mine at the top of that staircase we just climbed. If anyone makes it up here they'll be blown away with the opening to the staircase."

"I won't go through…" Robin said weakly, "They told me that they would come to save me…"

"No one's coming!" Spandam yelled as he began to tie her up to keep her from escaping again, "The Buster Call will finish off all of those idiot pirates that burned the sacred flag. It'll be just like when that giant Marine rampaged in Ohara 20 years ago!" He continued to drag her towards the gate, "I know everything Nico Robin. I know everything that happened. About former Vice-Admiral Jaguar D. Saul's violent revolt, about your mother Nico Olivia, I know everything! I know it because everything that was done was originally triggered by the former chief of CP9, my father Spandine!"

He leaned down over Robin and glowered at her, "They thought they got everyone but they missed one brat that snuck out." He decided to break the last of her spirit to keep her from trying to fight any longer, making his job easy for the rest of the way, "So how was it? How many times were you about to killed by adults as an eight year old brat for money? No one to trust, no place to get a good night's sleep, no food either. I can't even imagine such a shitty existence! How many times did you cry? The one who put that bounty on your head as a child was my father! Hahaha, all for world peace! And now 20 years later I, his son, have the last survivor right here and the battle of Ohara is finally over!"

"I'm still alive!" Robin roared at him.

"And soon you'll be dead!" Spandam fired back just as an explosion sounded out from the stairwell all the way back at the start of the bridge. Franky's body flew through the air and fell into the water right under their spot on the bridge, "Cutty Flam? Why is he here?" He asked before laughing raucously, "But the moron fell for it! Hell, I'm glad I prepared so well for everything that's happened!" He shrugged and grabbed a hold of Robin, dragging her the rest of the way towards the arch, "Alright Marines!" He shouted arrogantly at the Marines stationed on the other side of the arch, "Have a good look at the new hero of this era!" He yelled, just as a massive fireball hit his body flush.

"Chief Spandam!" The Marines who had just witnessed the attack shouted as they tried to spot where it had come from, "Where the hell did that come from? No one else is here! Search!" Before they could they were all shot down by similar fireballs, "No way! From the Tower of Justice!"

Robin cried tears of joy at being rescued and got to her feet to begin running the way she had been dragged from, away from the gate and the Marines who weren't all down yet. Spandam got up and pointed at her, "Stop her! Shoot her, but don't kill her!"

As the Marines opened fire, Robin's body was blocked by Franky's cyborg form standing in front of her and taking the bullets in her place, "Sorry boys. I'm as tough as steel." He glared at Spandam, "There's no more mines right?"

"There better not be anymore goddamn mines!"

Soren appeared behind the Marines who had all opened fire prior to handily dispatching them with his bare hands before they could turn around. He glared at Spandam himself as Franky pointed at him, "Wait, I pushed you out of the way of the explosion."

Soren rubbed a mess of bruises on his bald head, "Yeah and that shit hurt. So what? I can melt the blocked stairwell, remember? Thanks though." He then pointed to a bundle next to Franky, "Hey look… keys."

"All of them?" Spandam said, panicking at the turn of events.

Soren laughed evilly at Spandam, "Yep. It looks like it, I'll be with you in a moment." He then turned to Robin, "Oi, Nico Robin. I may have beaten him here, but Uzumaki sent me to bail you out and kill that guy."

"1, 2, 3, 4, 5." Franky said as he tried all of the keys on Robin's cuffs, finally getting her free, "Got it! I've got Nico Robin's cuffs!" He yelled into a Baby Den Den Mushi on his arm before catching her as she fell into him, exhausted by the events that had occurred all day.

"Alright, now that the lady is safe…" Soren said before turning and assaulting the rest of the nameless Marines on the bridge that had come to escort Robin away, "You poor bastards picked the wrong side!" An explosion of massive proportions rang out, obliterating a great portion of the iron ring fence surrounding the island, "Oh shit…" He said with wide eyes.

XxX

(Tunnels Between the Tower of Justice and the Bridge of Hesitation)

Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, Miss Valentine, Johnny, Yosaku, and Vivi were running through the tunnel heading towards the Gate of Justice, the only place that had a chance of being safe from the attack.

Miss Valentine was running and talking to herself with tears streaming down her face, "I should have just flown away! I should have just left like I knew I should have when I had the chance! But now even if we were above ground for me to do it I would still get picked out of the sky!" She cried out.

"Stop whining and run!" Vivi, Johnny, and Yosaku snapped at her as they all kept their legs moving close behind Zoro and Sanji who were carrying Usopp who was also doing his fair share of complaining.

XxX

(With Nojiko and Nami)

On the other end of the tunnel however, the two sisters, accompanied by the little girl who had assisted Luffy and the conductor woman, were running away from the Bridge of Hesitation. The reason being that due to the damage done between Rob Lucci and Luffy's ongoing battle, a tower of water that was filling the tunnel chased after them, forcing them to flee.

Nami yelled as she kept out of reach of the water filling the underwater tunnel, "Why is there water here? No, better yet why is there no escape hatch?"

"Just run!" Nojiko yelled at her sister and the others, "I am not drowning to death in a tunnel!"

(With Naruto)

After the Gate of Justice had fully opened up, the current that had been forming the impassable whirlpools died down and calmed to the extent that Naruto could stop playing leapfrog with his clones and stand on the surface of the water, "I really, really don't like this for some reason." Just as he said that, the Tower of Justice was hit with a massive explosion, "And that was not normal…"

He looked towards the open Gate of Justice as shadows of massive ships in the distant fog took shape. The shadows were all the size height-wise as the single Tower of Justice that stood behind him and seemed to be comparable in length to the Bridge of Hesitation. As they emerged from the fog and passed the Bridge of Hesitation to show just how massive the ships really were, Naruto's eyes hardened as he bared his sharp canines, "So I'm going to go out on a limb and say that this is the Buster Call Robin-chan tried to warn us about."

"_Triggering the Buster Call! Targeting the pirates Straw Hat Luffy and Uzumaki Naruto along with their respective crews. Approximate count: 68. However under previous instructions given by Admiral Aokiji due to directions given to us by a tip from Chief Spandam the criminal Nico Robin on the bridge of hesitation will be spared! In addition, the princess of the Kingdom of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi must be kept watch for and retrieved if at all possible as the secondary mission! Other details are unimportant, destroy the entire island of Enies Lobby!"_

That announcement was sounded out over loudspeakers over all of the ten ships coming towards the island giving Naruto his answer, "That's what I thought." He said before shutting his eyes and reopening them to reveal orange pigment around the edges and yellow toad-like eyes themselves as he bit his thumb and formed hand-seals, "This is _my_ Buster Call… Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

In three puffs of smoke the size twenty-five stories high each formed atop the surface of the water.

A rather booming, yet young toad voice spoke with excitement, **"You see dad? I told you he'd summon us again soon! Yep, I can always smell when Naruto-nii is gearing up to get into some trouble! At least he summoned me in water this time and not a desert."**

A second rather grizzled, booming voice grumbled, **"Yeah Gamakichi… he summoned us in water. **_**Salt Water**_**! Where is that stupid brat! I'm going to throw him halfway to the moon for this! I'm going to break out in a rash!"**

Naruto's voice chuckled from the smoke, "Sorry Chief Toad." He said apologetically, "But I kind of think you're going to want to get a piece of this one. You haven't seen the new world yet and I thought you'd want to before you were Fukasaku's age. Don't you want to be as famous as you were in the Elemental Nations?"

"**Cut the kid a break 'Bunta."** A third, calmer yet still massive in origin voice said, **"I think it's good he thought to summon us again. It proves he ain't too big for his britches… Mister 'Child of Prophecy'… How's that working for you by the way."**

The smoke cleared to reveal Naruto with a frown on his face, "It's pretty rough actually. The world is fucking huge and I haven't seen even close to all of it yet. But this is going to help I think. Just be careful, they have these weapons called cannons. They're seriously no joke. Normal cannons would give you guys some problems… these cannons aren't normal." A grin crossed his face as the smoke completely cleared to reveal a massive trio of toads. One was magenta with markings going down its eyes. It had horns, wore a robe, and held a shield and a sasumata in its hands.

The second toad was dull, rusty red with brighter red marking around his eyes, lips, and chest. He had a scar over his left eye and had an open blue kimono, and a sword

The final toad that Naruto was standing on the top of was orange with blue markings around his eyes, lips, and chest. He was slightly smaller than the other two and wore a blue open jacket as he seemed to be way too happy to be there, **"So… What's the plan Naruto-nii?"**

"Plan?" Naruto said as his grin dropped and a hardened look remained, "Well the original plan was to turn this place into a lopsided warzone. Now it's time to actually go ahead with that."

Gamakichi nodded with Naruto still on his head, **"So is this that 'blast of hellfire' thing that I talked with you about when we were in that desert?"**

"_All ships commence attack!"_

Naruto cracked his neck in preparation, "I don't know… It could be."

* * *

**Chapter done. The next chapter will probably be out by tomorrow because it's time for the Foxhound Pirates to get their fights for the arc and I have everything planned out already. Nojiko had hers in collaboration with Nami because she doesn't have the durability to really go head-to-head with many monsters that loom ahead on her own. She's not that fast to actually dodge the things that she can see with her developing Haki for one thing, but I have a plan for that. **

**She fought here so that I could introduce how exactly she'll be growing as things go forward in one way. In any event, it should be a good ol' time next chapter.**

**Until the next time… which should be very soon. Kenchi out.**


	26. Bust Up the Buster Call

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I own one _Reese's_ Piece- oop. Nevermind, I just ate it.

…It was good though

**Chapter 26: Bust Up the Buster Call**

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Robin, Franky, and Soren watched as the massive ships came ever closer to passing the bridge. Robin shook in fright at the sight of the massive ships, "I-I can't move. These ships… they're even bigger than the ones that attacked Ohara." She trembled slightly at the sight of them, "The last ones were only twice as big as a giant. These are as tall as the Tower of Justice, and as long as this bridge!"

"That's right!" Spandam yelled victoriously, "They won't attack me! They won't touch me because I'm the chief of CP9!" He laughed loudly until he ate a punch to the face that knocked him to the ground. The surprisingly durable man looked up at Soren with the blood coming down his face from the punch and pulled out a sword that he pointed at him, "Funkfreed!" The sword transformed into an elephant that grew from the sword in Spandam's hand to stand between Soren and him, "Haha! Now what are you going to do you fool?"

Soren gave him a dry look and turned to the side where a Buster Call ship was passing closely. He took a deep breath and spit a current of acid at the side of the mammoth ship that began eating a hole through the hull. The Marines that were inside when the hole burned through, along with Spandam and even Funkfreed looked at him in terror as he smirked darkly, "I'm thinking that I'm going to do that."

Spandam shook in terror when he took note of his surroundings. Let it never be said that the man didn't have a brain in his head to make up for how ridiculously weak he was. He grabbed a hold of the elephant's trunk and held on tightly as he pointed at the hole in the ship, "Funkfreed! Throw me in and cover my escape!"

Without a second thought, the sword-turned animal tossed his owner at the hole, Spandam screamed as his body spanned the short distance and hit the Marines looking out through the hole, "Now what are you going to do tough guy? I'm aboard one of the indestructible Buster Call ships! Now take care of him Funkfreed!"

Soren growled at the cowardly man and turned to face Funkfreed, "I don't want to kill a sword, so if you'll just be a good boy I won't turn you into a puddle." Funkfreed had seen what he could do to that ship and the look on Soren's face was none too joking, thus the elephant turned back into a sword, "Good sword-elephant thing." He picked it up and handed it to Franky, "Lock this guy down would you? I'll take it back later."

"What are you going to do?" Franky asked as Robin was still too traumatized by the Buster Call ships to say anything.

Soren pointed at the ship with the hole in the hull, "I said I was going to melt his heart. I don't want to be called out on that, I'm a man of my word so later." He ran down the length of the bridge until he got neck-and-neck with the hole where Marines were now looking through with rifles in their hands, "Ibi Ibi no Kawa (Rot Rot Stream)!" His cheeks puffed out and he fired a large stream of acid at the hole, widening it, and hitting the Marines hanging around the hole, "Now's my chance." He said as the screams of the Marines echoed from inside of the ship. Taking his opportunity, he leapt through the hole in the ship and landed in what appeared to be barracks area where he saw dozens of Marines filling the room to see all of the commotion, "Where's that Spandam asshole?"

"It's one of the pirates with Uzumaki Naruto! Orders are to eliminate all targets!"

Soren smirked, "Fine. I can deal with all of you while I search for that jerk. There's only so many places he can hide on this tub anyway. And how many of you can there really be? It's a ship."

XxX

(Buster Call Ship 6)

"Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol (Gum Gum Giant Pistol)!"

From the spiral building at the foot of the Bridge of Hesitation, a massive fist burst through the wall will Rob Lucci in a jaguar-human hybrid form. The CP9's strongest assassin was shot the distance to land aboard one of the Buster Call ships instead of in the ocean which would have been certain death.

The battle raged between Rob Lucci and Luffy aboard the ship as the two tore the massive vessel apart with the ferocity of their battle.

Aboard another of the Buster Call ships sailing right past the Bridge of Hesitation, a Marine pointed at the ship that was currently serving as the battleground for Luffy and his opponent, "Sir look! It seems like Straw Hat Luffy and Rob Lucci from CP9 are fighting and completely wrecking ship 7!"

The leader of the men on that ship was a tall man with a cigarette in his mouth, an evil looking face, and his eyes semi-closed. He had long brown hair, and an ancient war helmet with a red plume from the top. He wore a Marine coat and underneath he wore a double-breasted grey suit, "Hm, something like what I'm about to do won't kill Rob Lucci. Artillerymen, fire on the ship in-!"

"Vice-Admiral Onigumo, sir look!" Another Marine pointed straight at the path in the water ahead to a monstrous cloud of smoke that faded to allow them all to see three massive figures standing in the water, however they were still smaller in overall size than the Buster Call ships, "Look at those huge frogs! Sea Kings! Oh my God he can control Sea Kings! What is he?"

Onigumo walked to the front of the ship and saw Naruto standing at the middle of the smallest toad's head, "They're still puny compared to our ships. Open fire and send those runts underneath the depths." The Marines followed his orders and manned the cannons, "Ready! Aim!"

"Take me to the leader! Take me to the leader now!"

Onigumo turned to see Spandam scrambling for dear life towards him before he fell to the Vice-Admiral's feet on the deck, "We have a problem!"

Onigumo looked down at the sniveling man, "Chief Spandam. How did you even get onto this ship in the first place?"

"That's the problem!" He screamed in response as he clutched tightly at the man's pant leg before he continued to speak, "One of the target pirates is here… He made a hole in the side of the ship and chased me aboard! He'll be up here any-!"

Before he could finish that statement, the floorboards of the ship began to smoke before they seemed to fall apart below. Through the hole made, Soren jumped out through the opening and looked around rapidly, "Where's that idiot Spandam? I know he was too stupid to try and hide down there so he came up top!"

Spandam shrieked and got behind Onigumo as the Marines on the deck started preparing to attack Soren, "That's him! That's the pirate that came aboard! He's a killer! Take him down now!" He barked at the men around on the ship.

"Do not order my men. Remember your place Spandam." Onigumo threatened darkly, getting Spandam to back away from him warily, "You weak waste of space… how you ever came this far is beyond me. You don't have the strength or the drive needed to carry out 'absolute justice' for our government." He then turned his attention to Soren who was glaring at the Marines around him with his arms crossed, as if daring them to attack him, "Soren 'The Plague'. 200 million beli bounty. Notorious for the brutal slaying of countless Marines. Bringing you down today will truly be a great victory for justice."

"Hold that thought." Soren said with a grin as he thrust his hands out in front of him, "Ibi Ibi no Jakan (Rot Rot Hose)!" Acid flew from his hands in an arcing pattern as Onigumo dodged. Spandam hit the deck and narrowly avoided a face full of corrosive liquid. Many other Marines weren't as lucky and were hit with acid. However his target wasn't any of the Marines, as the fact became clear when the acid hit the guns on the front of the ship and began to melt them, "There… now you can't shoot Uzumaki or his pets."

Onigumo narrowed his eyes at Soren as he faced off with the young pirate, "We still have countless guns on this ship, the Buster Call still stands strong and neither you nor him will survive on this day."

Soren set himself in a fighting stance, "Well you can talk about it all you want to. The only way that'll kill me is by old age. Let's do this."

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto visibly frowned as his eyes scanned the ships in front of him, "Watch out for that ship over there." He said, pointing at the ship that had Soren on it, "We can't flat out sink that one, the guy on it will drown if he lands in the water." He then blinked, "Wait. I summoned four of you… where the hell's Gama-?"

Gamakichi reached his arm into the ocean and fished deeply before sighing and yanking directly up, pulling out a massive yellow toad his size with orange marking around his eyes, lips, and on his chest, a blue jacket, chubby cheeks, and a cheerful look on his face, **"I'm gonna guess that you meant where was this guy? Why were you underwater Gamatatsu?"** Gamakichi asked in an exasperated manner.

The large toad spoke in a high-pitched voice, **"Oh. Hey Gamakichi! I was looking for Naruto-nii! I couldn't see him in that smoke so I thought he might've fell in when he summoned us 'cuz I couldn't see him so I swam around just lookin' for him in case he fell off."**

Naruto waved to the large toad, "I'm… right here Gamatatsu."

The rotund yellow toad looked at Naruto and waved happily, **"Oh! There you are Naruto-nii! Hi! How long's it been since we've been out for a fight? 100? 120 years? I don't know I lost count, haha."**

"Hi…" Naruto said with a sweadrop on his head until the cannons fired, "Fuck, remember don't hit that one ship in particular, now let's do this you guys! Cut loose!" With that, the large toads all jumped out of the way of the incoming cannon fire with one mighty leap.

Naruto had his place firmly on Gamakichi's head as the toad dodged the guns, **"I can't get close Naruto-nii! Are those cannon things really that bad?"** Gamakichi wanted to believe him, but he hadn't seen one hit anything yet so he didn't know. Naruto gave him a dry look and made a Kage Bunshin. Gamakichi wrapped his tongue around it and threw it at an incoming cannon blast and watched as a blast that was thirty feet in circumference and height explode, **"Huh… nevermind. I'll stay away from them."**

"Don't be like that 'Kichi." Naruto said, kneeling down on his main partner's head, "You know we don't need to get close to lay waste to these stupid things. Can you shoot off the oil?" He asked.

"**Can you light it on fire?"** Gamakichi responded cheekily, **"Or are you still as fire retardant as you were all those years ago?"**

"Hahaha, fuck you." Naruto said as he made some hand-seals, "Light it up 'Kichi! Katon: Gamayuu Endan (Fire Release: Toad Oil Flame Bullet)!" As Gamakichi let loose a large jet of oil from his mouth that Naruto lit ablaze with a fire ninjutsu. The blazing oil flew through the air at one of the Buster Call ships, hitting it at the mast and sail as it dripped down onto the deck of the massive ship, panicking every man aboard.

"**Got 'em Naruto-nii!"** Gamakichi yelled, proud of fighting for Naruto again, **"That should be one ship down. They can't put out an oil fire like that no matter how big the ship is!"**

Naruto nodded before looking back at Enies Lobby and growling. There were three ships at the front of the island and he remembered that the Galley-La men as well as all of the Franky Family were there. Not to mention his doctor Muret, "Alright, 'Kichi I need you to get the others and take those ships out over there! I can deal with the ones here just fine! Stay safe, don't be stupid, I'll see you when you're done!" He pulled out his Hiraishin kunai and threw it at one of the other ships that Gamakichi was in range of.

XxX

(Onboard Buster Call Ship 4)

A three pronged throwing knife stuck into the deck, alerting dozens of Marines to its presence, "Who uses a strange weapon like this?" A group of five moved in to grab it before a yellow flash appeared by it and knocked them all away, sending them flying off of the ship.

"I do." Naruto said with his foot still outstretched from the spin kick he used. His eyes, the tell-tale ones of Sage Mode shaking the Marines to their core with their appearance and intent, "To those of you that survive this, my name is Uzumaki Naruto and you were fortunate. To those of you that don't… sorry about your damn luck." He picked up the Hiraishin kunai and repocketed it, "Bring it."

The Marines advanced on him as he dodged their attacks in close effortlessly, making hand-seals all the while, "Fuuton: Taifu no Me (Wind Release: Eye of the Storm)!" A fifty foot radius around Naruto was completely and utterly clear as he continued dodging Marine attacks inside of his untouched orb of influence. Outside of the radius was a different story however, as a storm one-hundred feet thick around like a ring raged, sucking the Marines that couldn't get to an untouched area of the ship into the air. This number measured nearly two hundred.

Naruto's facial expression was cold and unchanging as he stood in the middle of his storm and made easy work of the Marines attempting to slash at him with their government issued swords. Naruto dispatched the hapless soldiers that still had to face him inside the eye of his powerful storm with what an observer would call a ballet of violence.

Flimsy swords were caught and broken with his bare hands before he would send them flying into the storm itself with a flick of his wrist, or if he was feeling particularly nasty a super-charged Sage Mode powered kick. The numbers were dialed down in a matter of seconds as the storm ended, revealing the segment of ship that he had used it on to have taken terrible damage. The masts had been ripped from the deck and tossed high into the air along with countless planks and human bodies that had yet to fall from the sky even after one full minute in the air.

"What a monster…" One of the whimpering Marines cried as he fell on his backside and retreated to the far end of the ship along with his comrades who were in full retreat on the ship with nowhere to go, no way to evacuate, "He just took more than 200 of us with one attack! He's only been here for a little under a minute! That's one-fifth of the entire ship!" He got up and turned to run only to be cut down along with dozens of others trying to retreat, "Why? Vice-Admiral Doberman…"

"No retreat." A man with a Marine cap, a Vice-Admiral coat, an archaic maroon naval outfit, and scars all over his face said, "You cowards… this is the Buster Call. The most powerful show of force that the Marines can provide, the strong-arm of 'absolute justice'!" He drew his cutlass, "You will be caught or killed here Uzumaki Naruto, and pictures of your corpse will be splayed all over the newspapers for the world to see. You will be an example."

Naruto's eyes shone with the aftermath of the windy carnage he had just committed. At that time, men began falling from the skies. The yells of the hundreds of Marines caught in the storm that had ripped them off of the ground rang out through the open air as their bodies smacked the water on the sides of the ship and even the ship itself, hitting the deck and killing them on impact, "You know what?" The exceedingly large mast that Naruto had ripped from the ship and thrown into the air crashed down behind him in the water making a resounding crash and rising water over the top of the ship to wash some Marines near the edge over, "I was just about to say the same thing about all of you."

XxX

(With the Toads)

"**What's the plan son? I don't think the brat wanted them to fire on this place behind us because of some people he knows are there."** Gamabunta said as he saw the three Buster Call ships open fire on them all as they moved between the advancing ships and the front of the main island of Enies Lobby which at this point lay as a mound of utter rubble, **"What bothersome runts with their oversized toys and constructs! **Suiton: Teppoudama (Water Release: Gunshot)!**"** The large scarred toad shot off a massive bullet of water that hit the cannon fire and doused the volatile nature of the ammunition as well as stopping its momentum as the triple cannonshot fell into the water, **"The large iron balls half the size of my head that explode are nice touches though."** He remarked off-handedly about the Marines and their combat strategy.

"**Naruto-nii didn't really say anything other than the regular, 'don't get killed' stuff that he always says when he doesn't have a plan. I think we just fight them and that's it!"** The huge orange toad said as he leapt across the water to dodge cannons attacking him, **"These things on these huge ships are annoying dad. Hey Gamatatsu, get over here!"** He yelled to his large yellow brother as he pointed to his back, **"Hop on! It's time for that move that Naruto-nii made us learn!"**

Gamatatsu landed on his brother's back as they both formed reverse ram seals, **"**Konbi Henge: Fumeiyona Tsuinhikigaeru (Combination Transformation: Inglorious Twin Toads)!**"** In a massive puff of smoke a figure twice the size of Gamabunta leapt from the smoke to reveal a toad half the size of the Tower of Justice in a blue jacket. The color patter was a combination of Gamakichi and Gamatatsu as both orange and yellow were on the body in the pattern of a swirl that took up all of the massive toad's frame.

Gamabunta smirked and looked over at the large Magenta toad that blocked a burst of cannon fire with his shield, **"Hey, check it out Gamaken, the runts have finally found a way to get bigger than us."**

"**That's good 'Bunta. Maybe they can get past those damned cannons without having to walk forward slowly with a shield."** Gamaken waded within range of a ship and jabbed forward with his sasamuta, sweeping up tons of Marines with the one strike and cracking the mast.

"Fire!" The embattled Marines on the ship Gamaken was attacking fired off one of their triple cannons at the massive toad up close, hitting his shield and knocking him back as he stumbled, his frame singed and burned from the explosion, "We rocked it! Keep attacking!"

Gamaken groaned in pain as the burns from the cannon attack were felt firmly on his body from what his shield couldn't catch, **"Ugh, Naruto was right. Don't take a hit from those cannons. He wasn't exaggerating."**

"Fire at will!" The Marines yelled as they got some courage back upon seeing one of the titanic amphibians wounded by their powerful guns.

"**That's a ba~ad idea!"** The hybrid voice of Gamakichi and Gamatatsu said in their combined form, **"**Suiton: Arashi o Yaburu (Water Release: Breakstorm)!**"** The combination toad jumped into the air and and landed hard on the surface of the water, causing a deep rift to form in the water as if it had been cut with a blade, the width of the toad that dwarfed the others on the battlefield.

The attack formed a waterfall on two sides that separated down at the Buster Call ships. One took a sheer drop into the waterfall as the others rocked wildly but remained above water, **"Now dad!"**

Gamabunta launched himself at one of the ships and drew his large yakuza blade, **"**Gamadozudan (Toad Sword Beheading)!**"** The speed and force at which he launched himself at the ship with dented the metal framing on the sides of the deck and utterly smashed the ship itself in half, **"Two of three down boys!"**

"Sasumata Kogeki o Bakumatsu (Exploding Sasumata Attack)!**"** Gamaken launched himself at the final ship, using his shield to block its desperate and unfocused cannon attack as it was still reeling from Gamakichi and Gamatatsu's technique that split the ocean in half, **"Here we go!"** He jabbed his unorthodox weapon deep into the side of the Buster Call ship he had targeted, causing it to explode a second after contact, taking all of the explosives and the like stored in the ship and destroying it from the inside out. He jumped away as the flaming wreckage began to sink under the water, **"Whew. That was a nice little bit of work."**

Gamakichi and Gamatatsu dropped their combination transformation technique and Gamabunta moved next to his two sons as they began to make their way back to where Naruto was.

XxX

Muret, the Galley-La Workers, and the Franky Family had thought they were all dead, as they made it to the front of the island only to find three Buster Call ships lying in wait. Then four gigantic toads came and battled it out with the titanic ships, which were destroyed by the powerful and massive animals after a battle between the monsters of nature and machine.

Only Yokozuna, the massive frog that was with them, had it in him to cheer his fellow amphibians on with loud enthusiastic croaks as he watched them wreck and smash things up.

Paulie lifted his finger and pointed out at the area littered with parts of ship, "What the hell just happened?"

Muret weakly raised her hand, "Well I guess we're not in a hurry anymore… So I suggest we secure ourselves an escape route now." Everyone nodded dumbly as they looked at the wreckage in the bay.

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Straw Hat and Foxhound Pirates)

Robin and Franky cleared the Bridge of Hesitation of all the Marines guarding it and planned to use the Marine ship at the very end up it that was supposed to take Robin away to escape Enies Lobby. The remainder of the Foxhound and Straw Hat Pirates caught in the underground tunnel between the now destroyed Tower of Justice and the Bridge of Hesitation by the flood were saved and carried aboard the ship that Robin and Franky had commandeered.

The majority of the pirates were unconscious from nearly drowning in the tunnel with the exception of a few for the time being.

Miss Valentine was repeatedly opening and closing her umbrella to keep activating the wind gust seals on it in order to dry herself off as her powers were inactive as long as she was soaked with seawater, "I can't believe that old conductor hag was a mermaid. She saved all of our lives."

Robin looked over the other unconscious members of the two crews, "I can make a guess that they all experienced some severe shock somewhere under there. Because they were all unconscious after a while they didn't swallow that much water. They'll be fine."

The conductor/mermaid laughed, "I wonder what caused the shock."

Miss Valentine looked over at the old lady mermaid with a twitching eye, 'It was you… old bag. For the love of all that's holy get dressed already.' The sounds of a howling powerful wind attracted her attention towards the Buster Call ships where she saw a powerful storm sucking men and massive chunks of one of the ships into the sky, 'The last time I saw something like that…' Her eyes widened, "Naruto! Naruto's in a fight with the Buster Call ships!"

Robin gasped, 'First Luffy's still fighting Rob Lucci and now Naruto's actually trying to fight the entire Buster Call?' She ran over to the edge of the ship where she could get a proper view, "What is he doing? There are 1000 soldiers on each of those ships!"

"Naruto-aniki won't lose." A reawakening Johnny said as he choked on seawater and cleared his throat, "Even if it was a fight he couldn't win he'd be sure to take them all down with him. But I think he _can_ win." He coughed again, "Because this time he's really mad… all of this, just to take your freedom and end your life Robin. For some reason the idea of someone like you being told she shouldn't exist really pisses him off. And I don't want to see Naruto-aniki pissed off." He shivered, though if it was from the fact that he was soaked to the bone or because he thought of Naruto truly upset, it wasn't clear, "I'm just glad we're all the way over here. The closest ship is a sixth of a mile away."

All of the Straw Hats and Foxhound Pirates started to awaken quickly after that, amazing Franky, "Damn you guys are all really tough."

"Robin-chan!" Nami and Chopper jumped at her and latched on in a big hug, "I'm so glad we all made Robin! You're safe!"

Vivi walked over to the side of the ship and began climbing the ropes up to the sail to get a better view where she gasped at the destruction of Enies Lobby and the one burning ship along with the two critically damaged others heading towards the island, "I can't believe we all survived this. This was incredibly intense." She then saw chunks of stone flying from the beginning area of the Bridge of Hesitation, "Luffy is still fighting! We can't leave without him you guys!"

Zoro pointed one of his swords at the Buster Call, "But you said Naruto was over there too. How are we going to wait for him to come back?"

Yosaku stood up off of the deck, frowning at his soaked clothes, "Whenever Naruto-aniki finishes up here he'll probably beat us back to Water 7 by three hours." He took on a lecturing stance, "Yes… Naruto-aniki, what a guy. Fighting all of those ships himself to buy us time to get out of here in one piece."

Robin shook her head and Franky conveyed her thought, "They're not going to attack this bridge because Nico Robin is here. He didn't really have to go fight them, he just had to come here."

"And I told you already." Johnny said, wiping off his sunglasses with his still soaked clothes, "He's pissed. He's not really fighting because he's trying to buy us time, unless you count taking out the whole fleet as his way of buying time. He's really, really mad and he hasn't gotten to even lay a hand on anyone responsible for all of this stuff happening. He isn't going anywhere until he's satisfied."

Usopp sounded slightly frightened despite the fact that he knew Naruto would never hurt him or any of them himself, "And you sound pretty sure of that. Is Naruto really that strong?"

Miss Valentine laughed, "Strong? Well you tell me. Does fighting off an entire city swarming with Marines by his lonesome and then going toe-to-toe with the fastest Admiral in history count as him being strong?"

The Straw Hats all went wide-eyed as Sanji spoke up, "He fought an admiral? Like Admiral Aokiji? How the hell did he win against one of those guys? Just one of them stomped every last one of us all by himself."

Nojiko shook her head with a smile as she tried to get the seawater out of all of her guns, "Well… because he's Naruto-kun. And the one thing that we've all learned by now is not to underestimate Naruto-kun no matter what he does." A large explosion rocked the same ship that Naruto's storm had torn apart earlier, "Even when he's trying to do stuff like that, because if he's trying to do it in the first place he probably knows he can pull it off." She then looked around the ship, "Hey, where did Soren go? He didn't clear the ship with you guys?"

Franky scratched his hair, "The acid-guy?" Nojiko nodded, getting Franky to make a weird pose, signifying that he was uncomfortable with the situation, "Well about that guy…"

XxX

(Soren vs. Vice-Admiral Onigumo)

"I don't have time to play with you boy." Onigumo said as his hair seemed to form the back abdomen of a spider, complete with six more arms growing from it. He reached inside of his jacket and pulled out eight sabers; two for his real arms, six for his Devil Fruit generated appendages, "I'll finish you quickly. You can't take on a vice-admiral. I'll bring you to justice once and for all."

Soren narrowed his eyes at the high-ranking officer, 'Vice-admiral… Fuck. Nevermind, I can beat this guy! I won't lose again! I promised that I would never lose again no matter what I have to do!'

"Attack the pirate!"

Soren turned his head to see a mass of Marines charging him and taking aim at him with their rifles. Soren growled at them and turned to face them, "Get out of the way you small fry! Ibi Ibi no Ame (Rot Rot Rain)!" He spat a massive glob of acid into the air above everyone. It burst in the air and rained down acid on everyone on the ship. With the lower level soldiers dealt with, Soren turned to Onigumo only to see him standing there with an uncaring look on his face, "That doesn't hurt you?"

Onigumo laughed haughtily, "I'm a vice-admiral boy. I'm required to be powerful, more powerful than someone like you can handle. A little acid rain won't hurt me. These jackets are far too tough for this level of acidity."

He was right, as the acid rain technique was too widespread for the intensity of the acid. He would need a more concentrated attack to damage his body through such thick clothing and the man's obvious physically imposing stature. Soren got back into a fighting stance and noted Spandam cowering by the front of the ship, "You just sit tight right there until I'm done with this guy. You'll be next." After watching the man cower out of his sight he turned to Onigumo to find him no longer where he had been before.

He immediately fell on all fours as a torrent of sword strokes passed over his body so close he could feel the wind. Soren shot out a leg behind him in a kick that wound up being blocked by Onigumo's two human arms crossed over his chest.

Soren was then more or less caught in a breakdance of sorts as he was forced to keep at least one point of contact with the ground while contorting his body around the brutally swift attack from Onigumo's multiple appendages swinging swords. Rolling forward out of the precarious situation, he blurred out of sight with his raw speed, as did Onigumo.

After meeting in a clash and both sliding back, Onigumi twirled the swords in his spider arms out of anticipation of the attack, "You can use Soru (Shave)? That is rather impressive."

Soren blinked before he realized he was talking about his speed, "Oh, it has a name? I stole it from a Marine that was chasing me when I was a little kid. I saw how fast he was and worked to get that fast to get away from guys like that. I didn't know it had a name, I just called it running. It took over ten years to get this fast."

Onigumo looked at Soren in interest, "You reverse-engineered a high level speed technique all on your own? One of the Rokushiki (Six Styles). And the way you moved out of the way of my sword attacks, that is reminiscent of Kami-e (Paper Drawing). The method used by Rokushiki users to avoid attacks by making their bodies go limp for superior movement. You can use two of the Rokushiki and you're not a government soldier. This is blasphemy." He said with his eyes hardening on him.

"Again…" Soren said, explaining himself as he was getting increasingly angry at having his fighting style compared to any kind of World Government group, "I learned early on in my life in order to survive that a loose body made dodging attacks easier when someone was trying to hit you. If it had a name I never knew it, but then again I never really talked with the Marines that wanted to beat me up as a kid. I just called it dodging."

Onigumo roared at Soren in reply, "They are government sanctioned and they are well-known techniques! The CP9 specialize in the Rokushiki and many other higher-level Marines such as myself know of a few of them such as Soru! You've stolen these techniques and warped them to fit your own twisted needs as a pirate!" He vanished from sight to attack Soren again.

Ducking backwards out of a slash and rolling through with a back handspring, he eventually got himself out of danger and got back to his feet to face him where he launched an attack, "Ibi Ibi no Danmaku (Rot Rot Barrage)!"

As Soren spat rapid bullets of acid at Onigumo, the man seemed to be able to predict their trajectory as they came at him. The attacks didn't even seem to concern him in the slightest despite the fact that he had to know of how strong they were. He had seen the acid first-hand. However, he got through Soren's attack and got in his face, forcing the pirate to jump back, but it was too late, "Too slow whelp, Bunri no Hachido (Eight Degrees of Seperation)!" Spinning in a torrent of limbs and blades, Onigumo cut into Soren and threw him back across the deck.

"Gah!" Soren cried out in pain at the multiple cuts on his body, 'What? He's not faster than me. I'm just as fast as him! How is he able to dodge me so well? I'm not telegraphing a single move! I'm only making the necessary moves I need to launch the attacks.'

"Do you see now?" Onigumo said as he watched Soren pull his bloody frame back up, "The power of the military. The Marines are the strongest in the lands. We determine what is right and wrong, and if something is wrong and evil we eradicate it. You cannot prevail here."

"Oh yeah…" Soren hissed out painfully as his body started hissing and steam flew from his body momentarily before his gashes sealed shut from his own acid, "I'm definitely not losing to you if you're one of those' absolute justice' idiots." He got back in a fighting stance, "I don't know how you got away from me unscathed, but it doesn't matter. You're still losing here. I'm going to kill that piece of shit Spandam that caused all of this and that will be that."

"You don't know how I got through your attacks so easily? I thought you were powerful." Onigumo said, confusing Soren, "I'm a high-ranking officer. I have Haki boy."

"Haki?" Soren said in curiosity, "What the hell is that?"

"Haki is one of three powers that all Marines of vice-admiral rank or higher must know at least one of. I have unlocked the precognitive ability of Kenbunshoku Haki (Color of Observation). I can sense the presence of others, and use that to evade attacks even before you launch them. Your every move is filled with hazardous intent, it is so easy for me to predict." Onigumo explained, laughing at his cluelessness, "And with eight limbs there isn't any kind of attack you can send that will reach me!"

"You can see me coning before I even do anything?" Soren said in disbelief, 'That's bullshit! How is anyone going to lay a hand on this guy if he knows how I'm going to attack?' His eyes then widened as he realized something that would help him, 'Wait. Nojiko can do that too. Haki? That's what it's called! It had a name the entire time! And even though she can see almost all of our attacks when she asks to spar she can't really get out of our way, she has to try and counter and hope that she stops us without taking damage! So that means it doesn't matter if he can see it coming, if he can't avoid it then there's nothing he can do about it anyway!'

Onigumo noticed the look of Soren's face go from concern to confidence in mere moments, "What are you up to?"

Soren grinned at him with his slightly pointed canines, "Nothing much, I just know what I'm going to have to do to win. You're not unbeatable. Not even close." He now had a plan in mind. How he was going to go about pulling that plan off? Well he hadn't worked that out yet, but something would come to him in time. He was sure of it, "Now let's dance! Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws)!" His fingernails glowed green as his hand-to-hand skills just became exponentially more dangerous.

He rushed at Onigumo and began slashing away with his claws, trying to swing randomly, sometimes not even trying to hit anything since attacks with intent to kill were apparently easy for Onigumo to sense and react to.

Onigumo countered with a cross-chop using all eight of his swords, "Tou no Hachi (Tower of Eight)!" Soren jumped to the side, avoiding the attack just as Onigumo opened his mouth, "Kumosu no Kusari (Spider Web Strand)!" From his mouth emerged a strand of spider web that wrapped tight around Soren's leg and threw him hard off to the far end of the Buster Call ship, his body smacking off of one of the masts.

Soren hit the ground behind a line of large cannons centered around the mast that he hit, "Surrender and let the end of your life bring the world one step closer to being purged and allowed true justice." Onigumo said as he began walking the length of the distance he threw the pirate, rubbing the blades of his swords together.

The Marines stationed around that area on those guns shouted in fear and scattered away from the site as Onigumo still couldn't see what was going on due to the cannons obscuring his view. A sound of soft hissing came from the area but he couldn't see anything until the mast tilted far to the side and leaned over completely, "Grrah!" A cry of exertion from Soren preceded Onigumo's vision of what was about to happen. He jumped into the air, but couldn't clear the wide sail and along with the huge cannons that were batted aside by the great oak tree trunk-like base of the sails wound up getting smacked by one of the masts of his ship like a slow-pitch softball.

Soren had a full body grip on the mast, keeping his fingers dug tightly into finger grips he had made with his acid. The bottom of the mast was smoking from Soren burning it loose from the deck. He let go of the mast with a confident grin on his face, "Haki or not I know how to hit you, you son of a bitch. Just because you can tell what I'm going to do to attack doesn't mean you can avoid it if it's big enough. And man have I got some doozies for you."

XxX

The Marines opened fire on the Bridge of Hesitation and isolated the spot where Luffy and Lucci were fighting, _"All active ships form a battle formation around the bridge of hesitation. We have confirmed that the targets there include 'Pirate Hunter' Zoro, Nico Robin, and the secondary objective of Nefertari Vivi. She is accompanied by the main force that defeated the CP9 and sacked the island."_

"Come on Luffy!" The rubber-man's entire crew yelled as loud as they could to him as he continued fighting Lucci, "You can beat this guy so we can all go back together!"

As they said that, two of the massive ships surrounded the bridge and a group of Marines from one of them took aim with a set of bazookas joined by a rope between them. Nojiko's eyes honed in on the weapon and who it was trained on, "Vivi get down now!" Vivi looked at Nojiko in confusion as the Marines fired at the ship the crews were on. A net grabbed Vivi off of the ropes she had been standing atop before immediately pulling her in, "Damn it! Cut yourself free!"

"Don't do anything!" Yosaku yelled, contradicting Nojiko's order and getting the girl to turn viciously on him. Yosaku to his credit didn't back down, "Naruto-aniki told Vivi not to fight the Marines or do anything that would let them know that we _didn't_ kidnap her. If they find out that her dad Cobra sent her away to escape the government and stay out of their hands then Alabasta will be ruined!"

Nojiko turned back to Vivi who had a saddened look on her face as she was pulled onboard the ship, eliciting a cheer from the Marines, "Secondary objective achieved! Ship 2 has recovered the Alabastan princess Nefertari Vivi!"

Vivi looked over the side of the ship, desperately wanting to find a way to jump down, but any suspicious activity would be questioned, and they'd be answered either by her father later, or by her when they got her to Marineford. It would already be bad enough that she would have to answer what she did with the Foxhound Pirates, if she was accused of cavorting with pirates then Alabasta could be held over a fire by the World Government.

"Like hell you have." Miss Valentine said before turning to Johnny and Yosaku, "Rottweilers, get over here now!" They both immediately ran to her side, "Good boys." She said, getting scowls out of both of them as she lifted her closed umbrella above her head, "Grab onto me, don't let go, and if you grope I swear I'll crush you when this is all over." Both swordsmen grabbed a hold of her tightly.

Nojiko ran over to them, "What are you about to do?"

Miss Valentine looked at the ship, "Naruto told me to keep the princess away from them. If he's out there fighting the bulk of the forces then I'm sure not failing the only thing he told me to do. He can't and he won't attack this ship with Vivi aboard. We need to get her off."

Nojiko shook her head, "I mean what do you plan on doing to get up there?" She said, pointing at the Buster Call ship, "You can only fly yourself."

Miss Valentine let out a laugh, "That's old news sweetheart. I've been training, remember? And I found out a few fun things. For one, as long as others touch me I can change their weights as well, Kilo Kilo Henkan (Kilogram Conversion)!" She opened her umbrella and let the gust of wind lift her, Johnny, and Yosaku off of the ground, "Sorry, but I can only take two for now or else my powers will be over-encumbered. We'll have her back down here in no time!" Miss Valentine shouted to the others as she flew up to the top of the ship with her crewmates.

Usopp yelled as they floated off up towards the ship, "Wait! Where are you guys going? You can't just leave the ship, this is the only way out of here!"

"We'll be right back!" Yosaku shouted down to them, "You're waiting for Luffy-aniki anyway right?"

Zoro grit his teeth, "That's not the point!"

"_No one under the rank of commander or captain has need to assault the Bridge of Hesitation! Captains and commanders only! Take care of them immediately!"_

With that announcement, 200 hundred Marines at least at the level of commander and at most the level of captain jumped onto the Bridge of Hesitation to advance towards the escape ship and assault the remaining crew to retrieve Robin.

With that announcement, Zoro grabbed his swords, preparing for a fight, "And we could have used them here too." He looked around, "Where did Sanji go?"

Franky prepared himself for a fight as well, "We have to hold these fools off until Straw Hat gets back here."

Robin immediately began putting down Marines with her Hana Hana no Mi powers, "I am not going to allow myself to be captured again."

XxX

(Onboard Buster Call Ship 2)

At the middle of the ship on deck, a man with a long beard, closed eyes, a long version of the Marine cap, a water colored suit and a high-ranking Marine coat walked over to the freed Vivi, "I'm sorry about the method we used to free you Princess Vivi, but we had to get you out of there."

Vivi wanted to kick him and run, but there would be no leniency on her for attacking a high-ranking official in the Marines. Alabasta was just one country. The World Government was 170 plus, "It is okay Vice-Admiral Strawberry, you did what you had to in order to get me onboard."

"And now we're going to get our princess back."

They both looked into the sky to see Johnny and Yosaku drop down onto the deck. Yosaku immediately pulled Kubikiriboucho from his back and slashed at Strawberry, ending up in a power struggle as the man drew two slightly curved blades that he held in a reverse grip and blocked with in an x pattern, "Johnny grab Vivi and go, go, go, go!" He ordered frantically to his friend.

Johnny, not needing to be told twice, rushed past them and snatched Vivi up over his shoulder as he continued to run, "Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!"

Vivi, over Johnny's shoulder wondered why they were so concerned, "What's wrong?" Johnny pointed over his shoulder into the sky as he continued to run.

"10,000 Kilo Oshitsukeru (10,000 Kilogram Press)!" Miss Valentine dropped from the sky and hit the center of the ship full force with all of her added weight, utterly crumbling the deck and forcing it to fall in, taking out countless Marines and making the ship useless above deck.

Following the ruining of the deck of more than half of the ship Johnny threw some of the wreckage of the aftermath off of him and Vivi who he had covered with his body, "Ow… That was totally unnecessary, but she just shook us off of herself in mid-air and dropped us. We didn't even have a chance to tell her no."

They had fallen in a few levels under the deck as the deck no longer existed except for the very sturdy mast poles built all the way down. Vivi rubbed the back of her head and looked around, "Now we're trapped inside. Like five levels below the top deck… or what would have been left of it on this half of the ship."

Johnny held his sword and looked at it disdainfully, "I can't cut our way out of this hull. Yosaku could with Kubikiribouchou though." His eyes widened, "Shit! Yosaku! He's still back there!" He went to navigate the tattered and jagged ruins of the inside of the ship before Vivi grabbed his arm, "What's wrong?"

Vivi had a fearful look in her eyes, "That's a vice-admiral back there. Don't go." She shook her head, "He'll kill you guys."

Johnny removed her hand from his arm and took of his sunglasses to give her a serious look, "I'm not leaving my buddy behind. And Miss Valentine is back there too. So I have to go." He pointed at the elevated wall of the ship, "But I have to get you out of here first." He grabbed her arm and began navigating the narrow ruins to get her there safely, "We're going to have to get to the other side of the ship to get back to the deck on that side and get you off."

"One of the pirates! He's trying to recapture the princess, take him down!"

Johnny cut through a swatch of Marines that were trying to separate him and Vivi as they continued moving without stopping. Jumping over wreckage, running around walls, and hiding in nooks and crannies to keep out of view before they reached the halls of the ship that hadn't been destroyed by Miss Valentine and remained intact, "Man I wish we could let you fight. This would be way easier if I didn't have to make sure that no one grabbed you."

Vivi frowned at being a burden again, "I'm sorry Johnny. I trained so hard and I can't even help you out."

Johnny smiled at her, "Don't worry, you can't fight the Marines or your country will get into trouble, we know. Yosaku and Miss Valentine especially are strong though. They can at least hold out until I can get there and let them know you're safely off of the ship."

XxX

(Yosaku and Miss Valentine vs. Vice-Admiral Strawberry)

Yosaku stood up off of the ground, his head ringing from the debris that fell on him due to being too close to Miss Valentine's attack. She had completely crushed the deck with the force of her 10,000 kilograms and took out three consecutive floors below the deck. He pulled Kubikiribouchou free and held it over his shoulder when he saw Strawberry stand up from his own pile of broken wooden parts holding his reverse grip swords, "If I got up from that I should have known that wouldn't beat you either…"

"I'm a vice-admiral." Strawberry said, picking some splinters out of his suit, "She would have had to hit me directly to take me out with that. Falling a few floors and getting buried under some crud isn't going to do anything." He then saw a smile cross Yosaku's face, "Why are you smiling?"

"Oh no reason really." Yosaku said before laughing slightly, "It's just… I was just saying a few hours ago that I never get any big fights and here you are right in front of me." He looked up to the sky, "Man I never get laid!" He then tilted his head back down and grinned at Strawberry, "Hopefully that takes care of itself in a few hours too after I kick your ass."

Strawberry ducked into a stance, "If you even live that long." He said as he rushed at Yosaku who was befuddled by his speed but not overwhelmed.

'He's faster than Johnny! But it isn't by much!' Yosaku said as he barely blocked a sword strike directed at his blindspot, even with his massive blade. He launched a retaliatory slash that hit nothing at all. "Sanhyakurokujuudo Funkei (Three-Hundred Sixty Degrees Decapitation)!" He yelled as he spun around, hefting the huge sword for a 360 degree swing that doubled as an offensive and defensive tactic. He got a loud clang that knocked Strawberry back for his trouble.

"You have some physical strength behind you." Strawberry remarked, "It's a good thing that I have a Haki that can stand up to you isn't it?"

"What?" Yosaku asked, holding his treasured sword at the ready, "Haki? I don't really know what that is, and right now I don't care too much. Now fight."

"You're lucky." Strawberry said with a smirk as he took up his reverse-sword stance, "Most people never even know anything about this. Fortunately or unfortunately for you it's required that Vice-Admirals have at least one Haki. My Haki is Busoshouku Haki (Color of Armaments). It's a physically arming Haki. And I doubt that even someone as physically strong as you can take me down with it active."

"We'll see!" Yosaku came at him spinning Kubukiribouchou in a hard circular clockwise swing that Strawberry blocked with his swords in an x pattern. The feeling of the metal ringing in his hands shook him internally, 'Holy crap. Most people at least drop their swords even if they manage to block when I hit that hard. Is this guy that far above my level?'

He and Strawberry began trading slashes with their swords. Every one slash that Yosaku would send at him would be retaliated on with by four or five by Strawberry as he started driving Yosaku back steadily and making a few shallow-grooved cuts in the blade, 'He's cutting into Kubikiribouchou! What is this Haki stuff?' While he was in horrified shock at the prospect of someone destroying his sword he took a series of looping kicks to the face that lowered his guard enough to wind up with his enemy cutting into him three times.

Strawberry spun away from Yosaku and twirled his twin blades as he watched Yosaku go down, "You can't touch me all on your own. Why did you even come here? You could have just let us take the princess and be done with it. You just walked into certain death."

"Let's just say that we're sore losers." A feminine voice said.

Strawberry was smashed in the back of the head with a yellow umbrella that actually stunned him horribly. He took three more shots to his back and the back of his head before getting knocked away. Miss Valentine moved closer to Yosaku and stood by him as he tried to get up and lick his wounds so to speak, "Are you okay?" She said with her ever present smile on her face.

"Yeah…" Yosaku said as he got back up to his feet, ignoring the cuts on his arms and chest, "How did you hurt him with an umbrella? It's an umbrella."

Miss Valentine laughed and twirled the umbrella in her hand, "Remember that thing I said about changing the weight of anything I touch? It works on people _and_ objects too. I lower the weight when I start swinging so that I can swing it quickly, but by the time I hit him it weighed around 2000 kilograms when I suddenly increased the weight. Not as good as Mr. 4's 4-Ton Bat, but hey... now I'm not useless up close anymore."

Yosaku pointed to how there had been cuts left in Kubikiribouchou as he lifted it back up, "It doesn't change what it's made of though. He'll just cut through it when he realizes what it is. That flimsy metal umbrella pole can't take even one of his shots."

A frown crossed Miss Valentine's pretty face before her smile returned, "Have you ever held my umbrella? Have any of you ever taken a good look at my umbrella since we've met?" Yosaku shook his head and Miss Valentine playfully stuck out her tongue as she opened it up and revealed what the pole was made of when she pulled off the handle.

Yosaku watched her slide the handle of her umbrella off and tug on the metal -or what he thought was metal- pole. This action revealed something underneath, "No way. You carry around an umbrella with a Seastone pole? Aren't you a Devil Fruit user? Isn't that dangerous?"

"Yep." Miss Valentine said as she slid the metal sleeve back on it and popped the handle back on, "That's why I keep the metal part on it to coat it so that it doesn't touch me, but it's still damn near unbreakable." She laughed, "Kyahahahaha! Why do you think I only ever use this one? Because it was expensive as hell and a black market steal that was just calling my name. It was supposed to be just a luxury item, but with the Kilo Kilo no Mi powers I can use now this baby is an unbreakable club with the potential to be 10,000 kilograms if I could ever swing that much without tearing my arms off."

Strawberry picked himself up off of the ground, his Marine cap knocked off from Miss Valentine's attack to reveal contusions that were bleeding freely on his head, "That is a terrifying power to go with that weapon. If I didn't have Haki that would have cracked my skull and might have killed me."

Yosaku stared at him blankly as he took in the vice-admiral's words and then stared at Kubikiribouchou as if he were in a trance, "Make it heavier."

"What?" Miss Valentine said as her attention was averted from the still-conscious Strawberry, "Make it heavier? What the hell are you talking about, 'make it heavier'? Are you out of your mind?"

"I can lift it." Yosaku said with determination, "I swear I can lift it up, just make it heavier. I need some more knock-out power to bust through his Haki. I can do it, you just have to force it out of me. Make me _have_ to lift it up or I won't use all of my strength. It's latent. Do you know how much that hammer I swing around on the ship is?" Miss Valentine shook her head, "It's as heavy as 4 tons."

"You can lift and swing 4 tons and you can't knock his block off? That's as heavy as my last attack!" Miss Valentine snapped at him, "That's so stupid! Put some elbow-grease into it and take it to him already!"

Yosaku turned to yell at her, "I can't damn it! I can't do it unless I'm forced to lift something heavy. I can't just haul off and swing with that much force when I can easily lift Kubikiribouchou and wail around with it without breaking a sweat. Now make it heavier already!" Miss Valentine put her hand firmly on the side of the sword and after a moment Yosaku stumbled forward as the tip of the blade dropped to the ground, "Heh, this is perfect." With a hard grunt of exertion he lifted the sword off of the ground and held it over his shoulder, "Now I can finally use that style that I've been training with for all this time the way it was meant to be used. Juutouryuu (Heavy Sword Style)."

As he started swinging Kubikiribouchou around with two arms, Miss Valentine smiled at how he was still swinging at the same speed he had always been able to swing it at, "It's the same speed as before."

Yosaku nodded and held it out in front of him in a ready kendo stance, "I'm not fast. I'll never be fast. Johnny is always going to be faster than me and no matter what, as fast as I can move now is as fast as I'm always going to be able to move, but who cares because I'm not really slow, and if I connect with this thing you can say goodnight. How long will this stay like this anyway?"

Miss Valentine laughed as she carelessly twirled her umbrella, "Until I touch it to turn it off or it touches something that can negate Devil Fruit powers like Seastone or sea water."

"Fun!" Yosaku said as he grinned in a feral manner, "Now let's try this again Mister Vice-Admiral…"

XxX

(Naruto vs. Vice- Admiral Doberman)

Naruto looked around the ship and realized that he had torn all of the things sticking up from the deck apart, but the bulk of the ship was still intact, "My storm should have ripped this ship apart." Naruto said to Doberman as they stared at each other, "This ship isn't tough enough to take a concentrated hurricane."

"You'd be right normally." Doberman said, "If you had tried that on a ship with another vice-admiral you might have destroyed the ship with that one move, or if you had attacked a ship without one at all you would have for sure. But the use of my Busoshouku Haki (Color of Armaments) is powerful enough for me to impose it on the ship by touching it. I created a shield of hardening to keep it intact. You can't break through my defenses."

Naruto's lip quirked in amusement before he scowled deeply, "That's what that Blueno guy said about his Tekkai too, so let's see what the difference is." Naruto said as he ran forward at Doberman.

Scoffing, Doberman stood still as Naruto came at him, "Haki is stronger than Tek-." He was cut off from talking as Naruto's fist drilled him right in the face and sent him flying back towards the Marines that had been keeping their distance from the fight between their vice-admiral and Uzumaki Naruto. Doberman stood up with a broken nose and knocked away the Marines that tried helping him to his feet, "How?" He growled out as blood poured from his nose.

Naruto stood in an odd fighting stance, "Hm, it might be stronger than Tekkai, but it looks like Sage Mode negates your stupid Haki. Good to know that you're not that strong. I think I'll finish this now because there are still five ships that are calling my name to destroy. I've only gotten one so far. That's a low score."

"Why would you do this?" Doberman asked as he charged back in, swinging his sword, "No one fights the Buster Call, they're destroyed by the Buster Call! You're to flee from it, not face it head on with your freakish Sea Kings that you called upon!" Naruto stayed out of his range and batted his Haki attack aside that he tried projecting ahead for extended attacks as brute force.

Naruto used his skills with the Kawazu Kumite (Frog Kata) taijutsu style to bat aside his Haki attacks that were meant to his him and cut him. Naruto swatted away Doberman's projected force with his own easily. His entire body was covered in an aura of nature chakra that acted as an extension of his entire person.

He threw a punch at Doberman that he managed to avoid by moving his head out of the way. Doberman smirked until he found that he still took the hit anyway. This time he caught himself before he could fly away, but his head snapped back from the force of Naruto's natural unaugmented strength. As he stumbled away he saw Naruto's hand fly back with a blue orb of visible energy in it, "Rasengan (Spiraling Sphere)!" He drilled Doberman right in the stomach as if his Haki was nonexistent and sent him flying.

Doberman stabbed his sword into the deck and stopped flying before he spit blood and glared at a spiral mark that had been carved into his chest, "I see why you're fighting for Nico Robin now… You're a monster just like she is!" He roared at Naruto, "Who else could-? No, who else would do this? Other than a pair of monsters like you! Admiral Aokiji should have allowed us to just kill her! The world doesn't need a demon like her! We should just kill her and be done with it!"

The killing intent that filled the entire ship began strangling those in range of it. The smothering aura brought the weaker Marines to their knees, choking them all into unconsciousness. Doberman unknowingly stepped back from Naruto, 'No, this isn't _that_ Haki. It can't be!'

Naruto slowly started walking forward, getting Doberman to step back everytime he took a step forward, "You say that Robin-chan is a monster. The only monsters I know of are the monsters who were all okay with putting a 79 million beli bounty on an eight year old girl. The only monsters I know are the monsters who had no problem chasing her around the world, terrorizing her, never letting her know peace, and never letting her trust or get close to anyone. Robin-chan isn't a monster… I'll show you a monster."

"What are you going to do?" Doberman asked as he finally regained his composure. He stood back with his sword set out, ready for anything from Naruto. He wasn't going to lose here. The Buster Call was unbeatable. A little bit of force wasn't going to stop this fleet.

"Finish you off." Naruto said before running towards the edge of the ship and leaping off of it high into the air, "Let's see your Haki keep this one from tearing this ship apart!" Two Kage Bunshin formed at Naruto's side in the air as he lifted his hand and started channeling chakra, eventually forming a Rasengan with a large shuriken shape forming around it with their help by use of wind manipulation, "You say someone shouldn't be alive and should be dead! Weaklings that hide behind your 'absolute justice' like you shouldn't get to make cruel choices like that! Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)!"

Naruto threw the scary looking jutsu at the ship and at Doberman in particular who ordered the ship's side guns into action, "Shoot that damn thing out of the sky!"

A triple cannon blast hit the Rasenshuriken before it hit the ship, however Naruto simply smirked and fell from the sky as his clones dispelled, their job complete, "That's not really going to work either." The Rasenshuriken cut right through the blast that attempted to take it out and continued on to the ship.

"Damn it!" Doberman accessed his Haki and prepared to put everything he had behind trying to block the Rasenshuriken as it screeched through the air.

"Vice-Admiral Doberman can stop it!" A Marine yelled as he saw the fast shuriken hurtle through the cannon fire and head right for Doberman and their juggernaut of a ship.

"No one can stop it!" Naruto yelled at the top of his lungs, "You don't _stop_ it, you just kiss your ass goodbye!" He saw Doberman step up to defend against it head on and had to admit, he had guts… too bad they were about to be all over the place in a second.

Doberman took the hit with his Haki and grit his teeth as he could feel the attack tear right through his powerful defense like paper before it moved on to him, "Gah!" He yelled as the Rasenshuriken cut into his every bodily cell, forcing him to drop his Haki, and like a chain reaction when he did that, the Rasenshuriken exploded.

The intense, white, rippling sphere of wind from the exploding Rasenshuriken ripped apart the entire ship, right through the middle. The explosion turned anything caught in it to splinters that were then broken up even further by the intense cutting power of the wind. That wasn't even talking about the poor souls that were also caught directly in the blast.

As Naruto stood atop the ocean watching the chilling scene, he heard the sound of cannon fire from behind him and moved swiftly to avoid being hit on the water by the ungodly large cannonballs. He slid to a stop atop the water and gave an unflinching look at the towering ship that had fired on him, still intent on trying to end his life after watching the first ship fall to his single handed carnage.

He slowly raised his hand back above his head again and formed a Rasengan as two clones formed at his side again, working their hands around the jutsu to add more elemental chakra to this one as well. Instead of the Rasenshuriken this time, it became angry and red in appearance before an aura of blood red formed around it that took the shape of an unstable dragon head that seemed to be fighting against Naruto's control over it, just waiting to be let loose, "Katon: Rasenryuukuchi (Fire Release: Spiraling Dragon's Maw)."

Naruto and his clones hurled the attack in an overhead motion at the ship and watched as it flew through the air like a massive grenade. As it fell from the sky at the ship, the dragon's head expanded and opened its mouth to reveal the core of the blazing red Rasengan variation that filled the huge dragon head's mouth. As it descended on the ship everything, starting with the mast and sail, that the dragon touched caught fire, and anything that touched the blazing red orb itself it would be turned to ash and instantly scattered by the intense temperature and the spiraling effect of the orb.

The Marines panicked, however it was too late for anything, if there was anything that any of them that weak could actually do. There wasn't even a vice-admiral on this ship, maybe if there had been one with Haki all of this either could have been avoided or wouldn't have ended as badly as it was going to now. But there wasn't, and when the dragon hit the deck and the orb made firm contact, the entire ship blew in a horrid, towering firestorm without any resistance from the sturdy materials whatsoever before it dispersed into the air and left the Buster Call ship as nothing more than minute flaming remains scattered to and fro.

XxX

(With the Straw Hat Pirates)

"Gomu Gomu no Jet Gatling (Gum Gum Jet Gatling)!" Luffy pounded away at Rob Lucci so fast that it seemed as upwards of six punches were all landing simultaneously in the motion of an actual gatling gun again and again on Lucci. So fast that the only thing visible were circles of air representing the impact on Lucci's body. With a primal roar of effort, Luffy smashed Lucci and obliterated the prop building of the bridge that they had been fighting in with pure physical force.

Standing up, covered in the wounds from his intense battle, Luffy shouted at the top of his lungs to his friends who were fighting to keep the ship safe, "It's over! We're all getting out of here together Robin!"

"_Rob Lucci of CP9 has been defeated by Monkey D. Luffy just now! Reporting to all Buster Call ships I repeat-!"_ The frantic announcing voice said until a loud concussive, screeching explosion nearly deafened everyone around the Bridge of Hesitation. Shortly after that, another explosion, more volatile and fiery in sound rang out. With the two ships on both sides of the bridge attacking it, there was no way that the embattled pirate crew nor the Marines that they were fighting could rightly see what was happening, but after the second explosion the overwhelming amount of pitch black flames rising from wherever the event had happened informed them that it had to have been catastrophic.

The waves from whatever had just rocked the seas had everything on the water rocking as if it were in a storm.

Nojiko, who had positioned herself up in the crow's nest of the average escape ship quickly jumped down as it was dangerous to remain on the ship with the waters as they were. She knew the first noise from a description that was given to her by Miss Valentine, but the second one was completely foreign, "A grinding screech noise that sounds like bells? And what was that other one?" She yelled over to the others who were fighting on the bridge, "Someone go get Luffy! The way is as clear as it's going to be! We can get out now!" She then gasped as she saw something in her mind and jumped down from the crow's nest to swing her way onto the bridge in order to run away. Just as she did, cannon fire hit the ship and destroyed it.

Nojiko turned around from where she had run to on the bridge to see the ship a burning miserable wreck, "No…"

Nami turned from her fighting to look at their destroyed method of escape, "No! That was our only way out of here!"

Sanji shook his head, "I didn't think that they would fire at the ship since we had Robin-chan with us, but man what a mess." He said before a set of explosions rocked the bridge, "What did they do now?"

Franky groaned at the increasingly desperate situations, "They shot the bridge supports to keep us isolated in the middle part!"

"_Uzumaki Naruto has just destroyed or disabled ships 1, 4, 7, 8, 9, and 10! I repeat! Ships 1, 4 and 7 stationed in the vicinity of the Bridge of Hesitance and ships 8, 9, and 10 posted at the front of Enies Lobby have either been disabled or destroyed! Ship 2 and ship 6 have crippling damage done to them and are unable to move, but are still intact! Reinforcements are coming to handle the matter at hand. All remaining Buster Call ships able to do so return back through the Gate of Justice! The oceans will no longer be fit for sailing, even with the Buster Call ships!"_

"Reinforcements?" Usopp said to himself, not liking the sound of that, "The Buster Call gets reinforcements?" The crew all knew that they had to get out of there now. Usopp ran to the edge of the destroyed bridge separating all of them and Luffy and looked down, his eyes widening and a shaky smile of relief forming on his face, "We need to jump down now! Follow me! We need to jump off of the bridge now!"

As they all made their way to the edge of the bridge the way Usopp instructed, Robin saw her own breath in front of her face as she breathed heavily due to their battle and went wide-eyed at what she saw coming from inside the gate of justice, "No… Not him. There's no way." She said fearfully.

XxX

Standing on a piece of floating driftwood Naruto floated through the tumultuous waters and the fiery, burnt black, unrecognizable chunks of ship, cannon, and even people in the water that he had eradicated with his Rasenryuukuchi. His eyes turned back to normal from Sage Mode as he drifted alone. He turned his head to the two remaining ships that had gone unscathed thus far throughout the entire attack, "Man that move is a monster drain… but whatever. Fine… It looks like only two left and then I can get my crew off of the ships they're on."

Before he could activate Sage Mode again, he felt the one of the toads he had sent to the front of the island pick him up with its tongue and place him on its head to find that it was Gamakichi who was shivering, **"M-Man Naruto-nii… You t-tore them apart. I came here to tell you that everybody else went home after we kicked their asses a-a-and I found you like this."**

Naruto raised an eyebrow at the toad's behavior, "What's the matter 'Kichi? You can't be scared of me for that can you? You know I love you and all of the other toads."

Gamakichi shook his head, **N-No it's not that. It's just… It's really cold out here all of a sudden. It was nice until a few seconds before I found you here. The water's really cold."**

Naruto didn't know what he was talking about until his adrenaline wore off and he felt how the temperature dropped. He could even start to see his breath in front of his face. He looked down over the edge of Gamakichi and saw ice surrounding his large toad body from the feet up. Widening his eyes, Naruto made a hand-seal, "Gamakichi I've got to dismiss you now okay?"

"**W-What's happening?"** He asked as he found his body becoming incased in ice.

"Gamakichi go home!" Naruto ordered, sending the toad home in a puff of smoke just as he jumped into the air and landed on what used to be water but was now solid, thick ice." He looked in the distance where the ice had formed from to see that it stretched far and wide… and there was a bicycle coming towards him in a casual manner. Naruto ignored the cold and crossed his arms as the man got closer and closer before he stopped his vehicle and got off.

It was a man far taller than Naruto that had a blue, long-sleeved shirt and a yellow tie that he wore with a white button-up vest and a white pair of pants and shoes. He had black, puffy hair and a sleep mask on his forehead. He looked around and calmly noted every bit of damage that Naruto had done. Only two of the ships out of the ten that had been dispatched were on their way back, and there were two currently stranded there due to the damage they had taken making it near impossible to move them in a proper direction, "What a mess." He said with a careless sigh.

Naruto could feel the power just radiating off of the man and never let his eyes leave him, "Who are you?"

"The guy that's going to make sure that all of the others get home. Your little temper-tantrum is over Uzumaki Naruto." The man said in a relaxed manner, "My name is Admiral Aokiji and I'm here to finish the primary mission objective. The one I also failed 20 years ago."

"And that would be?" Naruto said, tensing his muscles as he knew exactly what the man was probably about to say.

Aokiji looked over at the Bridge of Hesitation, "To bring Nico Robin to justice."

Naruto nodded though he still held an angry look on his face, "That's what I thought you were going to say. I can't let you do that. You aren't going to get anywhere near Robin-chan. No one's hurting her."

Aokiji sighed again and rubbed his eyes, "Guys like you always have to be so dramatic. I wouldn't have done anything if you hadn't started acting a menace Uzumaki. As far as I'm concerned if you had escaped your crew and the Straw Hats would have won the day." He gestured around them to the ship chunks that had frozen as he created his wasteland of ice to stand on firmly, "This was a massacre. Someone like you can't be allowed to walk around after doing something like this. You are truly a terrible force of nature… but then again so am I."

Naruto's eyes flickered for a moment before he took up a fighting stance, prepared for the actual big fish out of this entire school he had been fighting thus far, "Well let's see which force is more forceful. Because until the Straw Hats are gone from here and my own people finish up you're all mine, if you last that long."

Aokiji rolled his eyes and set into a stance that showed he was ready for a fight as well, "Stop me if you can then, Kizaru wanted to get another crack at you after he told us and Sengoku about what happened, but he's going to have to take a little disappointment this time."

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**My eyes and fingertips are bleeding! Not really, but can you understand why they could be after the last three days? Okay, I'm done for tonight. The next chapter should be out Tuesday or Wednesday because I'm supposed to be busy for the next few days.**

**The admirals don't really have a lot of listed abilities because they've never been in fights where they've been pushed in due to them outclassing everyone around, so I'm going to have to get original next chapter, please forgive me. Also the vice-admirals have never been seen doing much so the same goes for them, I will be getting original next chapter.**

**Next chapter will be all of the fights, until then Kenchi out. I'm tired.**


	27. Hell Freezes Over

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. But I beseech you, do not judge me by my meager possessions, no I implore you to judge me for the exuberant zest with which I assail life, to the fullest!

Alright… now I'm going to take a nap, I'll do stuff tomorrow… if I feel like it. Probably not. Who really cares? I don't.

**Chapter 27: Hell Freezes Over**

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After Luffy's defeat of Rob Lucci, the call went out for the Buster Call to retreat. The _Buster Call_ was to _retreat_. Of the ten warships dispatched to destroy Enies Lobby and take Nico Robin back only 2 would be going home in one piece. Two ships wouldn't be moving from that spot an inch to leave the area due to the damage done to them that kept them from being steerable, and six of the ships weren't even _that_ well off. They were completely destroyed by either Naruto's summons or Naruto himself.

The distraction allowed the Straw Hats with Nojiko in tow to find a way to leave the bridge when somehow the Going Merry appeared, able to take them away from there, however their escape was not assured.

The miracle ship that somehow made it all the way from Water 7 in the middle of a storm to Enies Lobby and the crew it had carried for so long in particular ran into a stretch of trouble upon its attempt to cut out from the area. The ship was trapped in the vicinity of the bridge. Why? Because other than the portion of water that the ship was on, the sea for more than several square miles over was frozen solid, too thick for them to break through.

The only reason the entire area hadn't been frozen was because of the fact that one of the unmovable ships were right by the bridge, the ship that Vivi had been taken onto. The only other way was back through the Gate of Justice with the retreating Buster Call ships or long ways around which would be the equivalent of doubling back around the entire island of Enies Lobby.

Nami ran towards the edge of the ship to look over it at the frozen plain that now sat covering the water, "No! Aokiji's back again!"

Luffy, who was still utterly spent from his brutal fight with Rob Lucci, could only glower from his place laying on the deck from his exhaustion, "I-I still can't move yet. He can't take Robin back! Not after all of this!"

Nojiko had taken a high vantage point to look through her scope, trying to find any way for them to get out, as a canceled attack meant nothing as long as they were stuck there, "He won't get close enough to even touch her Luffy." She said resolutely, "Naruto-kun is fighting him."

Robin's jaw fell open as all of the other Straw Hats looked up at Nojiko in horror, "He's going to fight that monster?" Usopp said fearfully, "Look at this! He froze the entire ocean! Doesn't this terrify you?"

Nojiko frowned and nodded, "Yes it does, but I'm not the one fighting. Naruto-kun is, and if he isn't scared then I won't be. He knows what he's doing." She looked down at the crew from her rifle, "You all know that he's strong. He's already fought an admiral. This time it's not just to buy us time though, and I'm really scared for him, but I'm not strong. Not strong enough to do anything to help or stop him from fighting this admiral. And if you're all that scared of him then none of you are either. So just believe in Naruto-kun. And if you don't then I don't want to hear it from you."

The Straw Hats were all silent until Luffy spoke up from the laying on the deck, "Naruto can beat that guy." Everyone looked at the rubber-boy who had a huge grin on his face, "Remember when I wanted him on my crew so bad at first? That's because I knew he was the strongest guy around and because I knew he would fight super-hard for anyone that he called his nakama." He looked at Nami, "Remember what he did at Arlong Park? He didn't do more because that was easy for him. He was sure he could beat Crocodile too."

Zoro looked at his captain and then back out on the ice plain, "Well if Luffy's sure that Naruto can pull it off then I think he can too."

"Right!" Luffy said, trying to move around excitedly on the ground, "So just believe in him and he can't possibly lose! Now someone pick me up so I can watch this! This is gonna be cool!" Zoro grabbed Luffy's arm and slung it over his shoulder to lift him up to watch.

Robin could make out a pair of silhouettes in the distance and a large chunk of ship wreckage nearby them. She motioned with her arms to activate her Hana Hana no Mi powers.

XxX

(Naruto vs. Aokiji)

On a large chunk of ice that had formed by going over a demolished chunk of a Buster Call ship a pair of eyes and ears formed, looking over the frozen battlefield.

Naruto stomped his foot on the ground after he had finished a short chain of hand-seals that confused Aokiji as to why he was making those weird signs with his hands. He hadn't found any give in the solid ice, 'Well I won't be forcing up any water ninjutsu up through that, but even if I do…' He looked up at Aokiji, 'This guy could just freeze it solid before it hit him. Man these Admirals are a pain in my ass.'

"Seeing how thick the ice is?" Aokiji asked rhetorically as he could tell from Naruto's stomps that that was what it was he was doing, "As long as the gates are open this isn't going to go anywhere for a week at least. With the amount of time I had to prepare this for you I'd say that the only person that could break this would be Whitebeard because of his fruit's power. So no sea water for you."

"It can't possibly be that thick. I bet I could break it before you even realize it." Naruto said, prepared to do just that.

Aokiji didn't seem to take offense to Naruto's disbelief and calmly explained, "Ever since I've been standing here in front of you all I've been doing was making it thicker. Right now I think I ruined this island's climate because I think I just made my own island."

Naruto narrowed his eyes and began walking around in a circle, "I don't need sea water to beat you anyway. I got rid of that other admiral didn't I?"

"Kizaru got overzealous." Aokiji said, "He got cocky when he found out that you couldn't keep up with him… he always does." He said with a sigh, "I should say he always _did_. Next time he won't come at you with that one-dimensional attack, or he would if you would find yourself able to win here. I don't plan on underestimating you."

"Good." Naruto said, "That makes it so that I won't feel bad about this." He said before blurring from Aokiji's sight before the ice user did the same, the two simply doing nothing but switching places, "Damn… so you've got that CP9 speed thing, you're just way better than the cow guy at it."

Aokiji shrugged, "It's a Marine technique… the most basic one at that." He pointed at himself, "I _am_ a Marine. Hell, I'm _the_ Marine as far as the tons of others under my rank would say. Of course I would know it, and I'm older than them so of course I would have had more time with it."

"Let's test it." Naruto said before rushing at Aokiji in a rapid zig-zag pattern. Aokiji placed his hands on the icy ground and launched a wave of ice at Naruto. Naruto jumped over the ice and aimed himself at Aokiji who hadn't stood up yet with a huge drawn back punch, "First blood!" His fist shattered Aokiji's head which turned to ice on contact. Naruto slid through and finally came to a stop on the ground, looking at his fist that was now covered in frost, "First frost?" He turned back to Aokiji and saw his head reform, "Fuck! This again? First Smoker, then Crocodile, then that guy made of light, Kizaru, and now you! At least I could still kick the first two's asses anyway." He then smirked, "But I can just melt you."

"You'd think that wouldn't you?" Kizaru said as the appearance of his head changed back from ice to its normal form, "But if you think you can, feel free to try."

Naruto began making hand-signs again, "I think I will! Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)!" Naruto shot off a fireball at Aokiji that missed wide as he dodged it. Naruto had a plan now. Hit him with a fireball and melt his ass into a puddle if that was what it took. With this in mind, Naruto rushed towards Aokiji to slow him down enough to try another fire attack, but was caught off-guard when he tried to divert his path too quickly and slid across the icy field.

"Aisu Kai: Ryouirahoko (Ice Mass: Both Thorn Pikes)!" Aokiji formed several spears of ice and hurled them at Naruto while he was still stuck sliding without the friction to stop.

'Damn! I'm going to have to aim well so that this attack passes on through and reaches him!' Naruto made hand-seals as he continued to slide with the incoming spears closing in on him, "Katon: Kanshakumochi (Fire Release: Spitfire)!" Naruto spat out a small cylindrical bullet of fire that managed to weave through the wave of spears from Aokiji and continue on to the man like a sniper's bullet.

The attack narrowly passed by Aokiji's face and continued on past him while Naruto reached into his pocket and threw his Hiraishin kunai a short distance away, flashing to it and dodging the spears of ice.

"Aisu Taimu (Ice Time)!"

Naruto turned to see Aokiji right on him preparing to grab him. Not knowing what he was planning to do, Naruto jumped back out of the way of the attack, but cursed in his head when he saw what happened afterwards. Aokiji touched the kunai that Naruto left behind to dodge and flash froze it, a thick shell of ice forming around it, "That'll be enough of that. I can't have you using that thing to zip all over the place." He said before stomping on it and shattering it.

'He didn't even stop to wonder what the Hiraishin did or how it worked? All he did was see me do it once in passing to dodge and he just jumped at the kunai like a dog on raw meat.' Naruto grit his teeth as he slid to another stop and watched Aokiji finish grinding his frozen kunai into broken tatters, "Fine, I don't need that either." He looked around at the icy tundra, "I'm so glad Haku didn't have this kind of control over ice when I fought him, I'd have been killed on the spot." He then punched his palm and cracked his knuckles, "But I'm not as weak as I was back then, and if I fought Haku now I would have smashed him in a few minutes."

"I'm not this Haku person, but you're very good." Aokiji admitted freely as he pulled a few strands of hair from his head, "It makes me want to just leave and go on back to Marineford it's so troublesome to fight you, but you killed at least 2000 of my Marines…"

"They were trying to kill my allies and me." Naruto replied, "What did you want me to do, sit on my ass and watch you kill them all? And for what? Because that worm Spandam called it in?"

"You can't just attack a base." Aokiji replied as coolly as his powers would have reflected, "This was all by design." His fingers started frosting over as ice covered the hairs he had pulled from his head, "Aisu Sauberu (Ice Saber)." He blew his breath on the follicles and formed a large, jagged sword of ice.

Naruto pulled a scroll from his pants pocket and opened it, "You can't just take someone like Robin-chan away. You gave Spandam that Buster Call thing. That's what they said. Why would you give that insane moron something like that? You brought this on yourself. If people would leave me and the things I care about alone then I would never really get into fights." He bit his thumb and slid it across the scroll, causing a puff of smoke to shoot from it, "The Straw Hats don't poke around for trouble with the government, they just mess with pirates really. You guys are the ones that mess with them and they fight back… and I fight back. So if you want to go to war with me that's fine."

Aokiji's eyes instead of being locked on Naruto were locked on the huge weapon that seemed to be covered in scales he had in his hand that he was swinging around as if stretching and getting used to the motion.

Naruto then pointed the sword or whatever it was at Aokiji and moved it horizontally around the area where all of the frozen pieces of ships were sticking up out of the ice, "But don't start crying when stuff like this happens to you. After all…" He set the sword on his shoulder, "…Would you pick a fight with Whitebeard?"

"You're not Whitebeard." Aokiji returned, "He's the strongest man in the world and he has an entire fleet on par with the most powerful men the Marines can provide."

Naruto pointed at himself, "I'm strong enough to do everything that I just did to the Buster Call, and I can go back home if you want me to try and raise up an army. It'll take ten or so years to get people all adequately trained up but I'm pretty sure I could." He looked at the large weapon he had set over his shoulder, "What do you think?"

The large weapon seemed to shake, "Gigigigigigigi! (Ten years? The user's dumbass is going to train a fleet? The user barely knows what _the user_ is doing most of the time on a ship. How is the user going to teach anyone else? Stick to the fighting part of being a pirate.)"

Naruto frowned and looked at the sword, "Yeah, you're probably right but you don't say that in front of the guy we're going to get into a fight with. Come on, give your wielder some support." He then blinked and added something after a thought, "And I'm not a pirate you freaky sword. How many times do I have to tell you this?"

"What is that?" Aokiji asked.

"Samehada." Naruto said in reply as he focused back on the fight, "My very violent, sentient sword… and I haven't fed him today." Samehada shook and vibrated in response, "He says that your chakra feels cold and to not cut you too much because he'll get brain freeze. Stop being a punk Samehada." Without warning he ran at Aokiji and swung his massive sword, slamming it against Aokiji's ice blade as he sent the man sliding back, 'That was either the ice under his feet or I'm stronger than him. Either way…'

Aokiji rushed back in with Soru and tried to cut past Samehada, but Naruto knew how to use the large sword to work for him defensively, 'What kind of weapon is this? It's the oddest sword I've ever seen.' The two traded strikes that bounced off of one another again and again, but neither being proper swordsmen were able to take advantage of the other's lack of expertise in the area, "Ugh, I'm more used to just freezing people and being done with it."

"I'm more used to punching people in the face." Naruto said in return as they ran back towards each other at high speed. The thunderous crashes of their respective weapons clashing seemed to be the only thing seen across the plain for most to be able to see.

XxX

(With Straw Hat Crew)

On board the ship that was travelling the long way around the mammoth ice island that Aokiji formed in behind Enies Lobby Enies Lobby all that the others could really see after Naruto's Hiraishin attempt were two blurs, and every now and then they would slam into each other. Of course Robin had a better view than all of the others due to her Devil Fruit powers giving her the ability to move eyes across the plains onto the surfaces of upturned parts of ice and frozen chunks of ships as they battled it out. Whatever the others couldn't see, she would provide commentary for, "Naruto is fighting him evenly. He's actually staying with him all the way." She said, impressed and grateful that he had yet to be hurt by Aokiji.

Luffy grinned at hearing that as he could see what was happening, but was too far away to really get a handle on what was happening, "Shishishishi, I knew he could. Kick his ass Naruto! Show him why you were about to be my ship's hobo!" Following Luffy's cry of support, all of the others on board began vocally rooting for Naruto except for Robin who kept her thoughts to herself as she kept watching the battle at hand between the admiral and their blonde ally.

The look on her face was one of intense focus as she kept watching the fight that was being waged mostly over her.

"_Please trust me."_

"_We made it all the way this far for you!"_

"_We're getting you out of here Robin-chan. It's the promise of a lifetime."_

As she remembered Naruto's words to her all throughout the conflict, how he always said there would be nothing to stop them from getting her back, and how she should have believed in their strength, Robin bit her lip tightly enough to draw blood from it, momentarily shutting her eyes tightly, 'Okay… I trust you Naruto. I'll believe in you just like I did with the others. Just please be okay out there.' "Just be okay…"

XxX

(Soren vs. Vice-Admiral Onigumo)

Soren's breath was visible in now drastically colder environment, "They called the attack off. Why don't you guys just head on home and end this." As a secondary thought he smirked and spoke again, "Leave the Spandam idiot though, I promised that I would kill him myself."

"You talk far too much when you fight." Onigumo said before he stood again up over the mast, smashing it with one of his legs as he jumped down.

Soren went wide eyed when he saw Onigumo's new appearance, "Oh… son of a bitch!" He groaned as he dragged his hand down his face before slapping himself, "God I hate Zoan Devil Fruits… Okay fine! I'll deal with this too! Bring it on 'legs'!" He shouted, pushing his cautious thoughts to the background behind aggression.

Onigumo's body was still that of a human's, but the spider abdomen that had formed from his back grew larger and bulkier like a real spider's body. He still had his human arms, but now the spider legs were longer, long enough to be used as actual legs. He looked like a massive spider with a human on its underbelly. Onigumo now had two protruding fangs from his mouth as he spoke, "This is the full transformation of the Kumo Kumo no Mi, Model: Tarantula. Prepare to die."

A middle finger was his response, "Fuck you. You aren't the first one to say that, but you definitely qualify as the ugliest." He held the forearm of his dominant arm and charged his acid until his hand which was held in a flat knife form glowed green. He then rushed forward, zig-zagging towards Onigumo "Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Knife)!" His strike missed and stabbed deeply into the fallen mast when Onigumo moved, "That wasn't even close like everything else I tried! Is he faster now?"

He turned around just as Onigumo swung a massive spider leg at him. The hit landed right on the side of his ribs, sending him sliding a few feet, however Soren tucked it under his arm and held it in place. Onigumo wasn't as physically strong as him before transforming and things didn't seem to have changed when he transformed, "Looks like I'm going to be swatting a big-ass bug today. Or maybe I can just do this… because you can't move." His cheeks puffed out to prepare an attack when he lost his focus as another of the legs thrust into his body, slamming him back into the fallen mast and pinning him against it, 'Okay, he _is_ stronger. He's just stronger when he uses more legs.'

"Just give up you idiot, Kumo Naguru Koto (Spider Pummel)." Onigumo said as he kept one of his legs pinning Soren against the mast, using his other legs as barbed clubs to brutally smash him again and again without pause, "My defense is impenetrable now that I'm fully transformed. I not only know what you're going to do but I have the legs to keep you away from my body to even attack me." A sinister smile came to his face when he felt the give from Soren getting hit in the side of the face again and again, "Should I kill you here? I think I should for destroying the ship directly under my command. Impel Down is crowded enough."

'Neither of those options work for me.' Soren thought as he continued taking the beating from Onigumo, 'This is really starting to hurt.' He contemplated as a hit to the top of the head almost made things go dark, 'And those hairy spider legs of his are cutting into me.' This thought came to mind as blood from the top of his head fell into his eyes, "Fuck this… Ibi Ibi no Bakuhatsu (Rot Rot Explosion)!"

Onigumo's leg that had been pinning Soren to the mast began to burn as the corrosive fluid that excreted from Soren's body landed on it, forcing him to pull it away and jump back to nurse his badly burned limb, 'Gah. It's not too bad, not as bad as I've seen it on others in the past, but that might just be because that move was defensive.' The spider-human hybrid jumped back and began climbing the mast of the ship that was still upright.

Seeing his opponent begin climbing out of his close range, Soren didn't even bother wiping the blood from his face before beginning his counter-attack, "Doflamingo can control people like puppets, well this is my response to that. Ibi Ibi no Unagi (Rot Rot Eel)!" From his hand came a massive stream of acid that took the form of an eel stretching from his arm, complete with a face and mouth.

'Fool.' Onigumo thought to himself as he continued to climb the mast, 'I'll just move out of the way. It's just another fire and forget attack like all of the others.' That didn't happen to be the case, as when he predicted the attack's trajectory and crawled around the mast to the other side to evade, the eel followed, twisting around and continuing to chase him, 'I didn't see that happening!' All he saw was what would happen if the attack had hit, not what would happen if he dodged it. He was unaware that it was a controllable attack.

Soren's single arm was guiding the attack as it continued to stretch and move, "I told you that this attack was my controlled technique! Doflamingo controls others like a coward, I don't need that. My own power is enough!" The large acid eel began to constrict and wrap around the mast tightly enough to begin eating through it as it chased Onigumo up. Eventually crawling out to a side bar of the mast, the massive human-spider jumped off at Soren, "Oh man…"

"Kumo o Oshimasu (Arachnid Press)!"

Soren was forced to move abruptly and let go of his homing attack or wind up crushed by Onigumo's large bulky frame, and with the added threat of the barbs on his entire body that had already shown that they could do serious damage he didn't feel like testing his mettle by taking the attack head on. The large human/spider smashed through the deck to the level below with the weight and force behind the attempted body splash.

Soren ran over to the hole with his cheeks puffed out and looked inside, ready to fill the place with as much acid as he could conceivably pump into it when he saw that Onigumo was no longer there. Letting his attack drop he contemplated just jumping inside and searching before letting that mindset drop, as he remembered the entire reason he had run aboard this ship in the first place. Choosing not to look a gift horse in the mouth, with an evil grin on his face he began to run off to a different part of the ship.

XxX

(With Johnny and Vivi)

Johnny had finally gotten Vivi to a part of the ship where she could escape from, "Alright, come on already let's get you out of here." Johnny and Vivi both slid down a rope that extended to the frozen water that the ship was caught in.

Vivi pointed to the edge of the artificial ice island where she could see the Going Merry sailing around the entire unnatural formation, "There's the ship! Can we get over there?"

Johnny picked Vivi up piggyback, "I'm not Carue, but this should still be fast enough… man that's going to be a hell of a run." The sound of gunshots made him start dodging across the ice as the Marines that remained on the ship took aim at him, "Come on Vivi, let's get out of here before one of them gets lucky and hits me."

"Did you kill any of them on the way out?" She asked Johnny as he started running away, "They just thought that they were saving me. Only the higher-ups would know about the conspiracy that my father told me about."

"I didn't kill any of them." Johnny insisted as he ran, "They weren't strong enough for me to worry too much about." He let out a laugh, "You did kick that one captain that came at me in the balls though. That was priceless, and you made it look like an accident."

Vivi smirked, "Naruto told me that cheating was okay as long as circumstances permitted it." She looked back at the ship they had just evacuated from, "Do you think the others are alright?" Vivi asked in concern.

Johnny looked back momentarily and kept running, "Yeah. They're fine. They're not going to lose."

XxX

(Yosaku and Miss Valentine vs. Vice-Admiral Strawberry)

Yosaku swung his massive sword at Strawberry, who found it in his best interest to dodge the powerful swordsman's attacks. He had heard the conversation between Miss Valentine and him before they commenced with their attack and he realized that if he could keep out of the way of Yosaku's attacks he would eventually begin to wear down, and even if he didn't, Strawberry was fast enough to pick him apart with his own blades until he dropped from his wounds.

Even with Miss Valentine's glorified 2-ton billy club that she called an umbrella he could avoid her as well. After all, she didn't seem to be that fast whatsoever. As a matter of fact, as he dodged to the side to avoid a vertical cleaving attack from Yosaku he wondered exactly how Miss Valentine was able to get the drop on him and smash him over the head. Her outfit of yellow and orange didn't scream speed or stealth and neither did her Devil Fruit power.

"You should watch your six sweetie."

Strawberry was barely able to lift a sword in time to block Miss Valentine's attempt to smash him in the side with her umbrella as he got sent flying back across the ruins of the ship. If he didn't have the appropriate Haki for this he was certain that the woman would have broken his blade with that shot. With his back bouncing off of a wall, but leaving him for the most part unharmed, he stared at Miss Valentine and Yosaku who were once again facing off with him. Looking at the woman who always seemed to have a smile on her pleasant features, Strawberry decided to voice his most prolific question, "How are you able to move so fast? The last time I looked at you, you hadn't moved from where you made his sword heavier, and when I took my eyes off of you for a few moments you were right behind me."

Miss Valentine laughed, "When I change my weight I still keep my density and real strength. I can still lift just as much as I can at my normal weight that I can at 1 kilogram or 10,000. That means that my leg muscles especially can get a very good workout with my powers. What do you think that means when I drop my weight to 1 kilogram? My legs are so powerful that I have incredible speed when I do so. And the closer I get to being able to move with 10,000 kilograms the faster I'll get. I've seen your Soru, well I have my Haneho (Feather Step). One step with my weight at 1 kilo is all I need to cover the distance from where I was standing to where you were. I used the other leg to stop myself and stay grounded so I could put my weight back on."

"You have super speed?" Strawberry asked, getting a cheerful nod from her, 'Great. I have one that is overly strong but he's slow, and another one who's slightly weaker, but makes up for the slight lack of strength by being incredibly fast.'

Miss Valentine let out another laugh as she kept her own thoughts to himself, 'Good thing he doesn't know that the range of the technique is very generalized. Anything bigger than a relatively small battlefield that I have to cover and it gets far harder to stop myself. Taking a second step in a row would disrupt my balance too much and I'd end up taking a nasty spill.' With the pleasantries all tapped out, Miss Valentine rushed at Strawberry and took a swing at him, forcing him to defend as he slid back a few feet from the force of the strike.

He lashed out in response at Miss Valentine who blocked with her umbrella, bracing it with both hands, one on the handle the other on the top portion. She shoved him off and opened her umbrella to blow herself back out of his range just as Yosaku reentered it and utilized the opening for an attack, "Inryoku Tsukamidasu (Gravity Grabber)!"

Smashing his massive blade into the ground, Yosaku forced up a larger than usual trail of destruction, dwarfing his usual one by three times the size. A grin crossed his face as he saw it engulf Strawberry until a figure moved from the dust his attack had caused.

Lifting his sword horizontally to block was a mistake that Yosaku didn't realize until it was too late. Strawberry's reverse grip swords cut through his blade like butter and cut into both sides Yosaku's chest, "I have Busoshouku Haki. I can not only protect myself from all but the most forceful attacks, I can use it to increase my own weapon's effectiveness. In this case, strong enough to damage and eventually cut through your sword after more than a few hits from mine."

'Bastard…' Yosaku thought to himself as he fell to the ground, 'I develop my strength as far as I can to learn to cut through steel and come up with a way to actually pull it off, and this guy just learns this Haki and can get right through me. He's not even a good swordsman. If I could hit him I know I could get him in one shot. My strongest move.'

"And now your weapon is useless." Strawberry said to Yosaku as he looked down at Kubikiribouchou, broken in half on the ground, "What a shame. That was a fine weapon. You simply had the wrong opponent. And now for your pretty little ally." He said, walking off to fight Miss Valentine.

Yosaku grabbed the handle of Kubikiribouchou as he began pulling himself back up, "Don't you fucking turn your back on me!" He shouted at Strawberry, who stopped moving yet hadn't turned back around to face him, "Broken or not, my sword is still sharp." He held the sword up, still ready to fight as it now resembled a cleaver blade more than ever, "And if you don't watch your back I only need one shot. I never cut twice!" He yelled before falling back to the ground weakly, "Damn it…"

Miss Valentine appeared at his backside, ready to swing her umbrella until Strawberry anticipated her and lashed out with a slash using one of his swords that cut her on the thigh and disrupted her attack, "You have no weaponry skill." He said before throwing a kick that caught her in the stomach. She doubled over, but didn't move as she had anchored herself to the spot with the use of her powers, "You have very good defenses though." A follow up slash with his other sword was desperately parried with her umbrella.

"1000 Kilo Houden (1000 Kilogram Discharge)!" Miss Valentine threw a punch with her free hand that hit Strawberry in the chest and sent him sliding back a fair distance, but didn't do much visible damage. The smile on her face at this point had faded as she had realized that she was in a true battle once she saw the wounds on Yosaku, "No one tries to kill my comrades like that. I won't let them."

"You're pirates girl." Strawberry said as his arms started shaking before finally dropping all the way, he found it hard to lift his arms holding his swords, "What did you do to me?"

Miss Valentine's smile never returned as she explained, "I can use my powers on others. Even people that don't necessarily want me to, all I have to do is hit you. Even if you block it, and you didn't, you would still be weighed down. So let's see how much muscle you have. Because you now have 1000 kilograms (2205 lbs.) evenly distributed throughout your entire body. Naruto stole that little idea from a woman named Jewelry Bonney." She rushed at him and punched him again and again two more times, though she wasn't doing any damage.

"You can't harm me like that girl!" Strawberry yelled at her despite the fact he couldn't move, "Even your damned umbrella wouldn't harm me as long as I keep my Haki on!" He shouted at Miss Valentine before a smile came back to her face, "What?" Before he could even demand another answer, blood flowed freely from a wound that was cut into his side. The vice-admiral slowly turned his head to see Yosaku had cut into him with what had remained of Kubikiribouchou, "How? My Haki…"

"Against around 4-tons." Miss Valentine answered for him, "And the man strong enough to swing it."

Yosaku dropped to the ground in a heap from his wounds as he looked at his sword victoriously, Kubikiriboucho coated entirely in Strawberry's blood, "I knew you could cut through that Haki stuff. Naruto-aniki wouldn't have given me anything less."

"This isn't over yet…" Strawberry seethed through the pain of the deep slash in his side as he walked slowly over to Yosaku, still weighed down, "You can't muster that kind of attack again. You're just going to lay there and bleed out… until I can finish you in just a bit." He then stopped at the sight he then bore witness to.

Yosaku's sword began absorbing the blood that had been spilled from Strawberry and the blood that it had been sitting in from Yosaku before reforming. The copious amounts of blood coating the blade took the form of the rest of Kubikiribouchou before solidifying and taking the normal color of the blade, "Whoa…" Yosaku said weakly, "No way."

"_Now, meet __Kubikiribouchou (Decapitating Carving Knife)__. It has a special ability that you're going to find useful. I would love to see you break this thing for good."_

'This is what Naruto-aniki meant…' Yosaku said, staring at the reformed Kubikiribouchou in awe, 'I can't ever break this sword. I can always repair it if I can wound people with it.'

Strawberry saw the reformation of Kubikiribouchou and stopped in his tracks, "What kind of demonic weapon is that?" He looked at the broken pieces of the blade elsewhere and back at Yosaku before he found himself hit three more times in the face by Miss Valentine, each punch weighing him down more and more, to the point where he was unable to even move any longer, 'I can't be beaten like this. How could we lose? This was supposed to be the Buster Call.'

"It's not demonic." Yosaku said, standing up painfully, "Well okay, it's kind of demonic. But it's a gift from Naruto-aniki. And as long as I've got this gift I can't lose."

Miss Valentine walked up to Strawberry with a smile on her face before punching him one more time for good measure, "And that's 7000 kilograms all on you. You aren't going anywhere for a long, long time Vice-Admiral Strawberry." She walked over to Yosaku and helped him walk by allowing him to lean on her, "We're done Yosaku, we win."

"I'm not dead yet…" Strawberry said as he found moving even an inch to be an impossible task, "You haven't defeated me."

Miss Valentine frowned and held up her umbrella, "Yes, because you can put up such a good fight right now. You have no way to even attack us anymore. You're defenseless." She tapped Kubikiribouchou to drop its weight and grabbed a hold of Yosaku, opening her umbrella to fly away, "Goodbye Vice-Admiral. We didn't come here to fight you or kill anyone, we just came here to get the princess back, and we accomplished that."

Strawberry could do nothing but watch them float off into the sky with a burst of wind from her umbrella. He watched them escape and narrowed his eyes. All he could do at this point was wait for his men to explore the wrecked portion of the ship and get seawater to him so that he could negate Miss Valentine's powers.

XxX

(Naruto vs. Aokiji)

Naruto and Aokiji clashed blades, pushing against each other in an attempt to overpower the other. They broke off with Aokiji having a plan of action as he suddenly lashed out at Naruto. The Uzumaki shinobi had believed that he wouldn't risk being cut by his sword, but Aokiji believed that Naruto's sword wouldn't harm him anyway, and kept that thought as his sword drove into Naruto's shoulder eliciting a cry of pain from Naruto, "My Devil Fruit type is a Logia type. You can't-."

He stopped trying to explain things to Naruto when a sword smashed across his back and felt like it shaved off the top layers of his skin as it dragged across his torso. Aokiji's face didn't even register the pain of the attack as he was in disbelief of actually getting hit and taking visible damage, 'But how? That weapon isn't Seastone…' He didn't bother sticking around to find out as Naruto had angrily taken a second swing at him intending to go for the neck this time.

"Son of a bitch!" Naruto shouted as he grabbed a hold of Aokiji's sword stuck in his shoulder, "It's so cold!" With a loud grunt of effort, Naruto ripped the sword from his shoulder, worsening his wound and ruining his formerly pristine red shirt with a darker tone of red blood and a tear going down his shoulder and chest, "But at least I disarmed your ass." He said, throwing the ice saber away, "Now you're screwed, and I've still got Samehada here…" The tone of his eyes had an inflection of violence in his gaze, "And he said that you didn't taste that bad."

"Sorry to say." Aokiji remarked, "I don't plan on being lunch for your little monster sword again." The man said as the nasty wound across his back began bleeding down until his powers froze the life fluid on his back and into his clothes, "I was never that much of a swordsman anyway."

Naruto held Samehada back out in front of him in a kendo stance, "Neither am I, but I'd rather have Samehada at my side than no weapon at all."

"Gigigigi (Aww… Samehada loves the user too! Such delicious chakra and the user is so generous with it as well!)!"

"Shut the fuck up Samehada." Naruto said, getting another round of un-translated verbal shakes from the sentient weapon.

Aokiji narrowed his eyes at Naruto and blurred in a rush of Soru that Naruto replied with using his own speed. Instead of the clashes that had been happening all over the place it was more reminiscent of a chase as Aokiji was in full retreat from Naruto's dangerous sword that could actually hit him, 'It felt familiar. Could it be? The sword is alive, that's clear from the conversations that he's had with it about the battle, though it is a barbaric thing from what's been said.' A slash meant for his head struck a divot of ice, pulverizing it, 'This entire island of ice is as solid as rock and yet the weapon took absolutely no damage. That has to be it! That sword somehow has Haki!'

The knowledge of how Naruto was negating his fruit's powers firmly in his mind and thankful that the reason wasn't Seastone re-inspired Aokiji to prepare a counter-attack against his doggedly pursuing opponent, 'I can touch it, I just have to be careful with it!' Following a hand gesture from Aokiji, the ice from the ground rose to form a massive giant's hand coming right for Naruto in a slap.

"I really don't like that." Naruto voiced to his sword, opting not to swing his beloved chakra-devouring blade at the huge hand and risk getting overtaken and injured, and it was too thick to melt with a quick-preparation fire jutsu so he did the only thing that came to mind, he jumped over it. As he made his way over the huge ice hand he saw Aokiji had been ready for him and had launched several razor-sharp icicles at him swiftly. A Kage Bunshin formed in mid-air and threw Naruto to the side, taking the hits for him in his stead.

'Now to get close to this guy again.' Naruto thought to himself as he flew through the air in a different direction. As he prepared to land, the ice island shifted and began to lift from the ground, elevating the area that Naruto was planning to land on. As his feet touched the elevated platform of ice he immediately used Shunshin to jet straight ahead out of harm's way as an ice spire shot out of the ground and continued to grow and sweep Naruto up in its formation, "No, no, no… I am _not_ going out like this! You aren't beating me that easily!"

The rapidly expanding ice spire was beating down on the back of Naruto's heels, getting closer and closer to him before from the inside of the ice emerged Aokiji, "Aisu Taimu (Ice Time)!" He reached out for Naruto who turned to stop him with Samehada, "I've got you now."

Naruto saw him reach for Samehada and threw the sword away from his body to keep it from being frozen like his Hiraishin kunai was, allowing Aokiji to make contact with him directly and freeze him solid, "That was a good effort, but that's checkmate."

XxX

(With Straw Hat Pirates)

A gasp came from Robin as she saw Naruto's body frozen solid in a protective manner, "No…" She said, eyes starting to quiver as she remembered the first person that Aokiji had frozen solid because of her, "Not again…"

Nojiko saw the more battle ready Straw Hats ready to rush to Naruto's assistance, "No! Don't any one of you move an inch!" She demanded, stopping Zoro, Sanji, Usopp, and Nami in their tracks, "This isn't over yet. Naruto-kun isn't beaten yet."

Usopp pointed out at Naruto's incapacitated body, "He's a popsicle! How isn't he done yet? We've got to go get him!"

Vivi shook her head, as she, Johnny, Yosaku who was being treated by Chopper, and Miss Valentine had made it aboard the ship, "No… there's no way that Naruto would go down so easily."

"Easily?" Nami said incredulously, "He put up a way better fight than the rest of us did against the guy. Aokiji beat us without even breaking a sweat, this is more than enough! We can help him!"

"You'd get in his way." Miss Valentine said, thumping her umbrella on her shoulder anxiously, "He's not this weak, but he must have used so much energy trashing the Buster Call all by himself. Either way he's just getting started."

"Are you sure?"

Miss Valentine turned to Robin once she heard her speak. The blonde woman locked eyes with her former Baroque Works superior and didn't feel an inflection of fear that she would have during their meeting in Alabasta. That was all thanks to one person showing her that she could get stronger on her own to match those better than her, that she was more than support, the same person that was fighting and needed their confidence at the moment, "Absolutely. Just keep watching. You're all about to see something special, I just know it."

XxX

Back with Aokiji, he was staring at Naruto's frozen solid body, "What to do… I could just smash you and be done with it, but that would be cruel. But then dragging you all the way to Impel Down would be terrible too. All of this for Nico Robin though?" He asked as he peered into Naruto's eyes which were frozen wide open, "I wished that she would have just tried living a normal life, I warned her and everything, I let her go and told her to leave everything behind on Ohara, but now it comes to this and I no longer have a choice." He sighed and backed away from Naruto, "Now _you_. You're too dangerous to be left alive." He drew his hand back for a punch when he noticed Naruto's eyes behind the icy shell change to have a strange orange pigment on the outsides of them and a strange ripple pattern in his eyes themselves. The ice around his face began sweating off water intensely, "What the-?"

A fireball erupted from Naruto's face like a flamethrower centralized around his mouth as he melted the ice from his head and forced Aokiji backwards lest he be hit by the attack. Naruto took a deep breath as his head was the only thing free, "Damn that was close, I couldn't breathe in there. Glad I had one clone left in waiting." His face took on a massive look of strain as it looked like he was trying to break the ice with pure muscle.

"You won't break that." Aokiji said as he saw Naruto struggle, "Not from the inside you won't. Your body should have been one with the ice, frozen solid even if you were able to free your head."

"Chakra, Admiral Asshole." Naruto said in a struggling voice, "I've been warming my body with chakra since I've gotten out here. It's cold as hell. And Sage Mode makes me one with the environment, so my body pretty much got its heat back when I changed. Which means that in a few seconds…!"

The sound of loud cracking came before the ice encasing Naruto's body smashed and fell to the ground in shards, his Rinnegan eyes out and ready, "Okay, your little attacking spree is over. Uzumaki Naruto is manning the helm now, and one more thing…" He said intently, "You're damn right this was all for Nico Robin. If people like us didn't fight for each other then who would?" Naruto looked at his sword, "Samehada, go to the Straw Hats' ship. You can sense the crew's chakra from here can't you?"

"Gigigigigigi (Yeah right, the user just wants me to leave, just like that? How much sense does that make?)!"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the sword, "If you stay then eventually he's going to freeze you and I'll have to thaw you out. Do you really want to do that?" Samehada didn't say anything at all as Naruto channeled his chakra over to the sword that began to grow in size and grow a mouth with sharp teeth at its top, "Get going." Samehada turned and began tearing across the ground like a missile as it headed towards the Straw Hat ship.

Aokiji watched the sword tear across the landscape, "You're going to protect your sword?"

Naruto turned back to Aokiji with a serious look on his face, "I protect everyone that is precious to me. Understand what I'm saying?"

As Aokiji opened his mouth to answer, Naruto blurred from sight with his raw speed in Sage Mode. Aokiji did the same, but didn't get too far before he was socked with a kick that sent him flying across the icy wasteland before slamming into the side of his ice spire. Aokiji pulled himself out and landed on his feet, glaring at Naruto, 'He actually hit me? No sword at all this time? Does he have Haki too?'

Naruto's arms were crossed, "I wish I had time to gather enough nature chakra for Sage Mode before the Buster Call ships got here. I had to waste a batch just to take those ships down. This is my only salvo. I need to save my knockout shots for when I damn sure need them, but hopefully I won't have to use them to put him down." He muttered to himself as he saw Aokiji take his shot and keep standing, 'Damn this guy is durable.'

"Okay Uzumaki… It's clear that you've got more than a few tricks up your sleeve…" His body began to frost over as a frozen aura started emitting from his body, "Let's try this again." He said before blurring from sight. Naruto did the same, and proved that he was still faster as he immediately appeared behind Aokiji set to attack with a high kick when he felt his body begin to freeze over again, starting with his toes and going up his feet, "Reiguu (Cold Shoulder). You like attacking from blind spots and from behind." He turned abruptly and grabbed Naruto's arm, finding freezing him to be far more slow going than before he activated Sage Mode.

Naruto felt the tearing cold in his frosted over legs and the feeling of his arm's functions beginning to slow up as Aokiji tried to freeze him. Fighting through the feeling, the blonde launched a punch at Aokiji that he moved his head out of the way of, 'Hit me once, shame on you. Hit me twice-.' He still wound up taking a blow on his cheek that freed Naruto of his grip and sent him rocketing back across the icy ground, "That has to be Haki! He hit me without even touching me this time."

"I don't care about your stupid Haki!" Naruto shouted as he rushed at Aokiji again with his fist drawn back, "Everything that's happened here and at Water 7 is because of you! You're going to pay!"

"Not from you I won't!" Aokiji shouted back, deciding to not rely solely on his powers any longer and to fight Naruto's 'Haki' with his own. The two smashed fists against one another and traded kicks that exuded thunderous concussive force again and again, "You're still not as strong as someone like Whitebeard, and you won't be overpowering me without strength like that! Not like this!"

Naruto unloaded a punch on Aokiji that landed simultaneously with a kick from the ice-man that knocked them both away from one another, 'This is the kind of battle I always knew I'd end up fighting again one day. He's really strong, just like that other admiral. Heh heh, The world is really an amazing place.' Naruto rushed back at Aokiji and drove a kick deep into his chest that sent him sprawling wildly across the ground. Just as his body bounced off of the ground into the air, Naruto was right there to deliver a hard spinning aerial kick that sent him smashing into and across the icy plains of the admiral's own creation.

Aokiji stood back up, bleeding from the mouth and a cut on the bridge of his nose from Naruto's attack, "Enough." He said resolutely as a massive field of ice spikes emerged from the ground, encompassing a wide area in an attempt to impale Naruto. Any jump that would avoid the spikes would leave him hanging in the air, and that was what Aokiji expected Naruto to do. Avoid his field of ice spikes and become a sitting duck.

Too bad Naruto was known for being one of the most unpredictable people in existence.

A path of ice mirrors formed through softer points in the attacking ice field that Naruto rushed into and used to move faster than Aokiji could keep his eyes on. Aokiji tried destroying the ice mirrors as they formed before one mirror formed in front of his face, one that Aokiji actually smashed into shards, a shard that Naruto emerged from with a Rasengan in hand, missing the Admiral when he escaped the singular path that Naruto had blazed to get to him with a lucky leap away from the battle-hardened shinobi. Naruto's eyes immediately snapped to Aokiji who was looking at him in awe.

"You made those mirrors from ice and moved through them." He said, almost in disbelief, "How did you do that?"

Naruto stood up from his missed attack, "Anything that has to do with elements I can do. Or will be able to do eventually if I live long enough."

"I don't understand." Aokiji admitted freely to Naruto, 'A Devil Fruit that allows one to manipulate the very elements themselves? All of them with enough training? What kind of ungodly power does that have the potential for?'

Naruto lifted his hands in a balance beam motion, "Everything is trial and error though. I had to teach myself how to use these Hyouton (Ice Release) attacks just like how I'm teaching myself how to use Mokuton (Wood Release). From memories of watching ninja who had spent their entire lives honing their craft with them… I'm piecing together the more prominent ones in my mind from sheer memory. But it's been years."

He sighed in low spirits as he thought, 'And since I don't know the first thing about where to start to learn most of the ones I've seen those two are the only ones I can use right now, and those took me fifty years to both learn.' He put up his confidence once more, "Just give it time, I'll have more." He smirked at the admiral, "That one was called Makyou Hyoushou (Demonic Ice Crystal Mirrors) by the way."

'He really is one of the most dangerous men in the world…' Aokiji thought, 'Dragon is dangerous because of what he represents and the sheer influence the man can wield along with scary power. But Uzumaki Naruto… just off of sheer potential power alone has to be considered a prospective threat on Dragon's level as he doesn't seem to shirk from any fight he might have with us, especially if he believes in the reason he's fighting.' Aokiji narrowed his eyes, "It's such a pain to fight you Uzumaki Naruto. You certainly live up to your epithet as a 'Seed of War'. I'll have to think up another one for you once this is all over."

"I'll accept 'Sexy Toad Sage of Six Paths' if you're taking requests on that one." Naruto quipped, "Now I'm done with this. I have a crew and good friends waiting on me, and I have a woman that needs to know not to be afraid of you as long as I'm around to prove a point to."

Naruto could have sword he had seen a slight raise of Aokiji's lips into a smile before for his normally impassive battle face took over once more, "Then please, come and prove that point to Nico Robin if you can Uzumaki Naruto. I hate having to put this much effort into fights, but if I don't then you'll completely kill me, I know it. The kid gloves are off… kid."

'For the love of Kami I'm so sick of being called kid! I'm probably 3 times this guy's age at least!' Naruto's whiskered face took on a grimace as he prepared to fight again, 'I'm feeling good, I've still got tons of chakra left for Sage Mode since I haven't tried any knockouts yet. Alright, let's do this!'

Aokiji placed his arms out facing Naruto and projected his Busoushoku Haki at Naruto as a pure brute force wall.

Naruto's Rinnegan eyes could see the pure wall of nothing but physical forceful will coming at him and lifted his arms across his chest to block. Naruto held fast against the blast, cracking the ground with his feet as he stayed rooted and only slid back three feet at the most. His body was toughly reinforced by Sage Mode. The only sign that anything had been done to those watching with the naked eyes was the fact that Naruto's clothes were shredded by the harsh force, "Wow that was some serious pressure!" He said, smiling to reveal bloody teeth that showed he had indeed taken damage on the inside, "You could give the kage level ninja from my time a run for their money!"

'One. Tough. Brat.' Aokiji said when he saw Naruto simply smile after taking his blast full on without even grimacing in pain, yelling out, or anything, 'Fine, you've got it.' Aokiji placed his hands on the ground, seemingly causing a tremor before a spiky mountain of ice raised from the ground to alter the battlefield from just flat ground. Aokiji jumped from his spot on the ground to the highest tip of the peak after three jumps.

Naruto scratched his head at the massive mountain that had been formed before he spit his blood on the ground and made hand-seals, "Raiton: Gian (Lightning Release: False Darkness)!" Naruto fired the equivalent of a sniper shot at Aokiji who held up his hands and defended with his Haki shield, bouncing the attack off and sending off to destroy a nearby ice peak. The admiral looked at his own hands and saw that a great portion of both of them were burned black from Naruto's lightning and couldn't stop shaking.

The two glared at each other, the respective gauntlets from both thrown down.

Naruto wiped the blood from his mouth as Aokiji turned his hands to ice to attempt to negate the damage that Naruto had done to him.

XxX

(Soren vs. Vice-Admiral Onigumo)

Spandam's head poked out from hiding as the sounds of Soren and Onigumo's battle stopped, "Is it over?" He asked no one in particular, "Where are all of the Marines that are left on this ship? Those fools left me up here all by myself!" He roared angrily, "Don't they know who I am? I'm the chief of CP9! I'll make sure all of their useless careers end!"

"Wow…" He heard a young voice he had thought would have been dead by now, "You didn't run away like I figured you would have." He saw a bloody Soren staring at him with his arms crossed and a calm look on his face, "Either you're brave, or you're way stupider than I pegged you for." He shrugged, "It doesn't matter, I'll just kill you and leave. You're the reason I came here anyway."

Spandam began stammering in fear as Soren's heavy boot steps began echoing off of the wooden deck as he started walking towards him, "S-Stay away from me! Do you know what killing me will do to you?"

"Nope." Soren said absently, "And I don't really care. You're a sorry excuse for a human being and would do more good for the world as an acidic puddle than you ever did in your entire career."

Soren's cheeks puffed out as he prepared to completely coat Spandam in acid and end things there when the deck behind him broke open and Onigumo's body appeared, poised to attack as he wrapped all eight of his sharply barbed legs around Soren to bind him in place, "Kumo Otoshi to Kogeki (Spider Trapdoor Attack)!" Onigumo sunk his fangs into Soren's shoulder and neck and delighted in hearing the man cry out in pain, "Now do you see how foolish fighting me was? Feel free to think about that as you feel your organs liquefy from my venom." Soren's cries of pain slowly turned to laughter that became more and more manic, "What? Is my poison corroding your pea-brain already?"

"My bodily fluids are all acid you fucking idiot!" Soren yelled as Onigumo's eyes widened, "You can't corrode anything inside of me! As a matter of fact, you just fucked up! Guess what my strongest possible acid is?"

"Rah!" Onigumo let go of Soren and backed away, yelling in anguish as his fangs dissolved down to nothing before his eyes. The legs that had wrapped around Soren's body began burning intensely due to the barbs on them that had punctured his body deeply in order to bind him in place being covered in his blood, "You son of a bitch! How dare you! I'll kill you!"

Soren didn't say a word. He simply coated his right hand in his own blood and prepared a strike as his own blood and his acid around the hand activated to form a red glow, "Ibi Ibi no Chi: Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Blood: Rot Rot Knife)!" He dashed forward and proceeded to thrust his knife hand into Onigumo's chest effortlessly as it punched through the back of his chest. Onigumo's eyes widened as he let off a death rattle with his opponent's entire arm shoved through his chest.

The hole in Onigumo's chest burned widely from the potency of the acid, expanding from the puncture that had been caused from the initial wound. Eventually his torso no longer had enough to stay intact and it collapsed on itself, leading Onigumo's body to fall to the ground in a heap.

Soren pulled his hand back, the blood that belonged to him coating his body and arm now dried up. He began breathing heavily and swaying in place, "Now that's what's called taking care of business." He looked around, "Now where's what's-his-face?" He noticed a rope leading down the side of the ship and looked over the side to see Spandam on the side of the ship that wasn't frozen by Aokiji, paddling away in a rowboat, "Oh you've got to be fucking kidding me, I can't chase him." He then dropped to his knees on the deck, "And my Devil Fruit gave me anemia… that sucks…" He said, taking the flask from his waist and taking in the last few dregs that he had at the very bottom before standing back up and taking a deep breath and focusing his entire body into a tense figure, "Ibi Ibi no Tsunami (Rot Rot Tidal Wave)!"

XxX

Spandam laughed to himself as he swiftly rowed away from the ship he had escaped, "Stupid Devil Fruit users think they're so strong… why don't you swim for me you useless morons?" He taunted to no one in particular.

The sound of crashing fluid came from behind him and he turned his head to see nothing but a large wave of green liquid coming from the deck of the Buster Call ship right towards him. The man let out a girlish shriek as the large wave slammed down on him and his little boat.

XxX

Soren smirked to himself as he heard Spandam's shriek. He fell on the deck face-down from blood loss, "Gotcha you little bitch." He muttered as he began to crawl weakly towards the other side of the ship to find his way down. He fell off of the escape rope he tried sliding down and landed on the ground where he saw something barreling through the ice before stopping in front of him, "Samehada?"

Samehada stopped in front of Soren before burrowing under him and heading off again at high speed to find the Straw Hat ship with Soren stuck to the sword's rough skin, "Ow damn it! Take it easy! I've already lost a ton of blood, I don't need to lose anymore!"

XxX

(Naruto vs. Aokiji)

Naruto rushed at Aokiji's elevated position atop the mountain of ice he formed as Aokiji raised two perpendicular pillars of ice to smash him between them, "Senjutsu: Rasenrengan (Sage Technique: Spiraling Group Spheres)!" The two Sage Mode charged Rasengans in his hands were used to pulverize the pillars before they could harm Naruto himself as he continued to draw nearer and nearer to Aokiji.

"Kouri no Shougeki (Ice Bombardment)!" From the mountain of ice, large boulder-sized spheres, twice Naruto's size at least began shooting out at the blonde like cannon fire. Every one that he dodged took out a way back down the progressively higher and higher ice mountain that Aokiji had formed, however Naruto continued to press ahead. The ice-wielding admiral was not done yet as he still had more attacks ready to go, "Aisu Taimu Kapuseru (Ice Time Capsule)!" A massive avalanche formed from the mountain beneath him that crashed towards Naruto with the intent to flash-freeze him once more, not giving him a chance to find anywhere to escape to, even if there was anywhere to go.

Naruto found himself in range of Aokiji at long last and rolled through a quick series of hand-seals and finished them as he puffed out his cheeks, "Katon: Dai Endan (Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet)!" Naruto fired off a massive ball of oil that was ignited as it left his mouth and flew up to hit the ice, negating the attack through the middle so that Naruto could continue up through the steam that the two clashing opposite attacks created, "Konoha Gouriki Senpuu (Leaf Powerful Whirlwind)!" Naruto threw a hard, nearly untraceable spinning back kick at Aokiji's head that came close to hitting, but still missed, even with the backlash from his Kawazu Kumite (Frog Kata) style of fighting. Aokiji put up a Haki shield to negate Naruto's own aura attack.

Instead of kicking the shit out of Aokiji, Naruto simply knocked him back off of his perch when his nature chakra clashed with Aokiji's Haki shield. Aokiji fell backwards off of his peak and began to slide down the backside of the mountain, using his control of ice to shave down anything that would stab him as he passed over it, using his body as a human toboggan, rocketing away from Naruto in his full ice form.

The mountain began to crumble under Naruto's feet and collapsed. Naruto jumped into the air just as it began falling apart and formed two Kage Bunshin at his side as he saw now as a good opportunity to finish the battle off as long as Aokiji was trying to conceal himself in the mist of snow and ice flurries that came from his mountainous construct collapsing. He knew he wasn't just sitting there for no reason. He was planning an attack, and Naruto knew it. So why not hit first with something he knew would end the fight now?

'With me hanging in the air like this, Rasenryuukuchi would catch me in its explosion at this range, and I can't take that hit from myself and get back up, especially since I only have one shot with it and my Sage Mode would fade. Rasenshuriken has two shots, and it'll cut through anything he has prepared like a hot knife through butter.' Lifting his hand in the air, Naruto prepared the attack alongside his clones until it took the large shuriken shape that let him know it was ready, "Fuuton: Rasenshuriken (Wind Release: Spiraling Shuriken)!" Naruto let fly with the deadly wind jutsu at the cloud of snow and ice Aokiji was hiding in.

Instead of the sound he had become accustomed to hearing when he scored a direct hit and instead of seeing the dome of expanding wind that would accompany it, Naruto heard a sound reminiscent of a buzzsaw grinding into something sturdy, 'What the fuck is sturdy enough for this thing to not just plow right through?'

The icy mist cleared to show a thick, dense ice cube with Aokiji in the exact center of it as Naruto's Rasenshuriken cut through it at a steady pace. Aokiji could see that it wasn't going to stop Naruto's attack, just slow it down, and he moved down through the ice cube to the icy ground, moving the ice aside and hiding underneath the surface, "It's not that easy to dodge!" Naruto cried as the Rasenshuriken stopped and expanded in the middle of the ice. Naruto landed on the ground and began running away from his Rasenshuriken just as it exploded in its massive wind dome that began dicing up the entire ice cube and cutting a series of deep faults into the entire island of ice.

Naruto landed on the ground near one of the massive faults he had cut into the island gave it a look of approval, "Rasenshuriken can still cut through damn near anything." His eyes then started to search for Aokiji again. Someone like that wouldn't go down so unceremoniously. Naruto still had to spot the body to claim victory. He then felt the temperature snap even lower than it had been for the duration of the battle.

Naruto's sharp Rinnegan eyes locked firmly on an influx of power coming from the direction of the island that formerly held the Tower of Justice. Naruto immediately broke out in a sprint towards the island when he stopped in his tracks upon getting close enough. Without saying a word, Naruto formed two Kage Bunshin and made a Rasengan in his right hand, cocking his arm back for an overhand throw while his clones worked frantically on channeling fire chakra to the Rasengan.

Aokiji had by now formed a mammoth ice figure from his mouth the size of 100 times his body that was so solid and cold that its mere presence was lightly freezing a solid layer over the untouched ground of the island he was standing on. The figure took the form of a huge pheasant before Aokiji began to direct it at Naruto, "Aisu Kai: Bou Kiji Kuchibashi (Ice Mass: Violent Pheasant Beak)!"

XxX

The entirety of both crews had seen Naruto and Aokiji's struggle escalate again and again. And now they were all to bear witness to a mammoth attack from Aokiji that was to be directed right at Naruto.

None of them said a word, they all simply watched with held breath. If Naruto was hit with that it wouldn't matter what he had left up his sleeve, the second his body was frozen solid this time he would be crushed into the wind by the rest of the attack. Before any of them could count Naruto out, from the blonde himself, a huge burning red dragon's head formed above his diminutive frame, one that grew to match the size of Aokiji's attack.

It was so hot it began to rapidly melt the ground that Naruto was standing on without even touching it, forcing the shinobi to stand atop the watery pit he began forming in the ice by the sheer heat of his jutsu.

XxX

Naruto's clones dispelled with the completion of the jutsu's formation and Naruto prepared to lob the jutsu overhead, "I can kiss Sage Mode goodbye with this one, but if he can get up from it then he's as strong as he deserves credit for. But no one gets up from this, because nothing's ever left after this! Katon: Rasenryuukuchi (Fire Release: Spiraling Dragon's Maw)!" Naruto threw the dragon overhead with a mighty shout as it barreled across the landscape and opened its burning red maw to reveal the evil red giant Rasengan orb at its core.

Aokiji's giant-sized pheasant hit Naruto's giant-sized dragon with a sound of a massive collective hiss as the two sides battled against one another.

Naruto stared intently, his hands connected to and controlling the tail of the dragon as the two powerful techniques battled it out. His eyes returned to their normal blue color and the orange pigment around his eyes having vanished, 'Come on. My dragon has to be hotter than his giant bird thing is cold. Come on Rasenryuukuchi!'

Aokiji kept pumping more and more ice from his mouth to fuel his attack, exhausting himself, while Naruto's own was fading, the self-sustaining orb in its core slowing in its rotation, which disrupted the stability of the volatile fire-element Rasengan and forced it to explode prematurely, obliterating Aokiji's massive pheasant and expanding to hit both him and Naruto.

XxX

(With the Others)

Everyone stood staggered at the mammoth explosion that had rocked the already tumultuous island of ice as finally the cracks in it spread and broke through, breaking the island apart and allowing the ice to start sinking underneath the now reassertive ocean waters.

Franky, the least attached to the blonde that had been waging battle against the admiral spoke first, "So… did he win or did he lose? I can't see either one of them from here."

Nojiko had a smile on her face as she could see the answer through the scope of her rifle. Robin did as well, and she had tears in her eyes to go with her relieved face because she could also hear every second of the conflict between Naruto and Aokiji.

XxX

Naruto slowly waded ashore, his bare torso covered in deep burn wounds and a stern look on his face as he ignored the ocean water splashing against him, covering him and aggravating his injuries. Naruto didn't have to go too much further inland on the island to find Aokiji laying in the rubble of what used to be the Tower of Justice.

As Aokiji who lay motionless on the ground as seawater trickled into the huge craterous remains watched Naruto get closer and closer before reaching down to his burned and wounded body, he shut his eyes and waited for Naruto to finish him only to feel a sharp flick on his forehead. He opened his eyes to see Naruto walking away from him slowly, "You didn't kill me. Why aren't you going to kill me?"

Naruto stopped walking, but didn't turn around to face him, "You get a pass. One pass." Aokiji's face echoed his confusion until Naruto explained, "20 years ago on Ohara you let Robin-chan leave. You didn't kill her. I heard you when you said that." He turned over his shoulder and looked at Aokiji, "That means that you don't blindly follow orders that you know are wrong. You let a defenseless little girl leave when you knew that it was wrong to lay a hand on her."

Aokiji found that he couldn't move, "This still doesn't mean anything Uzumaki. I still can't do anything, I have my orders."

"I never said that it did change anything between you, Robin-chan, or me." Naruto admitted with a sigh, "But consider this karma of sorts. You let her live so I'm letting you live. But if we fight again for any reason like this ever again… if I ever find out that you're pulling the strings on something that harms one of my precious people, I'll kill you." He narrowed his eyes at Aokiji, "Now you know I can, now you know I will, so you take this warning seriously."

Aokiji stared at Naruto defiantly until the man started to laugh deeply. Even though Naruto could see that every chuckle racked his frame to let out, the man continued to laugh, "I thought that the Straw Hat kid she fell in with was a stand-up guy that would only get stronger and then I run into you. A man that would tear apart the Buster Call just for her. I don't know what to say other than I'm glad that she found people like you guys." He coughed up blood and stopped laughing, "I don't regret what I did, it was my choice, one of the few that I'm allowed to make for my own personal justice instead of the Marines' 'absolute justice' in my station."

Naruto shook his head and kept walking away, "No… you always have a choice Aokiji. If you don't think you have the freedom to go by your own justice then get a high enough rank to do it. You're supposed to be one of the top guys right?" He held up a badly burned arm in a thumbs-up, "If you can do it, change the Marines and their view on justice, or I'll do it for you… and that's the last thing you want me to do. Fair warning." Naruto looked over his shoulder and gave him a grin, "Oh, and if it ever comes up, tell the World Government to stay away from the Elemental Nations. It would be more trouble that it's actually worth, and not just because of me. It's too far out of the way, and the people there aren't very good about letting people tell them what to do."

Aokiji would have nodded if he could move. With the combination of Naruto's attacks wearing on him and him laying in water, he couldn't do anything.

Naruto then looked out nearby to see the Straw Hat ship Going Merry sailing close by, "That's my ride. I would say it was nice hanging out with you, but it really wasn't… I'm half past dead at this point, dattebayo." He finished with a yawn as he walked on the water to meet them halfway.

As Naruto's presence faded from Aokiji's senses he mulled around his interaction with him in his head, him having nothing else to do until someone came to find him, "Uzumaki Naruto…" A grin worked its way to his face before he shook his head and he started laughing again, "I really shouldn't be laughing. Guys like that are more trouble than the world can handle most of the time." He looked over his own numerous injuries, "I definitely can't let this happen again the next time I see that guy."

XxX

Naruto's hand grabbed the side of the ship before he pulled himself over the side of the deck and landed on his back staring up at the sky, "Ugh… I really don't want to get up." He said, finding his exhaustion from the day's events finally reaching him, "The adrenaline's worn off." Chopper was quickly at Naruto's side checking over his wounds, "Ara, it's alright Chopper, I'm not going to die."

"But all of these wounds… and if you don't get decent treatment you'll get an infection and die!" Chopper said frantically as the little reindeer did what he could for Naruto.

A small laugh left Naruto's body, "This won't kill me. It hurts though." He then noticed everyone beginning to gather around him, "Hey everybody. Guess whose ass I just kicked. You'll never figure it out." Like a floodgate opened, Naruto was bombarded with questions from all sides, so much that he didn't know what to answer first, "Oi! Let me sleep damn it, and then I'll answer your questions."

As soon as everyone stopped talking, the crowd parted as Robin walked through them and looked down at Naruto with teary eyes. He didn't say a word in response but the look on his face said it all, 'I told you I could do it.'

Robin let out a small laugh through her tears, grateful that everyone was going home from this incident all in one piece, 'Yes, yes you did Naruto. To you and Luffy, and to all of the others… Thank you so much.' Robin dropped to her knees and began sobbing freely into Naruto's chest. All he did was simply rub her back in a comforting manner as they all sailed off back towards Water 7.

* * *

**The marathon of chapters is finally over… Jesus, what a ride to type over the last week.**

**As has been alluded to multiple times in the past in this story he will be learning the joint elemental manipulation kekkei genkai as has been seen in this chapter. In the past he said that he trains, its just that no one sees him train. It's pretty hard to train these things in most locations. Hyouton would be the easiest for him to have time with due to all of the water to work with. **

**I'm expecting that people will complain about him not knowing every single one that exists, but 100 years isn't enough time for him to learn them all. Especially since most would be extremely secret, treasures to the villages that contain them. He's already said that they feared him as the ultimate deterrent, so why would they give him more power than he already had?**

**The shinobi that have mastered all of those things like Dust, lava, boil, etc, had their entire lives to work on JUST those. He can use a lot, but there are holes in his technique, like his lack of good control over Mokuton and how he overpowers everything with it. Naruto is a jack of all trades so to speak but a master of none. He would need tons of time to get them down because even with clones he would be working from scratch. Clones are used to learn, not really to experiment because mass amounts of clones lack the chakra that he would need to go and work his chakra to go over the combinations if he doesn't know how they work . They're mostly light amounts of muscle in mass quantities that follow simple orders like, "Split that leaf." Not something like, "Show me how to make lava from nothing." It has to be practice in a concept he's already familiar with in some way.**

**He can use a few combinations but not the full breadth of them that everyone expects him to. Because he's still human, not god no matter how much everyone wants him to be for some reason, even though he's as close as anyone is going to get. Madara was supposed to be immortal too, and could actually directly copy ninjutsu along with all of his other super-hax techniques that he has... along with the fact that he now has Rinnegan. Konan almost beat him with just paper techniques but she was so good at using it by the time they fought he almost got caught and beaten. And Naruto is going to beat him somehow in the end even though he doesn't look like he's on his level at the moment in canon so being immortal doesn't mean anything, you can still struggle and lose like anyone else.**

**That was longer than I figured it would be. Anyway…**

**Hey guess what? I broke the two middle fingers on my right hand blocking a punch the other day! And I'm still typing just for you! Suck it world, I'm the man! And I didn't go to the hospital because I don't have insurance, I just set them and taped them together since that was all that was going to happen if I went to the hospital anyway. I can still move them and everything, I just can't make a fist.**

**It will slow me down for sure, but not by too much. **

**Kenchi out. I have to go lick my wounds and wait for my family to get back from vacation so that I can drive home and actually get my medically trained mother to look at my hand. I'm not paying out the ass for a bitch-ass splint that I can make myself with popsicle sticks and tape.**


	28. The High Cost of Doing Business

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Did you believe that I really did? Even for a little bit? Then I guess my job as an author is complete. Another mountain climbed for your friendly neighborhood bushel of awesome, Kenchi618.

**Chapter 28: The High Cost of Doing Business**

* * *

"I'm so bored…" Naruto said, lying on his stomach inside of the Foxhound Pirates' section of the hotel that they bought out to stay in.

Two days after the entire situation at Enies Lobby had come to a close the two crews had returned to Water 7. Of the Foxhound Pirates, the injuries inflicted were pretty severe for most of them. Nojiko had taken quite a heavy bit of damage from Kalifa to go with her chakra exhaustion due to using the seals on her guns including nearly having her spine severed by her Shigan attack. Johnny's legs were utterly worn down from overuse. The muscles were all useless due to the amount of attacks he had to launch during the battle and the amount of running he had to do with Vivi on his back to allow her to escape not to mention the damage he took when Miss Valentine's attack crippled the Buster Call ship they were on.

Miss Valentine had actually hurt herself pretty badly after her attack that had stopped the ship Vivi had been taken aboard. She had a bruised tailbone and numerous cuts due to the wood that had flown about and scratched her. Yosaku had many deep slashes from Vice-Admiral Strawberry and had broken a few ribs from Miss Valentine's attack on the ship. Soren had severe blood loss and many wounds of varying severity all over his body, most notably the deep puncture wounds around his collarbone in addition to a broken left arm and fractures all over his body.

Needless to say, the large living space was filled with sleeping, bed-ridden people, but the one that had seemingly taken as much damage as anyone and used more energy than all of them on that day, Uzumaki Naruto, appeared to be as right as rain at the moment.

Muret was busy taking the bandages off of spots on his body that had taken heavy damage during his fight with Aokiji. Some of the nastier wounds were done by Naruto himself and his last attack, wounds that Chopper had hurried to patch up once the imminent threat of getting taken out by them Marines was over, "How's it looking?"

Muret shook her head in response as she looked over Naruto's torso and arms, "Like you were never hurt in the first place. Who heals from third degree burns and all of the blunt trauma damage you took in two days, not to mention that gaping wound that was in your shoulder? You should be a flaking angry mess right now from what Chopper told me. You're seriously weird Naruto-sama." She said to him as she finally peeled the heavy bandage off of his shoulder where Aokiji had stabbed him through, "At least you don't require many supplies to fix unlike everyone else. All you need from what I've seen are bandages and disinfectant and you're good to go."

"And I'm not even sure about the disinfectant." Naruto said jokingly as he got up off of the bed and checked himself over. Not that he didn't trust Muret, but… it was just what you do whenever a doctor looks at you, even though you know that it's not like you'd see something that they didn't, you still look anyway.

"I didn't know you had a tattoo though." Muret said rather distastefully, "Those are sort of dangerous to get, especially where yours was situated; around your belly-button."

Naruto looked down and saw that she was referring to the odd pattern on his stomach, "That's not a tattoo. It's a seal, like the one I put in Miss Valentine's umbrella, or like the ones I engraved in Noji-chan's gun." He sighed, "You know I was wondering when someone was going to ask me about that. It's an old remnant of my days as a Konoha shinobi."

Muret only knew what everyone else had been able to tell her thus far about Naruto. Therefore all that she knew, same as everyone else, was that he was a ninja, had fought in a war to save his entire continent, and not much else besides that. How he was able to garner their trust without them knowing too much about him was beyond her. Oh who was she kidding? She trusted him too.

"Well…" She said to him as he put his shirt back on, "I'm your doctor. I don't know anything about your medical history. At least everyone else on the crew has legitimate medical records that they can recite from heart. You just say that you've had so many injuries that it doesn't matter and to give you whatever. I need more info than that Naruto-sama."

Naruto shook his head as he put his sage coat back on, "You're just using that as an excuse to dig up some dirt on me aren't you?" Muret smirked, giving him his answer, but he didn't seem too upset by it, "Okay, fine, long story short so we can get this out of the way. A long, long time ago there was something powerful inside of me. It's the reason I heal so fast and so well, it's the reason I have so much energy naturally, and basically it was a demon." Muret gasped, "It used to be inside of me, but it's not anymore. It, and eight other creatures like it are all somewhere safe, protected by the toads that I have a summoning contract with."

Muret was still rather shaken up at trying to comprehend that Naruto used to have a demon inside of his body, but he had yet to lie to her, and he had said all of this with a straight face. She walked over to him and poked at his stomach, "You really had something in there?"

"Yes." Naruto replied glibly as he pulled her up from poking him, "Why the hell do people always try to mess with the seal when I tell them about it? Like something's going to pop out and say hi if they mess with me."

"Sorry Naruto-sama." Muret said sheepishly, "Anyway, you're done. You're perfectly healthy, and I'm not going to give you the whole 'take it easy' speech because even if I did you wouldn't do it." She made a shooing motion towards him, "Now go on, get out of here already. Vivi's at Dock 2 checking on our ship."

"Yeah, yeah…" He said as he opened the door out to the balcony of the room and stepped outside, "She's been a good girl for the last two days. She's been running all of the errands while you kept us all cooped up in here. Someone's got to go relieve her." 'And I'll do that after I drop a little something with the Straw Hats.'

"The only one out of all of you ungrateful bastards that could even walk a straight line was you, and that was just yesterday!" Muret snapped back at him heatedly before putting a hand to her temple and calming herself, "Just go. I'll take care over everyone here. It was your job to do the fighting and my job to piece you all back together. I knew that when I joined up."

Naruto gave her a faux salute and took to jumping along the rooftops away from the hotel. Muret let out a sigh as she turned her attention to the remaining crew inside, "How many of you were awake and heard him say what he said about the demon that used to be inside of him?" She got a unanimous chorus of affirmative groans from the rest of them, "Good. That means I don't have to repeat it for him. Now go back to sleep you bastards or I'll get my new buddy to put you back to sleep." She said, patting a sword on her hip; a western-style curved sword that seemed to have tusks on the hilt and a short tail on the pommel, "Thank you for Funkfreed Soren."

"…You're welcome…" He drawled out as he weakly lifted his arm and made a request, "More drugs…" That got a response from everyone else in the room as they all lifted their arms and echoed his sentiment.

"No!" Muret yelled at them all, "You're all not in enough pain that you need to be doped up, so gut it out!"

"Aww…"

XxX

Vivi walked alongside the diminutive bald shipwright that Naruto had conscripted to work on their ship. Part of Vivi's self-tasked chores that she took upon herself to handle for the Foxhounds while they were temporarily out of commission was to check in with the status of the ship, and found that a pleasant surprise had awaited her with news on their leading shipwright once she arrived, "I'm very happy for you Stanley."

"Well thank you lass." Stanley said as he led her along the area of Dock 1, "I have ta' say, even though those boys left in the middle of some turbulent times around here those Dock 1 boys leaving gave me a great opportunity. I've got a spot now. And I'll still finish yer ship before I move on up too, the least I can do for all o' that high quality lumber that Mister Uzumaki provided for his ship. I think I'll have plenty o' leftovers to use at ma' leisure."

Vivi was aware of the more than copious amounts of wood Naruto had managed to create after he and the Straw Hat crew decimated the Franky Family house and was also aware of the fine amount of lumber that Naruto's clones had cut for the ship and also sealed away for his own later usage should it come to that. A useful tool, that Mokuton of his… destructive though.

"From what I saw I think he'll be very happy." Vivi said about the ship she had just come from viewing, "It seems like it can take more of a beating too, which is good." She remembered how the ship wound up looking just due to the way that everyone trained most of the time.

"Aye." Stanley agreed, "The wood that Mister Uzumaki provided is wondrous. It's tougher than anything I've ever seen in person as far as lumber goes."

Vivi stopped and extended her hand to Stanley, "Well thank you for all of your hard work! When you finish be sure to call us. We have a Den Den Mushi now so you can contact us. I need to get back to the others, I've been gone all morning."

Extending his hand as well to shake Vivi's, Stanley gave her a huge grin, "It was no trouble at all! Fixing up all o' Mister Uzumaki's requests was actually pretty interesting lass. Be sure to tell him to stop in before I'm done so he can tell me what he thinks."

Vivi shook her head, "He doesn't want to see it until it's done..." She let out a small laugh, "I keep telling him it's dumb, but he won't even let me tell him what it looks like. He wants to be surprised by your work. Everyone's going to love it."

The short shipwright laughed to himself as he walked away back to where he had been working, "You know, I think I like that kind of attitude. 'Till the next time lass!" He said as he and Vivi parted ways.

XxX

Naruto was whistling a jaunty tune to himself as he walked along with his hands shoved in his pockets. He had found his way to Dock 1 and forced his way past the gates fairly easily, although the people outside looked like they had seen a ghost or something from the expression on their faces. He wasn't that scary in person… when he wasn't trying to be anyway. How could he have spooked them?

Naruto's answer came when he suddenly came face to face with someone he thought he had avoided the last time that person made port in Water 7 looking for him specifically.

Monkey D. Garp, the two apprentices with him… and a ton of Marines.

Naruto simply stared at the rather imposing man with interest, Garp returning the favor, as everyone stopped in their tracks. The two apprentices, Coby and Helmeppo, along with all of the underling Marines could feel a heavy aura set over them all as Naruto and Garp stared at each other for the longest time, no one moved.

Garp stroked his bearded chin as he looked down at Naruto who was looking back up at him with large inquisitive blue eyes and a tilt of his whisker-marked head, "Nice day we're having eh?" The legendary vice-admiral said to him.

Naruto finally smiled back at him, "Yeah, besides that storm that came through this place a few days ago, it has some really great weather most of the time." He looked around at the other Marines that seemed to be shocked at seeing Naruto shoot the breeze with Garp face-to-face without any fear whatsoever.

"I came here for a little business and to catch up with my grandson." Garp admitted to Naruto freely as if Naruto had common knowledge on who that was, "Unfortunately I've got to get back to base again…" He almost couldn't believe it. A week ago this guy had been here looking for him. Did he really not notice him now, or was he really just ignoring Naruto's record? Either way, Naruto wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, nor was he going to start a fight for no reason.

Naruto eventually shrugged and continued on his way, "Well, I have to be on my way. I've got some friends to meet up with and tons of errands to run today. Nice to meet you." He said, walking past Garp and the others as the Marines cleared a large hole for him to pass through. Naruto's vision did go blurry for a moment when a flash of light hit his eyes and the sound of a loud camera click rang out, but he just ignored it.

Garp let out a few chuckles and kept walking on his way, prompting his entourage to follow him, "What a well-mannered young man. I wish Luffy was more like him. I think he'd make a fine Marine."

Coby leaned over and whispered to Helmeppo, "Do you think we should tell him who that was? We just walked past Uzumaki Naruto like he was some normal guy on the street." Helmeppo looked behind him at Naruto's retreating and disappearing form and back at Garp who didn't seem to have a care in the world before he shook his head to his partner, "I guess you're right. If they were meant to fight it would have just happened wouldn't it have?"

Meanwhile, Naruto on the other hand wiped his brow once he got out of sight in relief, "Thank Kami… I really didn't want to fight someone like that a few days after I just got through doing the same damn thing, especially in a town that's still being rebuilt from that storm and the CP9." He continued on his own path as a thought came to mind, "Still, there's something about that guy that seems familiar for some reason."

"Naruto!" He turned to see Vivi walking towards him, "I was just about to come back to the room. I see Muret finally let you out."

"Yep." He said cheerfully, "I have a clean bill of health like always. You should know that a few baby scratches like the ones I got the other day aren't enough to keep me down Vivi-hime. I was just about to go find the Straw Hats. Do you want to come with me?"

A nod from the desert nation princess was his answer, "Yes. I saw them this morning before I started running errands, but they were still out of it for the most part. Luffy's actually in worse shape than all of our crew except for maybe you, but you heal so quickly it doesn't matter." She let out a scoff at him, "Baby scratches… yeah, as if."

Naruto laughed at the cavalier way he treated his own injuries and how Vivi perceived it, "Anyway, let me tell you who _I_ just met…"

XxX

(Galley-La Company Temporary Headquarters)

Naruto and Vivi walked in and were quickly able to find Sanji, Robin, Luffy, Chopper, and Zoro. As they both entered the living quarters of the pirate crew, Naruto had to point out something both he and the princess had seen, "Why does that wall look like someone just broke it down?" He asked the entire group, pointing at a wall that had been hastily repaired not too long ago.

Luffy looked up and noticed the arrival of his friends and gave them their answer, "I just got a visit from my grandpa. He wanted to talk about some stuff like my dad, what I've been doing, stuff like that."

"Well that sounds nice." Vivi said as she walked in and took a seat at the small table with most of the others, "It must be nice to have someone come all the way here to visit you." She noticed Luffy shiver slightly at mention of his grandfather.

Naruto let out a laugh, "I can only imagine the genes that wound up somehow spawning this guy down the line." He said, pointing over at Luffy, "I really wish I hadn't missed that meeting, that was probably really amusing to watch."

Luffy eventually shook off his trepidation when it came towards his grandfather and gave Naruto a grin, "He didn't even try to capture me or anything, so it was actually really good! I got to see Coby again too, I can't believe he's doing so well as a Marine!"

"Why would your grandpa want to-?" Naruto was about to answer him before he started putting things together. What Luffy had just said, and the meeting he just had with someone who said they were there to visit their grandson. Naruto gave Luffy a dry look and opened his mouth to make a smart remark of some point, but just shook his head as he saw the look on Vivi's face as an indication that she was able to string together what he had as well, "I don't think I even need to say anything to you… I knew there was something familiar about that guy. I just dodged a bullet…"

Vivi looked at the confused Straw Hats and explained what the blonde captain meant by that, "He ran into Vice-Admiral Garp not too far from here outside. I think we were just lucky that I didn't run into any Marines around here or we might have been in some serious trouble."

Zoro looked at Naruto with a raised eyebrow, "You actually dodged a fight this time around instead of just trying to bulldoze through it like you usually do? That doesn't sound like you. Normally if you had run into Luffy's grandfather somewhere else then half of that town would be wrecked by now."

Naruto rubbed the back of his head sheepishly before directing a light glare at Zoro, "Hey, I never start any of the fights I get into… except for the last one… kind of." He shrugged, "Actually you know what, nevermind. They _still_ started that one as far as I'm concerned." He said, looking towards Robin who for some reason couldn't meet his eyes when he did so.

Before he was able to call her on that strange behavior that he had never associated with Robin before now, Chopper was poking at prodding at the places he had been most gravely wounded in the other day. Naruto paid attention to the little reindeer seeming to marvel at the fact that there wasn't even a faint bruise or mark to show that he had been as hurt as he had been. His skin wasn't even red from the burns, "Wow, Naruto you're amazing! You're not even limping around or anything today."

"I don't limp Chopper." Naruto said to the Straw Hat Pirates' doctor, "I told you I was going to be fine. There wasn't any need for you to freak out so badly when I climbed aboard your ship. When I'm actually so bad off that I'm worried about my own injuries that's when people should start freaking out."

Nami walked inside the room from outside in a bikini with a towel around her waist, "Your powers are so weird. I don't know who's got weirder abilities, you or Luffy."

Naruto smirked and took good notice of the female navigator's apparel as Sanji was reduced to a lovestruck mess, "Would it be wrong of me if I asked you to stay like that for as long as I'm here today?"

Luffy jumped up and got in Naruto's face, "So why are you so strong again? You already told us about that chakra stuff that you say you use. There's got to be another reason besides that right? I'm a rubber-man, but my grandpa did weird stuff to make me strong when I was a kid."

Nami gave him a dry look as she recalled what Garp called his 'training' for Luffy in his youth, "You mean like throwing you down valleys, leaving you alone in inhospitable jungles, and tying you to balloons to fly you up in high altitudes…" She remarked rather distastefully at the practices that made Luffy what he was, "Who does that to kids?"

Apparently Jiraiya wasn't the only person that had thrown a kid off of a cliff to get them stronger. Naruto shrugged at hearing these things, "I don't see what the problem is here. That doesn't really sound that different from how I was trained come to think of it." He noticed a lot of the more normal members of the crew, and even Vivi who should have known better by then, looking at him strangely, "What? Is it really that surprising? You've seen what I can do."

"Like what?" Luffy said excitedly, "What did you do to get stronger? I can only imagine…"

"Let's see…" Naruto tried thinking back in order to how he got his skills, "Um… when I was twelve I learned how to stick to surfaces using nothing but my own energy, then I learned how to walk on water, I got thrown off of a cliff, then I learned how to summon toads the size of skyscrapers, I learned how to carve into solid stone with my chakra, then later when I was like fifteen or sixteen I had to cut a huge waterfall in half up the middle with my chakra, then I had to learn how to absorb the energy of all of nature around me… It slowed down later, but more recently I had to will a sapling to instantly grow into a tree with my chakra, and learn how to freeze water with my will, not to mention all of the crap it took to get Hiraishin no Jutsu down. Yeah, I was really busy when I was a kid though."

After hearing all of that, everyone stared at him until Zoro shook his head with a wry grin on his face, "I love how you said all of that with a straight face, which means that everything you just said was completely true. And I like the 'cutting the waterfall' exercise you were talking about… I need to try that." He said, imagining himself cutting all the way up a cascading waterfall with just his swords.

"By the way Naruto-kun…" Nami said before staring at him with money signs in her eyes, "Guesses: 29, 31, 24!" She exclaimed excitedly.

Naruto pointed at her dramatically, "Answer: Wrong, wrong, wrong Nami-chan!" She started counting off on her fingers and muttering to herself about what ages she had left to choose from before things started getting ludicrous.

"No Devil Fruit?" Sanji asked him with a raised eyebrow.

Naruto gave him a dry look, "I've told you all like a thousand times already, no. I didn't even know what that was until I started travelling the East Blue and met Luffy. This is what the strongest shinobi in existence is capable of. I'm more awesome than you Sanji, accept it. The coolest blonde in the room is me."

"Oh!" Vivi said in realization as she fished through her clothes and pulled out a Hiraishin kunai that she handed to Naruto, "I got the knife you wanted me to get for you Naruto. The only one I was able to find was the one stuck in the headboard of your bed."

Naruto frowned but accepted it from the princess, "Thank you Vivi-hime. This is fine. I don't need them to fight right now." He stabbed the kunai in the center of the table, "This is for you guys." He said with a smile, "If you all ever think you need an extra hand, if you ever need my help, or if you just want to talk, feel free to throw this. No matter where I am in the world I'll feel it and I'll be right there if I'm not busy." He stopped for a moment before adding something to the end of that, "Actually, call the Den Den Mushi if it's not an emergency so I know and don't panic over nothing."

Nami picked up the blade from the table and looked at it in thought before she realized what it was, "This is that thing that you used to teleport around Aokiji when you fought isn't it? That was so cool before he broke it. Why don't you have more?"

Naruto smiled at the girl as he took the weapon from her and flipped it around in his hands for a moment, "They're hard to make and I'm no blacksmith. I still have more than a few, but if this is all that you use then you can be beaten by anyone that's halfway decent, even if you have a bunch. If you don't beat a good opponent in one move then they can just destroy the kunai and then focus on you, so all you do is end up wasting the energy darting all over the place. I can't use these against Aokiji if we fight again, he knows how they work."

"How are Johnny and Yosaku doing?" Zoro asked Naruto, changing the subject, "Yosaku looked pretty rough when we were all heading back. Hell, everyone looked rough."

"They're fine." Naruto insisted with a wave of his hand, "Muret is just being all cautious because she's starting to really like us and doesn't want to see us hurt. It's sweet, but for someone like me it's a real drag."

The door to the room opened at that point and the doctor of Naruto's crew herself walked in with her hands on her hips and a playful scowl on her face, "Well sorry for trying to make sure you all don't wind up crippled wrecks before we even get to the next island. Two of you should have been dead after all of that." She pointed her thumb back over her shoulder, "Anyway, I brought the rest of the crew Naruto-sama."

"How?" Naruto asked her before the rest of his crew walked into the room and Nojiko handed Muret the sword that she placed in its sheath on her back. Everyone sat around and made themselves comfortable while Naruto started fuming about his unanswered question, "Is anyone going to tell me how Muret got you all here or am I a ghost now?"

Muret tilted her head in confusion, "You don't know what Funkfreed can do? Didn't you fight the CP9 people? Soren was the one that got it for me."

"No." Naruto said, "I was busy destroying a bunch of giant ships and fighting an admiral. The only CP9 guy I fought was the one with the cow-looking haircut."

Muret happily pulled the sword back out and held it forward, "Okay Funkfreed you can come out now." The sword quickly transformed into a rather large white elephant that stood in front of Naruto and looked at him curiously.

Naruto just stared back before waving, "Yo." He looked past the elephant at Muret, "Did your sword just-? Nevermind, it's not like I haven't seen weirder stuff before."

Muret walked up to Funkfreed's side and gave the elephant a hug, "He's so cute! And he's a sword most of the time so we can keep him on the ship, and you know how I can't fight?" She whispered in the sword/elephant's ear and it suddenly transformed its tusks and trunk into blades, "So I can train him too."

Naruto drew his finger across the blade end of the trunk and saw that it easily cut him, "Okay cool. You can keep him." Muret squealed happily and hugged the elephant again once it turned back to full animal form, "I'm actually glad you guys are all here. I have something to tell you that I think you all need to know anyway. It wouldn't be fair to anyone if I kept this away from you guys any longer."

Nojiko sat next to Nami and spoke up, "We already know about those powers you told Muret about Naruto-kun. It's not important at all. After what we've seen it's not even that big of a deal."

"No not that…" He said shaking his head, "That better not be a big deal after all of the shit I've seen in comparison since leaving my home. I'm talking about something else." He looked at Nami, "Do you know how I kept having you guess my age and you could never get it? Well I'm going to give you one more try."

Nami took a moment to think. She didn't even care about winning the 100,000 beli anymore. From the tone of his voice it was rather serious, "I don't want to Naruto-kun. Is it really that important?"

Naruto nodded, "Yeah it is. It's why I was so hesitant to be with you or Nojiko. I'm still kind of shifty on it… It's because I'm actually around 120 years old. It's around that by a year or two. I stopped counting since it doesn't matter to me."

Everyone stared at him with slack-jawed expressions and wide eyes before Sanji pointed at him slowly, "Devil Fru-."

"It is not a Devil Fruit damn it!" Naruto snapped at him childishly, "Come on! You're the reason that people think blondes are so stupid!" He chose to ignore how hypocritical that statement was, and the gravity of his last proclamation made sure that none of the more smart-aleck members of either crew called him on it, "But anyway, yeah. I'm immortal." He said before pausing and moving his hands in a ghostly manner, "Ooooooooh~…"

Everyone kept quiet until finally Luffy was the first to speak, "Cool! So you're like an old man or something Naruto-jiji! You're a super, grandpa-hobo!"

Naruto just stood and stared at Luffy emotionlessly before walking towards him with his hands extended in a strangling motion. A pair of hands came from the floor to hold him in place and keep him from murdering Luffy. He looked up at Robin who again looked away from him, but her eyes cut back towards him every once in a while.

"Um…" Soren said, raising his hand like a schoolchild, "I think I speak for everyone here when I say, how in the hell are you immortal?"

Naruto sat on the floor and started fielding questions, "My family always had a naturally powerful life-force. Apparently I was going to live to be over one-hundred no matter what, but those healing powers I talked about are more akin to regeneration. My body never really broke down from its peak conditioning, that's why I look like this and I'm as old as I am. And I'm so in-tuned with nature that I don't get illnesses or diseases." He then hurriedly raised his hands defensively, "I can still die if anyone good enough to kill me ever pulled it off, I can still be killed, I just can't _die_… and I'm going to outlive every last one of you. That's the reason I was so skittish."

Nami waited for the room to go silent again, "Is that why you left your village that you told us about? Because you outlived your friends?"

Naruto nodded, "They were all getting older and all had families. I didn't. I don't have any kind of family ties, just friends, so I left Konoha and traveled around the entire continent trying to keep the peace. Eventually I wanted to leave the continent altogether so I did… and now I'm here." He looked around, at his crew in particular, "I took you guys with me so that I could do whatever I could to help you all with your goals."

"-And then what?"

Naruto blinked and looked towards Miss Valentine who had a serious look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest. She didn't have any hint of a smile whatsoever. Naruto replied in the only way he thought was reasonable at the moment, "Huh?"

"You know damn well you heard me the first time Naruto." She said, narrowing her eyes at him dangerously, "What exactly were you going to do after you had helped us? You told us that you fought a war, and then left the people around you because they didn't need you and they had lives to live. What are you going to do when Johnny and Yosaku get good enough to fight on par with Zoro? What are you going to do when it's safe enough for Vivi to go home? What exactly was your plan?"

He didn't know what to say at first before he stood up and shoved his hands in his pockets, "You know what? I don't have anything to say that won't piss you off right now so I'll just say it. I didn't have a plan. I didn't have any idea what I was going to do, but I wasn't going to stay." He said, pacing around seeming to be rather irritated with the way the conversation was going, "I was going to make sure that you were all as happy as I could make you and then I was going to vanish again. I was going to leave and go protect the Elemental Nations again. I can't stay with you and watch you all get older and die while I stay the same. I already did that once."

Nami abruptly stood up in shock, "Wait a minute, you're just going to leave? Just like that? One day and poof, none of us will ever see you again?"

"How long have you all known me?" Naruto asked them, "For those of you that can say you have for the longest it's been little over six months. That's not long at all. And eventually my crew won't need me anymore, they'll be strong enough to do what they want on their own. By then I should have made enough noise so that if the World Government ever puts its feelers out towards the Elemental Nations they'll know not to touch it." He said, trying to explain his long-term plan of action, "Most of you will barely notice I'm gone when I go."

Nojiko shook her head at him, "How could you say that? What if the entire reason some of us are even here-?" She stopped talking abruptly before she tried to finish her thought quietly, "What if the entire reason some of us are even here right now is because of you?"

"That's why I'm here." Soren said, "If it weren't for Uzumaki I don't know where I'd be right now. I probably would have been cornered and locked up by now, maybe killed. He's a little stupid from time to time, but he's a damn good person."

Johnny pointed to himself and Yosaku, "If it weren't for Naruto-aniki we'd be two pathetic bounty hunters barely scraping by in the East Blue, still getting beaten up by any loser pirate barely worth talking about. But now we're so much better than we used to be, I can't believe it."

Vivi shot a beautiful smile towards Naruto that seemed heartfelt, "If it weren't for Naruto I would be a political prisoner of the World Government's Gorousei right now for doing what I had to in order to save my country. He took me in and took blame for 'kidnapping' me. He never even asked me for anything, he's even training me to be stronger so that I don't have to rely on people stronger than me to keep helping me."

Miss Valentine held herself and looked down, "He saved me from being killed by my own partner just so he could have a chance to win an unwinnable fight. And he actually gave me a place to stay, and promised to protect me."

Nojiko looked right into Naruto's eyes and spoke next, "Naruto-kun you saved my entire island and freed my sister from Arlong and his pirate crew. You defended us from a corrupt Marine official that came in and tried to pick off the scraps. No one ever even asked you to do it. You did it because it was the right thing to do. Damn it, someone as wonderful as you shouldn't be alone! You're the only reason I even came all the way out here! I think I'm in love with you…"

Naruto looked at her and then at Nami who seemed to be looking at him the same way as her sister was. He turned towards Miss Valentine and saw her actually blushing and looking away from him, still trying to seem angry but failing miserably. Naruto looked down with a melancholy appearance on his face, "And that's what I didn't want. Damn it if I loved any of you back then I'd have to watch you die one day." He looked at Nami in particular, "That's what I meant when I said that a relationship between me and anyone could go perfectly but still end all wrong."

Nami walked over and grabbed a hold of his hands, "Naruto-kun you don't need to think that far ahead… That wouldn't happen for a long, long time. You shouldn't be afraid to be happy just because you're immortal or have too much strength to be safe around or whatever problem you think there is. Look at us…" She said gesturing to everyone in the room, "All of us have some kind of baggage. There's something about all of us that keeps us from being normal just like everyone else, same as you. And if we die then so what? At least you were happy while we were here, at least you let us try to make you happy." She finished, wrapping him up in a hug that she was happy to feel him return.

After a moment they backed away from each other and Naruto turned around to leave the room, "Sorry guys. I've got to grab some air for a moment." He quickly made his way outside, but when he was followed outdoors the only sign of his presence was a small whirlwind blowing leaves around.

XxX

Naruto was walking on the surface of the ocean towards one of the outlying islands not far from Water 7. He couldn't stay there right then. Was it that hard to just let go? He did it. He let go of his home, his country, his friends and every bond he had managed to scrape together and form for their own good. But in the end he always knew that he wouldn't be able to go forever without making any more friends, and he knew better than anyone else just how hard friends would fight for each other, hell, he just came back from the best example of that he could possibly think up.

He continued to walk, even as he made it ashore to a new island that he found to be called St. Poplar. As he walked through the town portion of the island he continued to think to himself, 'Kami, I'm really being stupid this time. There's no overlapping reason for me to want to be distant from them, I'm just being a coward. I'm running away from another problem. I don't run from problems… I kick the shit out of problems until I solve them.'

He clinched his fists tightly inside of the pockets of his sage coat, tight enough to draw blood from his palms, 'I'm willing to hurt them just because I'm too much of a punk-ass to get close to them and leave them later. The way I worded everything I would have had to leave soon. I don't have to do that for at least a decade or so, if even then.' He let out a sigh as he continued to walk along until something alerted him.

People were gathering from all around to a particular part of the street that Naruto soon made his way towards as well. He easily nudged his way to the front of the crowd where he saw Blueno playing hype-man for what looked to be a wolf jumping through a flaming hoop. Apparently what they were doing was quite popular because they seemed to be making a ton of money off of the crowd.

Naruto raised an eyebrow as the crowd applauded them. As the two took their bows, Blueno noticed Naruto staring at them in the crowd with an amused smirk on his face, "Oh no. Not that guy again…" He turned to the wolf, "Jyabura, we've got to get out of here now and find the others."

"What?" Jyabura whispered back in response, "We're actually starting to make enough money to get the doctors to save Lucci and you want us to leave?" Blueno wordlessly moved his head towards Naruto, getting Jyabura to get a good look at the blonde, who actually waved at them this time as the crowd started to disperse, "Oh hell…"

Blueno turned to open an air door, but Naruto somehow appeared right by him and grabbed his arm, "Nope, you ain't going anywhere. I'm not even here to fight you guys, just to talk. We already won. I just have to ask you… what the hell are you guys doing?"

While none of the other CP9 agents save for Rob Lucci were conscious to see just what had transpired after their defeats, Blueno actually had been, as he had woken up after his thrashing by Naruto and had been the one to use his Devil Fruit ability to keep the entire crew safe from the Buster Call on the Tower of Justice at Enies Lobby. He had seen firsthand the battle Naruto had fought against the ships, and he had even seen Naruto's battle with Aokiji after he had retrieved Lucci following his defeat by Luffy, and he had regaled the entire group of his firsthand witness's account of what he had seen.

He knew that if Naruto had really been there to do harm to them there wasn't a single thing they could honestly do about it, thus he didn't fight back or try to run when Naruto grabbed him, nor did Jyabura move to attack him. Naruto reciprocated this peaceful truce of sorts by letting go of Blueno's arm and keeping cool about the situation, allowing the large member of CP9 to explain what was going on, "We're raising money so that Rob Lucci can get medical treatment. The fight with 'Straw Hat' Luffy did a number on him."

"And when he gets better he isn't going to come and try to pick a fight with us is he?" Naruto said rather seriously, "Because only air, space, and a lack of opportunity kept me from cleaning his clock myself when I saw him with Robin-chan."

"Definitely not." Jyabura said to Naruto with something of a scoff, "We're also being blamed for that clusterfuck at Enies Lobby, so fighting with you and the others you were with aren't going to do us any good at all even if we could actually win this time around." He transformed back into his full human form once he realized no one else was watching, "We gave our entire lives to training and working for the World Government and this is what we get in the end after one failure."

'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' Naruto thought to himself as he started understanding their situation, '…Or does that make them my enemy too? Meh, I can't tell. Everyone I end up fighting somehow flip-flops sides, I can't keep it straight.' "Are you guys going to be here for long?" He asked, getting suspicious looks from them both, "I'm not going to hurt you or turn you in or anything. I'm the only one that knows you're here and that was a coincidence."

They both looked at each other before turning back to Naruto and nodding. Blueno addressed him, "We'll be here until Rob Lucci is healed and rested."

"Good." Naruto said, "I'll be back here in a few days and I'll have something for you guys that you might like, or you might not. Anyway, pretty soon I'll be back here and I'd like to talk to you guys if I could." He didn't give them a chance to answer as he walked away from them, continuing on his way, "I'll see you guys later!"

As they watched Naruto walk away, Jyabura turned to Blueno, "So what do we do? We can't leave with Lucci the way he is, do we fight?"

"No." Blueno said with a frown on his face, "We have to listen, even if we don't care about what he has to say. If he really wanted to hurt us or wanted to take something from us he would have right then and there. There wouldn't have been any need to come back later, he doesn't need his crew."

XxX

(Later – Nightfall)

Naruto had been ignoring the beacon for Hiraishin in his head for hours. At first it would hit him every two minutes, but eventually it died down to the point where he hadn't felt anyone try to reach him for several hours. However he had taken more than enough time by then to think to himself. He was still completely uneasy with the way things were, him outliving everyone and staying the same while they all grew older and eventually died, but he also realized that he couldn't just go through life without anyone. That would be a damn miserable experience and he knew it already from his childhood, why would he want to relive it forever and inflict it on himself?

So this time, when he felt the call for the Hiraishin a little past midnight he had decided he had been a baby about things for long enough and decided to head back and make his apologies to whoever was still awake.

In a flash of yellow, he vanished from the area of his sulking and reappeared outside of the Galley-La Company building near a vacant pool. From the smell in the air there had been a lot of food there not too long ago, but the area was now vacant and empty. Sighing to himself as he picked up the kunai from the ground and placed it in his pocket, Naruto began walking out onto the surface of the pool water where he finally came to a stop.

"No fair." Naruto turned to a shadowed corner of the area and saw Robin walking from the shadows with a smile on her face, "You know I can't swim and I can't walk on water either. How am I supposed to talk to you?"

Shrugging to her and chuckling as he walked back to dry land, Naruto stopped in front of her and took a deep breath, "Have you guys been throwing the kunai all afternoon? I could feel it, but I was just ignoring it." He said as he took the kunai back out of his pocket and handed it to Robin.

She took the weapon and gave it an inspecting look, "Hmm, that kind of takes the use out of it if you ignore when people are trying to reach you."

Naruto frowned as a proverbial raincloud appeared over his head, "Hey… I was kind of having a moment of manly reflection time." He quickly got over it and cleared his throat, "Anyway I came back to apologize to anyone that I hurt by walking out and leaving the way I did. In case it was you I'm sorry Robin-chan."

She shook her head and kept her good natured smile intact, "You didn't hurt me. I understand the reason why you wanted to leave. You just kept me from doing the same thing not even a week ago, remember?" Naruto's eyes widened in realization and he opened his mouth to dispute, however Robin shut him down, "Yes, it really is the same thing, I don't want to hear it. You were right when you said you were more like me than I possibly knew. I lost everyone around me and was powerless to do anything about it, that made me afraid that it could happen again. You're the same in that respect."

He shut his mouth and actually listened to what she had to say before rubbing the back of his head sheepishly, "I guess I am. Man I'm a hypocrite."

A nod came from Robin as she poked him in the chest with her finger, "And if you did possibly try to leave do you really think that no one here would go after you like all of you did for me and find some way to convince you that you're being stupid or drag you back?"

Naruto blinked owlishly at that before he started laughing, "If you could find me! I could disappear tomorrow and no one would catch hide nor hair of me until I got where I was going. All you guys have on me is my name and the name of my home country and village that I can't return to. Other than that, take that away and none of you would even know how to find me." He then sighed, "But I would never just walk away like that… even if I wanted to."

"Just go with it Naruto." Robin said at last. She started walking around him in a circle as she continued to talk, "Don't let it bother you. Do you want to know how many people actually cared that you were immortal after you left? None of us. We actually had a party with the Franky Family and the Galley-La workers when you left, but you didn't come back and you missed it. We really missed you here. Even Paulie wanted to talk to you about something."

"Paulie? We? _You_ missed me?" Naruto said questioningly, "Ever since we've gotten back you won't even speak to me Robin-chan. This is actually the first actual conversation we've had since you said thank you to me after the fight with Aokiji."

She stopped behind him and laughed slightly, "Well after we all came back, no one on the crew would let me alone long enough to find you so that I could be with you by myself."

Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked over his shoulder at the woman, "Why did you need to be by yourself to find-?" Robin abruptly turned him around and planted a rather lengthy kiss on him, wrapping her arms around his neck to pull him closer. Eventually, Naruto wrapped his arms around her waist and allowed her to freely continue until she was content and chose to let go. Naruto stood frozen for a moment before speaking again, "Okay, part of me knew that was going to happen." He looked at her strangely, "Why did that just happen?"

"You saved my life twice and it's because of you that I even joined the Straw Hats in the first place. I heard everything you said when you fought Aokiji too." She said as she walked incredibly close towards Naruto and stopped a mere matter of inches away from him as she looked up at him, "I trust you now Uzumaki Naruto. Isn't that what you wanted in the first place?"

Naruto nodded slowly, "Yeah, but still that didn't explain the kiss. You can't possibly want a relationship with me, no one could after hearing me say that I'm over 100 years old. That would be weird, especially with me always looking like this. Why aren't you crushing on Luffy?"

"Luffy's nice, so are all of the Straw Hats, but they're all too young for me. I'm 28 Naruto, they're all teenagers." She said, not backing away from him.

In return, Naruto gave her a dry look with a twitching eye, "And I'm not too old for you? I'm 100 years older than you."

Robin simply gave him a shorter kiss to accentuate a point, "I'm an archaeologist. I like old things. And with the Hiraishin kunai I can call you anytime I want." She then frowned at him and backed away, "But it's not about me right now Naruto. Nami was actually the one that took you leaving the hardest. You walked away from her when she tried to hug you and let you know she didn't care. That hurt her, even though she hid it well for the most part during the party I could see through it."

"Damn it… I knew something like that was going to happen." He said lowly, mostly to himself. Whenever Naruto thought he was being magnanimous in some way it never seemed to pan out the way he thought it did in his head. Usually it took someone kicking him in the ass to tell him that he was wrong, this time he'd come to the conclusion on his own, but he still wound up hurting at least one person that he knew of by being stupid.

Robin pointed in a direction, "She's over by the ledge of this level of the city. It's not far from here, she should be easy to find. Go fix it." Naruto nodded and began walking off to go find Nami. Once he got out of earshot, Robin headed back inside of the temporary HQ, "Naruto you say you don't want any of us to care about you or love you, but you couldn't bear it if any of us hated you or were hurt because of anything you did. That's pretty much leaving it up to us, and you should know what we'll choose."

XxX

It didn't take any longer than fifteen minutes to find Nami sitting atop the large wall at the end of the ledge that kept people from simply falling to a lower level of the city, looking out over the vast majority of Water 7. Naruto walked over and took off his sage coat before draping it over her shoulders and sitting down next to her. At first he chose not to say anything, taking the time to just spend some time with her. He hadn't seen her since Alabasta and with everything that had surrounded their arrival at Water 7 he hadn't gotten a chance to spend any decent quality time with her that didn't involve one of them fighting someone else.

He wanted to put an arm around her, as he could sense that she wasn't in a bright mood at the moment, but he couldn't just do that. He had to have something worthwhile to say to her. Anything at all that would have helped.

"Thank you." Nami finally said to him, breaking the silence that, while comfortable, was wearing on Naruto's nerves. He was glad that it wasn't just him.

"No problem Nami-chan." Naruto said, glad to be talking about anything at this point in time, "You can't just be sitting out here by yourself in a bikini and a towel. You'll get sick."

"Not for that." She said, confusing him, "I don't think I ever properly thanked you for everything you've done since the day we met. You kept Buggy from attacking me, you kept The Black Cat Pirates from tearing me and Usopp apart, you didn't judge me when I took the Going Merry from the Baratie or for being one of Arlong's pirates, and then you went ahead and freed my home for me. I never said thank you for all of that."

Naruto shook his head with a smile on his face, "You kissed me, that counts. And then you more or less said you wanted a relationship with me. Those seem like huge ways to say thank you to me." It didn't take long for him to stop smiling as he remembered the reason he had come out here in the first place, "I'm sorry Nami-chan. I walked away like a little kid that didn't want to face a problem. Keeping you all away from considering me important to you isn't going to solve anything, it would just make me miserable, just like you said all that time ago in Alabasta."

Nami scooted closer to him and put her head on his shoulder, "Nothing's changed to me since you told us all of that Naruto-kun. I don't think it has for anyone else either. You seemed to be someone that wasn't quite mortal in the first place. To hell with Enel, you're more like a god than he ever was-." She was silenced when Naruto put a finger to her lips to stop her from talking.

He gave her a look of slight distaste, "I don't know who Enel is, but please… don't call me a god. I'm not. You're not the first person to make that kind of comparison, and I'm really not. I don't ever want to think that way about myself."

Nami kissed his finger before he could put it down and rubbed his cheek, stroking his whisker-marks with her thumb, "Such a sad face. Don't look that way. I'm not mad. I can understand why you're hesitant, but I'll tell you what I already told you, I don't care. I'm greedy Naruto-kun. I know what I want, and if I want it I'll go and get it. And in case you haven't noticed it by now, I want you."

"What about-?" Naruto was about to argue about the other women that he knew for a fact were into him as well, but Naruto cut him off by kissing him deeply, taking advantage of his attempt to speak by slipping her tongue into his mouth. Any argument he had was phased out of his head as he savored Nami's taste, 'Oh Kami, she's still so sweet. She tastes just like tangerines I swear…'

As Nami broke off the kiss she giggled at the staggered look on Naruto's face, he must have really like that, "What about Nojiko? Or Miss Valentine? Or even Robin?" She kept a certain part of her thoughts to herself, 'I think even Vivi is starting to think about him like that.' Naruto nodded dumbly, getting Nami to lightly slap him, "They don't care either. I know they don't. Nojiko cares about you too much to care, and Miss Valentine… well she won't budge on the matter, plus if Robin wants you she'll just take you, and a softie like you won't have it in you to turn any of us down."

Ecstatic that it didn't take too much for him to cheer Nami up and get her to forgive him for how he acted earlier that day, Naruto wrapped her up in a huge hug that got her to start laughing, "I'm not a softie Nami-chan. I'm a hardened warrior capable of throwing the world in chaos. Take me seriously." He said as they fell to the side on the ground, still holding onto one another.

"It's not fair." Nami said after a moment with a huge smile on her face, "Nojiko told me about all of the times you and her were together. I met you first and I haven't seen you without so much as even your shirt yet."

Naruto frowned, "Nami-chan… really? Here? Come on now, anyone with a good eye could see us up here, or any of either of our crews could find us here if they knew where to look."

The navigator frowned, "Well it's not like we can go to your hotel or my hotel. Where else could we possibly go?"

Naruto looked out over Water 7 and a smirk came to his face, "Do you trust me Nami-chan?"

"Yeah…" She said hesitantly at the look on his face, "Why would you need me to-?" She stopped talking in exchange for a yelp of surprise when Naruto scooped her close and rolled them off the side of the wall to fall the way down to the ground before he took off with her in his arms, "Where are you going Naruto-kun?"

"Not far." He promised before he was able to find what he wanted. An open area, intended to be the site where the real Galley-La Headquarters was to be rebuilt, "And yes… there's dirt here." He began making hand-seals, "Mokuton: Shichuuka no Jutsu (Wood Release: Four Pillars House Jutsu)."

Nami's jaw almost dropped as she saw a small house emerge from the ground and tower over them. She dumbly walked inside with Naruto when he grabbed a hold of her hand and led her inside. "I swear, the things you can do are getting to be ridiculous…" She said to him before shrugging off the sage coat onto the floor and shoving him into a chair that had been built when he made the house.

Lemon Start

Naruto let Nami straddle his lap while he gently rubbed her sides and let her press his head into her bosom, "mrphf-mvn, mnty-hn, mrphf-fri."

Nami blinked and removed Naruto's head from her chest to look at his face, "What? I didn't get that."

Naruto smiled up at her and pulled her body close to him, "I said, 37-21-33." He saw the rather surprised, blushing look on her face after he said those numbers, "Yeah, that's one of the many 'useless' things I know how to do. I could tell just from looking at you and estimating from there, and I like it a lot."

Changing her look of shock to a rather seductive glance that made his heart skip a bit, Nami grabbed a hold of Naruto's hands and moved them towards the back of her bikini, encouraging him to let loose the tie keeping it on her, a task he quickly completed before slowly pulling the fabric from her chest to reveal her rather bountiful breasts and pink nipples. Before he could even make a comment, Nami had yanked his white shirt over his head and had cast it aside to get a good look at Naruto who she kissed again before removing his headband and letting it fall to the floor, the metal making a clink noise that disrupted the general silence of the room as the two continued to make out.

The two slowly backed their lips away from one another as blue eyes met brown. Naruto was running a hand through Nami's orange hair while she ran her hands over his muscles and slowly tried grinding herself on Naruto's erection. The heat between them got to them both as Naruto undid the orange sash over his pants and quickly rid himself of them and his boxers while Nami wriggled her way out of the rest of her bikini without getting off of him, "That's better." She said rather heatedly, pressing all of her naked body against Naruto's and sitting down fully in his lap.

"Much better." Naruto said in agreement as he started kissing all over Nami's neck and collarbone, intentionally trying to leave hickeys on her for the world to see the next day. Nami moaned and let out a sharp cry when she felt him bite down hard enough to get her attention, "Sorry Nami-chan. My teeth are kind of sharp."

"Didn't hurt." She consoled quickly in reply as she felt herself getting wet. Sitting up on her knees more, she let out a whimper as she felt Naruto switch from her neck to her breasts. The girl on top began to position herself over his cock. All of the foreplay thus far had been like dangling the proverbial carrot in front of her, especially when this one in particular had been pressing against her so much that she was almost driving herself mad at wanting to get herself off, "Naruto-kun I'm ready…"

Naruto's mouth freed itself from Nami's left nipple with a pop, "Whatever you say Nami-chan." He said as he placed his hands on her waist to help hold her in place, "This is probably going to hurt, so just bear with me okay? I'm right here." Nami nodded and slowly exhaled as she lowered herself down, finding the point of resistance she knew she'd have to get through to go any further. She stopped there, trying to compose herself for what she knew was about to happen, "Take your time. We're in no rush, I've got all the time in the world." He said, trying to make a joke to relieve her nerves.

'He's so sweet.' She thought to herself, as Naruto lovingly returned his attention to Nami's bosom as he waited for her to finally decide to begin. She ran her hands through his blonde hair before deciding to go all the way and force Naruto through her hymen.

A yelp of pain from Nami came before he felt her shiver in his lap. All he could really do was kiss her and hold her close until she calmed down. He didn't bother trying to move any portion of his lower body no matter how much his more primal instincts told him to. Eventually Nami began to stir and move herself around. Licking her lips, she started moving up and down slowly to work through the low dull throbbing feeling that had come with popping her cherry.

"Come on Naruto-kun." Nami said as she started to steadily pick up the pace, starting to feel much better, "Are you going to help me or am I too much for you?"

"Yeah right…" Naruto growled lowly at the girl that was now bouncing up and down on top of his dick. When he started personally assisting and adding to her momentum he heard her cy out loudly, throwing her head back and putting an arrogant smirk on his face, "Sorry Nami-chan, too much for yo-?" He was cut off when Nami muffled her own lustful sounds by covering her mouth with Naruto's and kissing him deeply while continuing to ride him.

The young woman held to his shoulders tightly enough to nearly draw blood with her nails, 'Oh God, you're such a bastard Naruto-kun. Making me wait all this time for this… I should have just seduced you on Commi Island and been done with it. We could have been doing this so much sooner.' She thought to herself as their tongues were engaged in a duel to supplement the lovemaking.

Not satisfied with how things were currently going, Naruto stood up and placed Nami on the table nearby that had been built when he created the house, pulling out of her and away from her as they stared at each other wantonly. Nami's breasts moved up and down as she panted heavily from their activities thus far. She scooted back on the table and lay back, giving Naruto a sexy smirk as she spread her legs for him, not saying a word.

There wasn't any need for her to say anything, Naruto climbed atop the table as well and easily buried himself inside of Nami completely, letting out a grunt as he enjoyed Nami's warmth for a moment, allowing the moonlight coming through the windows to give him a fine view of her form. He was distracted from staring by Nami planting a kiss on his chin and pouting at him.

The pout quickly vanished from her face when he pulled back and thrust into her one good time, "I was just enjoying the view Nami-chan. You're beautiful." He said quietly as he kept pumping in and out of her, letting himself savor the feeling of her body and the sound of her love cries. Every move he made she seemed to love. He wanted to tell her to scream as loudly as she could, and a part of him wanted her to say that she loved him, to hell with how he had felt earlier that day. Things were how they were, and who was he to tell these girls how to feel and how not to feel?

"Naruto-kun please don't stop!" Nami said as she wrapped her legs around his waist in an effort to drive him deeper inside of her somehow, "I need you!" Naruto pushed up off of her and placed her legs over his shoulders to hit her from a different angle that nearly made her lose it, "Oh God! I can't-!" She bit her lip and let out a groan that she tried and failed to bite back.

Naruto whispered in her ear as he never stopped driving himself in and out of the lovely Straw Hat navigator, "You can't what? Go ahead and tell me. I want to hear that beautiful voice Nami-chan. Don't hold back on me." He held her arms down by her wrists, delighting in the torture he was giving her by not allowing her to writhe around.

Nami could honestly say that it was the most pleasant feeling of discomfort she had ever felt in her life. If this was what sex with Naruto was like the first time she had a feeling she was going to be abusing the Hiraishin kunai that he gave to her crew repeatedly, because from what Nojiko had told her of their past interactions he was actually holding back on her because she was a virgin. She couldn't tell him not to, because right now from the feeling of having his cock skillfully stretch her inner walls she wasn't sure she could take him trying to go all out on her.

"I can't take anymore!" She said before letting out one harsh shout as she felt her entire body tighten and finally go slack on the table.

Feeling Nami's climax prompted Naruto to release his own. Nami's pussy tightly clamping down around him was the last straw for him as he shot his own seed inside of his gorgeous lover. Nami let out another small moan when she felt Naruto finish and let her legs set back to lying down on the table as intended. Nami grabbed his face and kissed him hotly, whining stubbornly when he pulled out of her, "Naruto-kun I wanted to stay like that all night."

Naruto chuckled as he hovered over her and stroked her face softly, "It's not good for you to stay like that for a long time. And we can't stay here all night either. Laying on this table or floor would be murder on your back. The only one allowed to mess that up is me." He shook his head when she tilted hers in confusion, "I'll show you what that means later." He tried to get off of the table when he felt Nami pull him back down, "What?"

She had a rather vixen-like smirk on her lips as she whispered in his ear, "Why don't you show me right now? I need the practice after all."

Naruto kissed her on the neck and pulled away, "Not really. You're a gifted amateur I have to say. But I am supposed to be apologizing to you after all." He said with a grin.

"Well then." She said, grabbing a hold of his dick again, working it slowly on purpose, "You can apologize to me all night long Naruto-kun."

End Lemon

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Foxhound Pirates Hotel Room)

"Fuck!" Soren yelled, expressing the feelings of every person at the table playing poker. The Straw Hat crew had come over to hang out over at the massive suite purchased out by the Foxhound Pirates and it had slowly degenerated into everyone with a decent pocketful of cash putting it up for kicks. At this point, still in the game were Zoro, Sanji, Nami, Soren, Yosaku, Johnny, and of course the man with the devil's luck himself, Uzumaki Naruto. Soren threw his hand on the table as Naruto's arms snaked across the table and reeled in his winnings from the hand, "Fucking Uzumaki never loses! I swear to God, he should have shit for cards all the time, but could bluff his way off of death row if he had to. No one gets a hand good enough to call each time!"

"I do." Naruto said as he laughingly pulled his money towards him, laughing all the way, "You should stop being stupid and fold early like everyone else is learning to."

The way things had been going thus far had been:

Zoro crapped out first and early and somehow Nami got him to allow her to bankroll him for as long as he decided to play, which was until he won a hand… something he hadn't been able to do after an hour of playing, thus putting him far in the hole as far as Nami and her high interest rates were concerned.

Sanji kept folding for Nami when it looked like she might win a hand, even when he had kick-ass cards.

Soren kept trying to go head-to-head with Naruto and was quickly running out of spending cash, he was convinced that no one could win every single time like Naruto was… poor fool.

Johnny and Yosaku at this point were just wasting space as they both knew they couldn't win but were too stubborn to back out.

Johnny smirked at his swordsman partner, "Put Kubikiribouchou up next hand Yosaku. It's Naruto-aniki's anyway. I want a chance to win it."

"No way in hell!" Yosaku said defensively, "This is my baby until it's pried from my cold, dead hands."

"Oh come on!" Johnny yelled in reply, "You have cool swords, Zoro-aniki has-… well he _had_ cool swords." Zoro growled at him for that, "Where's my cool sword?" A sheathed blade was tossed at him that he caught on reflex, "What's this?" He asked as he unsheathed it slightly to reveal that it was an uchigatana much like the one he already had, but something about it felt different and powerful.

Naruto was perusing through his winnings, "It's called Kusanagi no Tsurugi (Grass Cutting Sword). I've been keeping it for a while and I decided you're strong enough that you can use it now." He said nonchalantly.

"Awesome!" He said to himself as he unsheathed it and held it in his hands, getting the feel for it. It was definitely the finest sword he had ever held. Even Zoro was staring across the table with a look of jealousy on his face.

Zoro turned to Naruto and gestured at Johnny, "What the hell was that? One of my swords got destroyed during the battle at Enies Lobby and you give him one when he already has one?"

Naruto gave him a dry look, "Why would I give you that one? So you can break it too? You go through more swords than anyone I know, and besides… you already had a cursed swords so sit on it." He then clapped his hands over his mouth, hoping that Johnny didn't hear him.

He wasn't _that_ lucky.

Johnny looked at his new sword and then at Naruto, narrowing his eyes at him behind his sunglasses, "What's wrong with it?"

"Nothing?" Naruto said before he realized that no one in the entire room, including the people that weren't playing, was buying it, "Fine, it may have belonged to one of the most twisted and evil men I've ever met in my entire life before I found it and took it… and it _may_ have powers… and it maybe, just maybe, small chance I'm telling you, it may kill you if it doesn't like you."

"How?" Johnny asked, looking at it warily. He knew of cursed swords and how they got their users killed if they didn't like who was wielding it.

"Two-snakes-might-materialize-out-of-the-guard-and-bite-your-wrists." Naruto said at rapid speed before adding something as an afterthought, "But it might not do that, and even if it does there's a chance that you might survive. I did."

Muret chimed in from where she was sitting in the room with the others, "That's because you have the immune system and inner defenses of a cyborg."

"Not really helping me sell the sword here Muret!" Naruto snapped irritably from the playing table before turning his attention to Johnny, "I wouldn't have given you the sword if I didn't think you could handle it. Go for it."

Johnny looked between Naruto and the Kusanagi for the longest time before switching out the swords at his belt, patting the new weapon at his side contently, "If it kills me it kills me I guess."

At that moment, Vivi rushed through the door holding a newspaper and panting, heavily out of breath, "You guys! *pant pant* You really need to see this… now!" She said, slamming the paper in the middle of the table and opening it wide.

Naruto looked at the paper and raised an eyebrow with a chuckle, "It said that we're allied crews, we declared war on the World Government and blew the island to kingdom come…doesn't say anything about the Buster Call or Aokiji getting his ass whipped though… damn cover-ups." He turned a page and grinned, "Sweet! New bounties are up, everyone, get your asses over here!"

Everyone not sitting at the table immediately scrambled over and gawked at the paper.

**Straw Hat Pirates**

**Dead or Alive**

"**Cotton Candy Lover" Chopper (pet) – 50 beli**

"**Cat Burglar" Nami – 18,000,000 beli**

"**King of Snipers" Sogeking – 30,000,000 beli**

"**Cyborg" Franky – 44,000,000**

"**Blackleg" Sanji – 77,000,000 beli**

"**Devil's Child" Nico Robin – 80,000,000 beli**

"**Pirate Hunter" Zoro – 120,000,000 beli**

"**Straw Hat" Luffy – 300,000,000 beli**

**Foxhound Pirates**

**Dead or Alive**

"**Armory Mistress" Nojiko – 15,000,000**

"**Lord of Iaijutsu" Johnny – 40,000,000 beli**

"**Cleaver" Yosaku – 65,000,000 beli**

"**Human Albatross" Miss Valentine – 83,000,000 beli**

"**The Plague" Soren – 251,000,000 beli**

"**God Sage of Anarchy" Uzumaki Naruto – 395,000,000 beli**

**Alive**

**Nefertari Vivi (**_**Must be alive**_**. Alive and in good health and condition) – 150,000,000 beli**

The first to react to the new bounties was Naruto who abruptly stood up and threw his fists into the air in victory, "Woo! Suck it Luffy, I'm still better than you! Almost 100 million beli better than you! _And_ I got a new picture that doesn't make me look like a mass murderer, dattebayo! Step your debauchery up!" Naruto's bounty picture was of him in Water 7, taken a few days ago from when he ran into Garp and the other Marines.

"Aw man!" Luffy shouted in defeat, "Mine increased, but Naruto's did too. So unfair…"

Muret pumped her fist in victory, "Hell yes, I didn't get a bounty!"

"You didn't really fight…" Nojiko pointed out, "I don't know whether to be scared that I have a bounty, or upset and competitive that mine is the lowest."

"Yep, yep! Third place!" Soren said victoriously, "Not quite first, but sure as hell ain't the worst!"

While Chopper was crying over only being worth 50 beli,and Yosaku and Johnny were crying over how their combined bounties still didn't equal Zoro's, Sanji was looking at his bounty and was fuming at his picture. It wasn't a portrait like everyone else had for theirs, it was a terrible artist's rendering of his appearance, "What the fuck is this shitty poster? There's nothing about this that brings out my natural, raw sex appeal!"

Nami had exaggerated cascading tears streaming down her face, "I have a bounty? Damn it, I don't want a bounty! I mean, I look cute in the picture and everything, but I still don't want a bounty!"

Vivi sighed once she saw her bounty, "I guess Naruto was right about me not fighting. They don't want to kill me, but wow, that's a lot of money for me."

Miss Valentine frowned at her bounty before laughing, "It's not really the most flattering epithet I've ever seen, but I've seen worse. I'll take it I guess."

"Yes! I knew I was awesome and now the world knows even more than they already did!" Naruto said, standing on the table with manly tears of victory pouring from his eyes as he started getting rather overbearing to a lot of the people around him, "Now someone go get the God Sage of Anarchy a goddamn drink, it's a celebration! A toast to my shinobi swagger!"

BANG

"Bullets are not a beverage Noji-chan." Naruto said from across the room as a log dropped to the floor with a bullet lodged in it.

She let out a sigh and holstered her pistol, "And we're right back to normal again…" She said, shaking her head with a smile on her face.

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**Chapter done. I have nothing useful to say today. Any questions that I can answer, as in a question that have an actual answer I can **_**give**_** you and keep later parts of the story (i.e. spoilers) to myself and I'll try and get to that before I have to go to work tomorrow. It's 1 am. I have shit to do in the morning, so enjoy yourself bitches… it's a celebration.**

**I'm Kenchi618 mother f'er.**

**Later. And before I forget, thank you for making this the most reviewed upon One Piece/Naruto crossover on the site. It really makes a random college dude feel rather special to get love from across the continent and the world.**


	29. The Show Must Go On

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Come on world, just hand over the rights. You know as well as I do that I do what I want and I take what I want, giving me the rights to both of the series would just cut out the effort I'd have to put out to get it. I don't really want to threaten or blackmail anyone… But I would kill someone, in front of their own mama for the rights to Naruto or One Piece.

Do not fuck with me. But relax, I'm not evil enough to prolong it. I'm just going to go in there, step on their necks and shoot them in the head… because that's how I roll.

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 29: The Show Must Go On**

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Naruto headed back out to the nearby island of St. Poplar to find the CP9 group. He promised he would head back their way soon, and he was a man of his word. Hopefully they hadn't decided to clear out and they decided to stay and see what he had to talk to them about. He no longer held any ill will against them. They were following orders, it was no different than the shinobi of any hidden village. To be upset with them would have been petty, especially after they had all been defeated thoroughly already.

Hopefully that same regard extended from them to him. All he wanted was Robin back. He had taken her, and that was that, there shouldn't have been anymore conflict between them. If they were anything like him in the aspect of the mission being a mission and nothing more then the talk should have been fine for them to have.

Thinking this to himself, Naruto walked through the town he had been to a few days prior. No one came with him because he hadn't told anyone where he intended to go. After the revelation of the new bounties, Naruto set out on his own while the Straw Hat Crew headed to where their new ship was being built by Franky. Thinking of that, he couldn't help but be excited to get back out on the seas on his new, improved ship. Vivi was usually so excited to tell him about what she had seen he almost felt bad when he shot her down and instructed her not to tell him anything. It was rather funny though to see the young princess noticeably fidget whenever she felt the need to talk about the ship.

With that thought out of the way, Naruto looked around the streets filled with people for any sign of CP9, 'Maybe they did leave after all? I mean, I came back to the same place I found them before, that should have been the first place they waited for me.'

"So it _is_ you after all."

Naruto turned around to find Kaku standing there with his hands in his pockets, "I thought that Jyabura and Blueno were just shell-shocked and having flashbacks after seeing someone that looked like you, but it really is you."

"In the flesh." Naruto said in confirmation, "Is Rob Lucci healed yet?"

"He's conscious, and after he woke up he was willing to hear what you had to say. Hence why we're still here." Kaku explained, "Come with me." He said as he began to lead Naruto through the town, "We're not going to ambush you if that's what you're thinking."

"I know you aren't." Naruto replied in an even-toned manner, "Why would you? You guys got blamed for the Enies Lobby thing just as badly as my crew and the Straw Hats. Fighting me wouldn't do anything about that."

"Spandam got away." Kaku said with a hint of anger in his voice, "He's horribly wounded, but he was able to pin the entire situation on us. Blaming us for his calling in of the Buster Call. He's getting off scot-free. It makes me sick, the man isn't even a soldier, he's a suit. And for following orders and putting our bodies in jeopardy what did we get in return after all those years of work? Nothing but a knife in the back."

Naruto nodded as he let the man vent. It was clear that he hadn't been able to complain about anything for years. Naruto rubbed his chin, "What if I said I wanted to help you guys out?" Kaku gave him a disbelieving look, "Hey, think what you want. Just wait until I say something first before you start making up your mind."

Kaku nodded wordlessly and proceeded to lead Naruto to a small hospital. Once inside they immediately made their way to Rob Lucci who was surrounded by the other members of CP9, all of them looking at him warily. Kumadori pointed at Naruto dramatically, "Did you search him before you came inside Kaku? YOYO!"

Naruto raised an eyebrow and looked at everyone else in the room, "You do know that if I wanted to do something to you all I wouldn't need weapons to pull it off right? I don't even have any on me. I left everything back at Water 7 as a show of good faith except for what I came to give you."

Kalifa nodded before pointing at him and speaking in a dry manner, "That's sexual harassment."

Naruto face-faulted on the ground and picked himself up, pointing back at her and getting ready to yell before he thought about it, "I guess that last line could be sexual harassment… I don't know. Anyway, who cares? That's not why I'm here." He then got down to business, "What are you guys planning to do once you all get ready to leave?"

Lucci immediately spoke up from his hospital bed, "We're not going to join your crew." He said, the pigeon on his shoulder shaking its head as well, "Your goals and ours do not coincide."

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck, "I kind of figured you would say that so I brought this." He said, reaching into his sage coat pocket which put everyone in the room on the defensive, "Calm down, damn!" Naruto exclaimed before slowly drawing his hand out of his pocket, "Yes, this is a weapon, but it's a gift." He finally removed it all the way to reveal a Hiraishin kunai.

Jyabura took it from his grasp and studied it, "This is that strange knife you threw at the Tower of Justice that we blocked. It's just a super-speed beacon isn't it?"

"Nope." Naruto said with a grin on his face, "It is a beacon though. This allows me to find you anywhere in the world and teleport to your location. No matter where it is, I'll be there in only a moment. If you throw it to the ground or something like that it sends me a signal that you want my help or whatever and I'll be right there."

Lucci looked at the unassuming weapon, not even surprised at this point after hearing from Blueno of what Naruto was capable of and even seeing some of it himself while he fought Luffy, "Why would you do this?" He decided to ask instead, "Shouldn't you want revenge?"

"Why would I want that?" Naruto said in return, "We won. We got everyone back safe and sound, and other than a few injuries that everyone's recovered from by now for the most part nothing happened because of you. You guys were following orders. I understand, I used to have to follow orders too."

Blueno looked at him in surprise, "You were a Marine once?"

"No." Naruto said, shaking his head, "I never worked for the World Government, but my job was a lot like yours in a bunch of ways." A frown then came to his face, "I was never betrayed by my superiors though."

"So, what?" Lucci said, still not convinced of what Naruto wanted, "Do you want us to sail under your colors or something along those lines? Do you expect us to follow your orders? Tell me what it is you want from us?"

Naruto visibly frowned at Lucci's suspicion, but he guessed that the man had a point. He _had_ been an operative in an organization of spies and assassins before now, "No, none of that. It's just that you guys remind me of me I guess." He chuckled when they all looked at him strangely, "Really. In a manner of speaking I was kind of cast out of the military system of my home continent. After I left my home it didn't take long for people around the continent to forget my character, but that was mostly the next generation settling in. Eventually every military program didn't trust me, but were still wary of me so no one ever attacked me or tried to use me. Still, it's not too different if I actually sat back and explained it to you." He extended his hand to Jyabura, "If you don't want it then just give it back. I'm not going to make you guys want to befriend me."

Jyabura looked over at Lucci to get an indication of what he was to do. Lucci closed his eyes before speaking, "Fine Uzumaki Naruto. With our lot currently not any better off than yours as fugitives of the World Government we'll accept your weapon." He opened his eyes and locked them directly with Naruto, "Do not betray us Uzumaki. We already have one person on our hit list that we intend to destroy, do not make us switch targets to you once our revenge is complete."

Naruto raised his hands into the air and started to back away, "Hey, you're thinking of the wrong guy if you think I'd do something like that. But one thing that I need to say, don't let that revenge thing consume you. If it happens it happens. If it doesn't, then don't let warfare and anger be the thing people remember you for once you're gone." Once he got near the door he turned around, stopping right before walking out of the room, "With the kunai you guys can reach me anytime. Call me when you guys decide to get yourselves out of here. We can talk more then." He said as he walked away.

Kalifa turned her attention away from the now vacant doorway to Lucci, "So now we're supposed to be allies of the Foxhound Pirates?"

"Why not?" Lucci said, taking the Hiraishin kunai away from Jyabura, "We're already criminals. Why not align ourselves with the strongest one?"

XxX

(Water 7 – Dock 2)

In a flash of yellow, Naruto appeared, scratching his neck and yawning in a lazy manner, "Yeah? Did someone call me?" Before he could say anything, his left arm was glomped by Vivi and he found himself being dragged, "What the hell?"

"The ship is done!" Vivi chirped happily, "That means that you can't avoid it anymore, I'm showing it to you, and you can't give me any excuses this time!" Behind them both, Carue was helping her by shoving Naruto along with his head and beak.

"Okay, okay." Naruto said, laughing at how fired up she seemed to be about it, "What about everyone else? Aren't you going to get them?"

"They're already here." She replied, "Now come on! You didn't show up right when I threw the kunai, what were you doing?" She asked, giving him a look of suspicion.

Naruto looked away from Vivi, "Stuff…" He heard her growl at him slightly and rolled his eyes, "I'll tell you all later. You guys have to hear it anyway, but enough, where's my damn ship? Is it badass?"

Vivi smiled as she pulled him around a corner and pointed out where the finished ship was sitting in the water, "You tell me."

Naruto's pupils dilated and he let out a girlish shriek. Picking up both Vivi and Carue he ran towards the ship as quickly as he could and ran up the side, landing on the deck where he immediately noticed a change he had instructed, "Holy shit! He actually got soil and grass put in? I was just being an asshole when I wrote that down." Grass ran all over the deck and stopped at the doors to the hold and the stairs. However even on the upper levels of the ship, around the back and at the helm, there was grass.

Stanley appeared from the inside of the ship when he heard Naruto scream like a girl, "I followed yer every order to a tee Mister Uzumaki. You get yer money's worth with me. That was easy compared to a few other requests."

Naruto looked up and grinned at the pattern that had been inscribed on the front and back of the sails, "Aw, that's perfect! They're all flawless the way I needed them to be! Now I can speed the ship up in a safer way with wind chakra... and do other stuff!" He looked over at Stanley, "Did you do what I told you to with the masts?"

"Aye." He said, scratching his head, "I don't know why you requested a hollow place in the masts though. And the holes in it?"

Naruto grinned, "This is why." He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a tangerine as he walked over to one of the masts and placed his hand holding the tangerine against it, "Noji-chan is going to love this…" He said as he started making hand-seals.

Vivi tilted her head in confusion, "What are you do-?"

"Shh." Naruto shushed Vivi as he held the snake hand-seal, "I need to concentrate or I'm going to mess the mast up and we're going to have to wait here until it can be fixed. Now, Mokuton Hijutsu: Jukai Koutan (Wood Release Secret Technique: Nativity of a World of Trees)!" Naruto shut his eyes and focused as hard as he could, he couldn't let a lack of control over the Mokuton destroy his ship, but his crazy idea needed to be done now.

Vivi looked at the mast as the sounds of bark crackling drew her attention, "No way…" The hollow inside of the mast filled up with a tree and the holes coming through were filled with large, thick branches that quickly grew leaves and tangerines on them. The hollow top of the mast up at the crow's nest had the top of the tree peek out and go up several more feet before forming a canopy over the crow's nest.

Vivi and Stanley stood speechless as Naruto walked over to the other mast and did the same. He grew a tree on the inside of a mast.

His job complete, Naruto walked back over to Vivi and Stanley, dusting his hands off, "And that's why I wanted it hollow."

From the hold of the ship, the others came outside and looked at the trees that Naruto had sprouted. Nojiko looked up and saw the tangerines hanging off of the end of the branches and her jaw dropped, "Naruto-kun did you-?"

"Yep." He said with a grin before Nojiko ran up to him and threw her arms around his neck to give him a massive kiss, "I might have tried something like that sooner, but my Mokuton control sucks. If I just went ahead and tried it without a base and an outline like the mast I probably would have destroyed the ship." He looked at Stanley, "You've still got the flag of the crew right?" Muret went inside and handed it to him, "Sweet."

The others watched Naruto run up the side of the mast, disappearing into the leaves of the branches and continuing on up towards the top. From the smile on his face he seemed to be loving things as they were. Once he reached the top of the mast and the top of the canopy his trees had formed he planted the flag in the top firmly and headed back down.

Once he made it back down, a huge smile still on his face, Naruto looked at everyone else, "Well come on, what else? Show me the place."

At the back of the ship there was a formal sparring ground as per Naruto's directions, triple-reinforced and with actual boulders set up around as natural obstacles. Seeing that made Naruto wonder if he could try and grow a tree or two back there as well. Maybe when he got more control.

The figurehead of the ship was a featureless face with a pair of angry Rinnegan eyes and a sizeable tube between them both that led up to the helm of the ship. This was so Naruto could aim certain attacks out of the front of the ship in a focused pattern.

On the sides of the deck sat the cannons, same as always, with spaces to hold cannonballs in case of battle.

Inside of the ship the first room, just as before, was the common area, with walls painted with the Foxhound Pirates jolly roger. With a door off to the side leading to the captain's quarters, a.k.a. Naruto's room, and a hallway leading to the other rooms on that floor of the hold that belonged to the others, with many extras still vacant in case of more crew members. The room had been extended and given more space for couches, side tables, and a larger table that held a known map of the world and would keep the route that the ship was currently on. It also held the two Den-Den Mushi that Naruto had salvaged from the Sea Train and bookcases that were currently empty.

Instead of the kitchen being one with the common area it was now a separate room directly off to the side with more space and devices for Miss Valentine to use, as well as a larger refrigerator and freezer to go with a large pantry, all fully stocked. There was also a place to keep live fish so that they would have a small stockpile of fresh fish when they wanted it.

Like always, Naruto's room had the largest window of them all, spanning the entire back wall of the room. On a desk sat all of his fuuinjutsu supplies as well as current projects. There was no need to hide them, he was the only one that comprehended what they were. In one corner of the room sat a pole that Naruto would sit atop, balancing on a board, to train his ability in Sage Mode. There was also a Den-Den Mushi that was attached to an intercom system of sorts. Naruto could project a message to one room, multiple rooms, or all rooms on the ship if he needed to. Still stabbed into the headboard of his bed was a single Hiraishin kunai, and each of his remaining Hiraishin kunai were pinned up on the wall behind a framed case.

Nojiko's wall had a display for all of her guns and places to keep the ammunition for the respective guns. She even had targets on her walls for shooting at in her leisure if she was bored. Attached to Nojiko's quaint room was a small side room that held a desk, a wall full of maps, and all of the things she would need to navigate, as well as a window to see outside.

Muret's room had an office attached to it that would be the place where the others would be treated. It contained all of her medical equipment as well as a bunch of medical technology that Naruto was able to procure for her on his dollar.

Soren's room had a rack against one of the walls that held three large barrels off of the ground with a tap for each. One contained lemon juice, the second contained the booze of his choice, and the third contained water, for him to stay hydrated and so that he could keep his acidic levels high… and so that he could get smashed in the comfort of his own room.

Johnny and Yosaku's rooms were attached together, as a joke at first by Naruto, but the two didn't seem to have any problems with this. Therefore he kept that aspect as it was.

Miss Valentine's room contained a rather lavish bed, as per her request to Naruto in the past that he finally had the opportunity to fulfill. She also had a rather large walk-in closet for the clothes that she enjoyed purchasing when she had money and when they were in new areas.

Vivi's room had beds for both her and Carue. She also had a display for her jewelry from her home that she brought with her. And as a joke that Naruto got a good five minutes of laughing on the floor out of, and Vivi got a good five minutes of stomping on a laughing Naruto who was on the floor out of, she had a long metal pole in the center of the room leading from the floor to the ceiling.

Down in the lower levels, they now had a brig for prisoners, and there was even a room for interrogation, with a one-way mirror and a tiny observation room on the other side. The cargo area doubled as an armory for extra weapons and cannonballs and was also the area where clothes would be washed.

On the third lowest level, and the bottom level of the ship, there was a formal dojo-like setting, probably for Naruto to be able to meditate in, or maybe for more tame training methods that required control instead. In this area there sat the bottom of the trees Naruto had grown, rooted firmly to the floor securely. Due to the ship having been rebuilt with Naruto's Mokuton generated wood it merged with it, with only faint root marks on the floor. This was news to Naruto, and welcome news, because if the ship hadn't incurred incredible damage in areas that were built with the triple-tough Mokuton, chances were he could regenerate it if he could reach the area.

Also on this floor at the back of the ship was a room held a backdoor only Naruto had the key to open, a wet dock that could double as a swimming area and a small ship that was to be used instead of Naruto having to run the entire crew ashore by water-walking whenever they needed to head towards land.

"Kami!" Naruto yelled to the sky as he walked back outside and lay down on the grass of the deck, basking in the slight shade of the trees in the mast, "It's so awesome! Worth every bit I paid for it!" He sat up and looked at Stanley, "Did you put in the-?"

"Aye." Stanley said, proud that Naruto thoroughly enjoyed his work on his ship, "Everything as ye requested. I would wait until ye were out on the open ocean ta' test _that_ however." He warned.

Naruto's eyes widened, "You put _that_ in too? I was really just messing with you that time when I put that in the plans."

Stanley nodded, "Through the eyes of the figurehead it is." He grinned at Naruto, "Don't look so shocked. You gave me the designs to those seals o' yours, I simply put 'em where ye requested 'em. One behind each eye, and a trail that connects ta' the helm. There should be one hell of a kick now so watch it."

Naruto smirked, "I will. It should be one hell of a chakra monster though. Good thing only I can use it."

Soren crossed his arms as he walked around the deck and leaned against the mast under some of the shade, "So it's time to go? Finally? We've been here for way too long you know, I'm getting kind of stir crazy just doing nothing." The others all seemed to echo that sentiment. A rest was nice but there was a time and a place to do so, and in this instance it had passed.

"Yeah." Naruto said, kipping back up off of his back to his feet, "It's definitely time to go. I think we've overstayed our welcome here anyway." He looked at Nojiko, "Did it reset yet?"

The navigator of his ship nodded, "As of two days ago Naruto-kun. We can leave whenever you're ready."

"That's good." They all turned their attention towards the end of the ship where Paulie stood, leaning against the railing with a cigar in his mouth, "Because Garp is back. Apparently he was sent back after Luffy." He noticed the apprehensive looks on their faces, "Don't worry. Their ship is fixed and they got away clean."

Miss Valentine sighed in relief before pouting, "They never even said goodbye."

Naruto shrugged, "Whatever. We can call them when we get out of here and bitch about it then. Who's ready to roll?" He asked everyone, getting a round of cheers from the more exuberant members of the crew, "Good, because I'm not getting busted today, and I don't feel like wrecking the city… again."

Stanley walked up to Naruto and grabbed his hand in a firm shake, "Well I have to say lad, it was a blast working on yer ship for ye. Have fun working with everything ye got installed that we didn't get ta' show ye. The plans are in yer quarters for when ye want ta' read them."

Naruto returned the handshake happily, "We'll be back at some point, I'm sure. Then you can see how well your work went for yourself. Until then though-." He jumped towards the helm and took the wheel, "-It's time to get the hell out of here!"

Stanley laughed loudly and jumped off of the ship. Nojiko ran to the side and yelled down to him, "Stanley can you lower us down to the ocean from here?"

"No need." Naruto said to her from his spot at the front, confusing her. "Even if he did that we'd be surrounded. Nah, this way's going to be better." His grin turned manic, "We're going right off of the edge."

Muret, having been there long enough to know that he really wasn't bluffing about this fact, and being the only one that was smart enough to panic at the moment, ran inside to her room. If she was going to die she was going to die in her new digs.

Soren walked up to Naruto and smacked him one hard on the back of the head, "What in the hell is wrong with you! We're going to die you idiot!"

"No we're not." Naruto grumbled back, holding the rising bump on his skull, "Valentine-chan if you could? You're going to have to time this good."

Miss Valentine nodded with a smile and kneeled down on the deck, focusing intently, "Kilo Kilo Henkan (Kilogram Conversion), ready for use Naruto."

"What did she just do?" Nojiko asked as they came to the edge of the upper district, overlooking the entire city of Water 7 that they would get a close-up view of when they crashed into it.

Naruto explained, "My dear Valentine is about to make us light enough, with the exception of the Seastone bottom and everything inside, to float our asses out of here." He pointed up at the sails, "Those are wind seals, and I can activate them from right here by design. In the water they'll let us gain speed easier without me having to exhaust myself just for a little push. But for right now…" With that he channeled his chakra to the wheel and the ship steadily began picking up speed until it went over the edge.

Everyone with the exception of Naruto and Miss Valentine, who were both laughing at everyone else, shut their eyes and screamed at the top of their lungs as the ship went over, but realized that they were still upright and weren't falling to their deaths yet. Yosaku opened his eyes, "Wait, we're not dead yet." He ran to the edge, "We're flying?"

"Not flying." Naruto said from his place behind the wheel, "Floating. There's a difference. Not too long from now we're going to come down into the sea, but for now we're drifting through the air thanks to my awesome seal design skills, ship ideas, and Valentine-chan's powers."

Soren looked over the edge and saw that they were floating directly over the Marine ships that had the area surrounded, "Ha! Kiss my ass! You can't catch me, I hang out with lunatics! And you can never take a _pair_ of lunatics alive, let alone an entire crew of them! At least one of them always has some suicidal plan that should never work in a million years but always does! God I love this crew, I need a drink!" He yelled, walking away with his hands held up in victory.

"I'm not a lunatic." Nojiko pouted.

"You will be." Everyone else said simultaneously as if it was a fact that simply hadn't come to pass yet.

XxX

On the Marine ship in the bay, Garp looked up in the air at the massive vessel flying overhead. He had just seen Luffy and his crew escape from them in a similar manner, only now it actually appeared to be flying, "Um, tell me if I'm wrong or not, but ships don't usually fly do they?" He asked his entire crew who were all looking up, stunned, "Strange, because I swear I've seen that twice today… So what do we do?" He asked the man laying in a lawn chair nearby.

Aokiji, covered from head-to-toe in bandages, pulled his sleeping mask up to look up at the ship that was flying over them, "Nothing. The mission was to pick me up and get your grandson, not Uzumaki Naruto. They didn't even know he was still here so it can slide."

"But then Sengoku would just bitch some more, and I kind of don't want to hear that again. I could just hit him with this." Garp suggested, tossing a cannonball up and down in his hand as if it were a baseball, "That would shoot him down."

Aokiji shook his head and pulled his mask back down, "At this range it would never even get close. You need to be closer for a projectile like that to even have a fighting chance of hitting him."

Garp shrugged and took aim at the airborne ship, "Genkotsu Ryuusei (Iron Fist Meteor)!" He hurled the cannonball into the air as if it weighed next to nothing and watched as it sailed into the air towards the Natural Disaster.

A strong gust of wind flew from the ship and hit the cannonball, slowing and eventually stopping its momentum in the air and forcing it to plummet back down into the water as the ship continued to float on out of range.

Aokiji didn't even bother taking his sleeping mask off to watch it happen, "Told you."

Garp stared at the ship before he began to laugh, "It looks like my grandson aligned himself with a strong guy didn't he? He didn't even need Luffy's help to get away!"

Aokiji didn't say anything out loud as Garp continued to laugh, 'More like Luffy didn't need his help to get away.' Aokiji said to himself before letting out a yawn, 'Oh well. Fighting him again now would only bring up the same result. We'll have our rematch Uzumaki Naruto.'

XxX

The Natural Disaster finally landed back on the surface of the water rather gently and the ship returned to its normal weight as it touched the ocean.

"And that's how you do that." Naruto said, rather pleased with how they got away. He turned away from the wheel to Miss Valentine who was also rather pleased with her performance, "You're getting good with your powers. Thank you Valentine-chan." He said, holding her and giving her a light kiss.

"That was impressive."

Everyone turned to see that Paulie was still on their ship. Johnny palmed his face, "Aw man! Now we have to turn around and go back, we took Paulie!"

"You idiots." Paulie said, shaking his head as he walked towards Naruto, "I'm not on here by mistake. I'm here because I want to come with you."

"You what?" Naruto asked him, "Why would you want to come with me?"

Paulie grumbled, "I would have come to you about this before, but you disappeared that day you were at Galley-La HQ and I wasn't able to find you again. We had to work on the ship for the Straw Hat kid." He walked up to Naruto, who let Miss Valentine go in case trouble was about to start, "What kind of shipwright can say they've never been on a ship?" He let out a laugh, "Iceburg was going to start grooming me for vice-president. I don't think I'd be any good at a job like that yet."

Naruto raised an eyebrow, "And what exactly do you think coming with us will do for you?"

"A leader needs to know how to operate under duress." Paulie started, "A leader needs to know how to keep his cool and look at situations from enough sides to act properly." He pointed at himself, "When Iceburg went down because of those CP9 guys I didn't do that. I blamed all the wrong people, I didn't even bother trying to figure out or solve anything. I can't lead like that." He then switched his point over to Naruto, "But you. You and that kid Luffy. When you headed into Enies Lobby you two never panicked, and you seemed to have the way out of an impossible situation. That was a damn impressive thing for me to see." He then smirked, "Besides, I can't let that idiot Franky be the only one that goes out on sea as shipwright."

Miss Valentine put her hands on her hips, "You can't just join our crew like that. You just told us you were joining and that was that, it doesn't work like that."

Naruto shrugged, "I forced two of you to be here so why not the other way around for once?" He said in good humor, "Alright fine. Go pick a room, and I hope that you can deal with all of us because there's no learning curve to being on this crew."

"I'll manage." Paulie said with a smile until he turned around and looked at Miss Valentine, "You shouldn't show so much leg with your outfits, that's not respectable." He then pointed at Vivi, "How old are you, 16? Dress like a 16 year old should girl." Ignoring the rather offended faces of the two girls he then looked at Nojiko and almost lost it, "And you! You show too much cleavage with your clothes, and too much of your body! And why do your pants ride so low on your hips! Show some decency!"

Nojiko cocked one of her pistols and growled angrily, "Just go get your room before I initiate you properly." She finished with a rather evil smirk.

Yosaku moved up to Paulie's side and hissed a low whisper, "Psst! Hey! She means she's going to shoot at you!"

Paulie walked away with a deadpan look on his face, "Thanks… I never would have cracked that code if it weren't for you." He said sarcastically.

Yosaku didn't get the sarcasm though, and was content that he had done his good deed for the day. Naruto simply grinned as he turned his attention back to the steering wheel, "You see Noji-chan? Threatening people with casual violence from firearms isn't exactly the sign of a sane person. Admit that you're slowly being driven insane with the rest of us."

"Yeah." Miss Valentine nodded in fervent agreement, "Acknowledging that you're going crazy helps you enjoy it more."

Nojiko just stared at them both blankly before turning around and heading inside, "I'm taking a nap. The heading is steady east northeast. I'll check progress later when I wake up."

"You can't sleep the crazy away Noji-chan!" Naruto yelled before dodging a gunshot directed at him, "You can't shoot it away either!"

"You _are_ the crazy in my life!" She snapped back before heading to her room.

XxX

(A Few Days Later)

It was night, and Naruto was heading out to the deck to create some Kage Bunshin to man the ship for the graveyard shift. He was also simultaneously in the middle of a conversation on the Den-Den Mushi, "No Luffy! I will not Hiraishin over so that I can break into Sanji's refrigerator for you! Act like a ninja and just steal the combination, that's what I'd do. I've got more important things to do right now."

"_Like what?"_

"…Like not help you eat your entire ship out of house and home!" Naruto snapped at him over the line before calming down and compromising, "Until you get ramen I will not help you steal food… I can get into my own food and eat that instead. There's less of a chance of me getting beat up that way."

"_Okay…"_ Luffy said in a dejected manner until someone else's voice came over the line, _"Hey Naruto, Usopp said he has something for you."_

Naruto frowned, "You guys are going to wear me out with the Hiraishin aren't you?" He said before breaking into a smile, "Oh well, I wouldn't have given it to you if I didn't want you to use it. Just give me a second to set up my night staff." Hanging up the Den-Den Mushi and putting it back inside, he went outside once more and created a staff of twenty, "You guys know what to do."

"Yes boss!"

Naruto nodded in satisfaction. His clones seemed unusually obedient tonight, none of them smarted off at him like they usually did, "If anyone comes looking for me, tell them I'm with the Straw Hats and I'll be back in a bit." With that, he disappeared in a flash.

XxX

(Aboard the Thousand Sunny)

Naruto appeared on the new Straw Hat ship in a flash of yellow with his arms crossed as he looked around the new vessel, "Huh… nice place."

"Whoa!" The group that had amassed to actually see the technique up close firsthand (Luffy, Chopper, Usopp, and Robin) were rather impressed. Apparently seeing it from a distance and seeing it right in front of their faces as clear as day were two different things. Chopper looked at him with stars in his eyes, "That's so cool Naruto!"

Naruto scratched his hair, "I guess so. But you guys have seen me do that before, haven't you?"

Luffy shook his head eagerly, "Not from as far away as you were when you did it! Unless…" He then got a suspicious look on his face and used his powers to get up to the crow's nest for a quick look around, "Nope! Your ship's nowhere near us! It's still awesome!"

Naruto looked at the small knife stabbed into the ground and noticed that they had grass just like his ship, "It's time-space manipulation. I also barely understand how it works, just that it does work. You guys better take care of this though." He said about the kunai.

Robin walked over and picked it up, "I think I'll keep a hold of it myself. Or do you really want Luffy to keep it?" She asked with a smile.

Naruto looked up at the straw hat wearing boy waving at him from the crow's nest and back to Robin, "Yeah you keep it. After all, I _trust you_ Robin-chan." He said, teasing her slightly before yelping in shock. He could have sworn that something just pinched him on the-, "Did you-?"

"I don't know what you're talking about Naruto." Robin said as she walked away back inside, making a show of swaying her hips as she did so, not that anyone else besides Naruto really got the gist of the conversation or Robin's mannerisms as she left.

Naruto just stared after her until she disappeared from his sight, he then remembered why he had come to their ship in the first place, "Oh yeah. Usopp, what did you want to give me?"

Usopp smiled as he held something behind his back, "Well Nojiko found me after everything that happened and told me about her fight with the CP9 lady and how she probably wouldn't have gotten so hurt if she were faster, since unlike Nami she didn't have illusions to attract attention and attacks away from her. So I thought about it and I found a way to help her out."

Naruto had to internally agree. Even with his help there was only so much speed she could get. She was so much better than she was when she first got on the ship that it wasn't funny, but that wouldn't cut it going forward from here on out. She wouldn't get better fast enough in that department for it to be significant. At least with Johnny he was already fast and his body was preconditioned for the harsh training he made him do. And Vivi, while she wasn't fast, was impulsively sudden. Her speed was in nimble bursts. If she needed speed she had Carue for that.

Naruto was curious as to what Usopp had. After all, he had invented Nami's weapon, he had also made his own and those were rather impressive tools. They might have become rather legendary weapons in the Elemental Nations with time, "Alright Usopp what do you have?"

Usopp seemed even more excited that Naruto had an interest in what he had to show him, "Well when we were up on Skypiea there was this guy that moved fast using a pair of these." From his back he revealed a pair of what looked like metal u's with a space for a woman's size foot in each.

"Skates?" Naruto asked with a tilt of his head, "That's kind of dangerous isn't it? And unless Noji-chan can build a ton of momentum wouldn't those be more of a bother than anything?"

Usopp shook his head and chuckled, "Waver Skates. These are really versatile Naruto. When these are active she won't even be touching the ground. She'll hover slightly above it and move that way. And they're super-fast at top speed." He pointed to a shell-looking thing that was on each side and also seemed to serve the purpose of helping to keep the foot secure in the skates, "These are Jet Dials. Dials are what I used to make my and Nami's weapons better. I couldn't finish these though until I had Franky's help."

That was all Naruto needed to hear after the performance he had seen the weapons give. Usopp extended the Waver Skates to Naruto who took them graciously, "I can't really tell her how to use them since I don't know how, but once she learns how I know she'll love them. If she needs help I would ask Nami, she has a Waver, but it's not anything like these."

"Thanks Usopp…" Naruto said earnestly. That was really cool of him to help Nojiko out like that. Naruto wasn't sure how he was going to do it, but Usopp went ahead and solved an issue for him, just like that, "Really. I don't know how I can repay you."

Usopp waved it off casually, "Don't worry about it. If anything I'm the one repaying you. You helped save my village and you helped me out that night in Water 7 when I needed to come to a decision. If this means we're even then it's a small price to pay. Just make sure that when she gets good on them Nojiko comes and thanks the great Usopp-sama for his engineering skills!"

"You've got it." Naruto said with a grin, "She's going to love these."

XxX

(Two Days Later – Natural Disaster Dojo)

"I fucking hate these things!" Nojiko exclaimed, sitting on the ground in a heap, breathing heavily and glaring at the Waver Skates, "It's been two days and all I know how to do is stand up straight on these things! Falling hurts!" Nojiko now wore a white t-shirt that only went as far down as right above her navel, over that she wore a red leather jacket that she left open. She also wore grey leggings that only reached her thighs and over that she had on a red leather mini-skirt and her usual holsters that she always wore with her around her waist and over her back.

Naruto, who had been sitting in on her practice and meditating until her loud shout, opened his eyes and smirked at her, "Do you want me to kiss the boo-boo and make it all better? Please say yes."

"Maybe later Naruto-kun…" She said under her breath, "I'm angry right now."

Naruto raised his hand into the air, "I don't really care. Angry sex is awesome sex and it will calm you down and clear your head… because you'll have vented on me. I don't mind, I promise."

"Of course you wouldn't…" She said, rolling her eyes as she stood back up, "I just want to try this a few more times." Activating the skates again, in a burst of air they levitated her roughly six inches off of the ground, "I can feel how strong these are just from lifting off."

Naruto sighed from his meditative position, "Try doing what I said Noji-chan. Take it slow. You already know how to go forward. Going back should be the exact opposite, and turning your feet in the right direction should be how you turn."

"I don't need to learn how to creep along in slow-motion Naruto-kun." She said, getting used to her footing before trying anything, "I need to be able to move and evade. I need to be fast. Kalifa tore me apart because I couldn't get away even though I could see her with my Haki." After everything had gone down at Enies Lobby, she finally understood, after an explanation from Soren, what her ability to see things in battle before they happened were. However it was useless if she still couldn't avoid the things she could see coming. Naruto mumbled about how at this point she might as well have the 'red, spinny eyes of evil', whatever those were.

"Walk before you run." He said to her, "Before a shinobi learns to water-walk they learn to tree-walk first, and before they learn how to do that they learn how to channel chakra to their feet in the first place. It's a foundation that you build on. Now glide in slow motion or I'm going start trial-by-fire if you remember exactly what that entails."

Nojiko paled slightly. Naruto hadn't thrown anything at her in quite a while and she had been enjoying it. No need to go back to those days of terror again. Nojiko slowly pressed down with her toes, tilting the Waver Skates forward ever so slightly, getting a harsh jerk out of them that almost knocked her down, but after letting up immediately she caught her balance and stayed upright.

"Keep going." Naruto said encouragingly, "Then when you can handle that, go a little faster. You don't need to go all out with them right now, especially if you can't handle it." He stood up and walked over to her, "At least you have the option of taking it slow. When I was learning Hiraishin I didn't. We're talking years of me hitting solid objects flying out of a wormhole I ripped in time-space. Not really fun." He walked fifty feet in front of her and turned to stop where he sat back down on the ground to meditate there instead, "You can stop for the day when you can reach me from there without falling. If you fall you have to start again from right there, and I'll know if you don't."

Nojiko nodded and looked down at her feet, 'Okay, just get fifty feet over to Naruto-kun. That shouldn't be so hard right? Just bit by bit.' And in a series of jerky forward movements she did make it over in her first try, bringing a smile to her face.

"Good." Naruto said, standing back up, "You can stop for today. The next time though, I want you to do it in one fluid motion. No stopping and starting like you just did." He gave her a kiss on the cheek as she deactivated the skates, "You've got to crawl before you can even walk Noji-chan."

She nodded and took the skates off of her feet placing them securely on her belt holster each tucked around a pistol before calling out to him, "Naruto-kun! Will you still kiss the boo-boo?" She said, trying to give him puppy-dog eyes as she followed him out.

XxX

(Alabasta – Alubarna Palace)

King Cobra crumpled the paper in his hands after reading the new bounties of the Straw Hat and Foxhound Pirates and finding that Vivi had her own sizeable bounty for her return, 'Alive they say…' He thought to himself, 'As if what they will do to my daughter and force me to do with my country would be any more humane than allowing her brought to them dead. If she's 'rescued' she won't be coming home.'

He then remembered the bounties of Naruto and all of the other Foxhound Pirates and remembered the papers saying that they were 'allies' of the Straw Hat Pirates and he smirked, "Good luck trying to get her away from them though… My dear daughter you have found yourself some reliable company."

XxX

(The Next Day – On Deck of the Natural Disaster)

Today was such a nice day out that the entire crew decided to rest up outside. Everyone except for two people, Naruto and Vivi, as he was still in the midst of conditioning her the way he wanted her to be. Vivi wore a light green turtleneck top with no sleeves and a white skirt to go with her usual white high-heeled boots.

"Jump." He ordered as he manipulated the wires around her on the ground. Once she was in the air he brandished a harmless wooden set of shuriken, "Parry." He ordered as he threw them at her. The Alabastan princess used her unique weapons to cut them in half and out of the sky. Before she even hit the ground Naruto gave her another order without missing a beat, "Jump again."

Vivi did so immediately and noticed him prepared to trap her once she landed again, so thinking quickly, she slung out one of her long chains of sharp jewels and stuck the end of them into the mast to keep herself from falling into Naruto's trap, "What about fighting fair Naruto?"

"Fuck a bunch of fighting fair!" Was his eloquent response, "Your enemy isn't going to fight fair! And now that I know you can do that I'm going to stop going so easy on you, now get up that mast higher Vivi-hime!" He said, rapidly moving his fingers to reveal that he actually had wire that went up that high as well. Vivi yelped in fright as she saw the glare off of the wires from the sun and started going higher with a combination of jumping up the side with her legs and keeping a hold of the mast with her weapons. Naruto looked over to Muret who was sitting against Funkfreed in elephant form, she was on stand-by in case Naruto got Vivi hurt, "She's really doing well. Look at that." Vivi at this point found her way to one of the branches in the mast and sat down in it, sticking her tongue out at Naruto and pulling her eyelid down at him, "I never even taught her any of that, the girl's a natural… almost like a ninja I'd say." He said to the medic before yelling up to Vivi, "You think you're safe? You'd better hope I don't come up there! I'll show you how safe you are!" He let out a chuckle when he saw Vivi shake her head fearfully.

Muret let out a small laugh as she continued to lean against her snoozing elephant casually, "I'm glad I don't fight." She glared at him when she noticed him looking at her intently, "I'm not going to be fighting. Forget it right now. I swear, I'll do terrible things to you like drug your food if you start that torture you call training with me." Funkfreed cracked an eye to see what his master was sounding so angry about, but after making minute, passive eye contact with Naruto he didn't really care anymore and tried to go back to sleep.

Muret still wore her brown boots with white medical crosses on them, but now she had on a short-sleeved white button-up shirt that was unbuttoned enough to show cleavage and a jean skirt.

Naruto waved off her threat and picked his ear, "Meh, I'll just build up an immunity to whatever you use on me after a few times." He formed a Kage Bunshin and yelled up at the young princess, "New game Vivi-hime! The game is to survive the Kage Bunshin until five minutes run out. He'll dispel automatically, but if you can beat him I'll accept that too!" The clone cracked his knuckles and grinned ferally up at Vivi before running towards the mast to begin the exercise, "You better get moving! He really will beat the crap out of you if he gets the chance!"

That was all Vivi needed to hear to get herself into gear. With a gulp she stood up and prepared for Naruto's incoming Kage Bunshin and a battle at elevated positions.

Paulie walked over to Naruto now that it seemed he was done personally messing with Vivi, "So where are we going next?"

Naruto looked over at a sunbathing Nojiko and Miss Valentine, "Noji-chan says the next island is a place called Constellation Island. And as always I have no idea what's supposed to be there, so that should be fun all around." He said to the newest member of the crew, "So what's up?"

"Nothing much." Paulie said absently, "Just running a little maintenance check. I know it's only been a little while since you got this ship, but anything can go wrong, you know? If you think something's wrong with the ship don't hesitate to tell me about it." He then switched topics and glared at Miss Valentine and Nojiko, not that they were much the wiser about it, "Why do you let these women go around on your ship like this? Women these days dress so outlandishly."

Naruto shrugged, "I do it because every woman on my ship is good looking and I'm not a prude like you." Paulie growled at him, not that Naruto was threatened at him in any way, "And they dress just fine with me. You should have seen the way a lot of female ninja from my continent dressed. If you reacted like that every time you saw one of them you'd have been a dead man."

"Yeah whatever…" Paulie said, "…Pervert."

"Prude." Naruto fired back at him.

Paulie took offense to that and growled at him, "What was that you dumb blonde?"

Naruto didn't back down from a guy he already knew he could beat and got in his face, "You're blonde too you dumb bastard. Don't go talking bad about your own people like that!"

A tired female voice got their attention, "Done." Vivi said, out of breath and covered in light bruises and scratches as she limped towards Naruto. She gave him a weary gaze and got as close to his face as she could get, "Your clone… is so mean…" She said before resting her forehead against his chest to keep her footing.

Naruto was able to wrap an arm around her before she went limp and kept her from falling out on the ground. Instead, he laid her down gently, "Medic." As Muret looked her over, Naruto shook his head and spoke in a surprised manner, "She beat the clone."

"How?" Muret asked as she started to get to work on cleaning Vivi's small cuts, "It's you isn't it? It has all of your combat abilities right?"

Naruto nodded and smirked, "Pretty much. She got beaten up for a bit before she went up to the crow's nest where Soren was and used him like a human shield. Then she kicked my clone in its junk when he got past Soren and beat her up a little bit more. That was how she beat it." He kneeled down by her and moved a stray bang out of her face, getting a smile out of the unconscious girl, "Vivi-hime is tough. Tough and opportunistic. I like that."

Muret sighed as she finished working on Vivi, finding no significant injuries on her person, 'At least his clones know how to restrain themselves.' She looked up at Naruto, "Well she beat it on her first try in less than five minutes. Are you impressed?"

Naruto leaned over and scooped Vivi up in his arms, "Actually I am. I knew she'd last the five minutes, but her actually managing to win or at least get a clean hit was more than I expected. I guess I need to stop underestimating everyone on this ship. Everyone's getting stronger, even our little princess." He groaned as he picked her up, "Who isn't that little…" As he fully stood up straight Vivi headbutted him in the nose, "Ow… did she hear that?"

Muret smirked at him and leaned back against Funkfreed, "You should know better than to test your luck like that with a lady Naruto-sama."

Naruto fought the urge to hold his nose as he carried Vivi inside, "Yeah, yeah. Especially a princess with a hard head." He said before looking at the sleeping girl in his arms, "You're doing great. I'll tell you that again whenever you wake up, I just wanted to say it right now." He wiggled his nose in discomfort after saying that, "You nearly broke my nose though… maybe you should start fighting with your head." He said with a chuckle as he made it to her room.

Carue sat up from his slumber in his bed and noticed Naruto carrying Vivi in. He let out a curious quack as Naruto set her down on her bed, "It was just a little test that she wound up passing. She's fine, just tired. I worked her hard today." He sat down on the bed and took her boots off before tucking her in, "Vivi-hime is really cute." A sharp peck in the small of his back alerted him to a glaring Carue who swung his head towards the door. Naruto took the hint and threw his arms up defensively as he started to leave, "Fine, I'll check up on her later. You want something to eat duck? I'll bring you something."

Carue let off a positive quack and Naruto nodded, giving the fowl a salute that was returned right back with Carue's wing.

As Naruto shut the door to the room and left Carue alone with Vivi he sat by her bed and placed his head by her, letting her latch on to him in a hug. Only when she was certain that Naruto was gone from her room she let a small amount of pink tint her cheeks, "He thinks I'm cute."

* * *

**Chapter done. Next chapter will begin the next story arc in earnest so… yeah. I've got that going on too. It should be pretty awesome all things considered if I do say so myself. And I never pat myself on the back. You guys all know how humble I am right? Yep, that's what makes me so badass, my humility. It just makes me so great.**

**I'm feeling good, even with a broken hand, hoping you're feeling the same. Hope you're digging what you're reading because I like writing it. Until next time like always…**

**Kenchi out.**


	30. Work, Work, Work

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I'm pretty sure I can hire a lawyer good enough to fight this fact in court, but it would take a shit-ton of money. *sigh* And I swore to my mama that I would stop pimping too…

Oh well, some promises are made to be broken.

**Chapter 30: Work, Work, Work**

* * *

Naruto and Miss Valentine were in the kitchen of the Natural Disaster doing absolutely nothing. Well, absolutely nothing would be saying too little, more like doing nothing important. They were doing _something_. Naruto had Miss Valentine sitting up on the empty counter while she held him close to her and kissed him deeply.

Naruto broke away from her and took a breath, "How did we even get into this situation?" He asked her, legitimately confused about the chain of events that led to him making out with the beautiful blonde woman.

No longer wearing her hat, Miss Valentine moved a lone bang of her short blonde hair from her face and smiled at him sweetly as she rubbed his whisker-marks on one cheek. She now wore a yellow blouse, low cut on her shoulders and white with frilled around her wrists as well as orange trousers that went just below her knees. She also had a white belt with a buckle that resembled part of a lemon, and white heeled shoes with straps that wrapped around her lower legs up to her calf.

Miss Valentine gave Naruto a peck on the lips before explaining, "I caught you trying to steal stuff from the pantry even though I just made lunch, then I threatened you. You dared me to go through with it and backed me up against counter and here we are ten minutes later." She finished with a laugh before giving Naruto another peck on the lips.

"Oh…" Naruto said, blinking in confusion about how in the hell he managed to not realize how this had even come to pass in the first place, "Well I hope I learned my lesson at least." He said with a grin that got Miss Valentine to laugh at him again.

Miss Valentine stopped laughing and wrapped her legs around Naruto to get him to lift her off of the counter, "So where are we Naruto?"

Naruto lifted the now feather-light woman up and spun her around a few times, "We, my lovely Valentine, are right smack in the middle of nowhere at the moment." He noticed her frown as he headed out into the common area and set her down on the couch, "Don't give me that look. If we're not on land then you know that telling exactly where we are is Noji-chan's department."

Miss Valentine smirked and held onto Naruto's arm, pulling him down on top of her, "What good are you then mister captain?" She shifted under him as she felt him begin to kiss on her collarbone, "Well, I guess you're good for something. Now take me to your room."

"It's the middle of the daytime bossy." Naruto said, sitting up before carrying her away with a Hiraishin to his bed in his room. By the time he had backed away from her, Miss Valentine had already taken off her shoes, pants, and belt, "Fast."

"I don't care. You've kept me waiting for long enough, I'm getting something right now." Miss Valentine said, waving her legs around lightly until Naruto grabbed them both and positioned them with her ankles up on his shoulders. She let out a shiver when he began kissing his way up both of her legs.

"You've kept yourself waiting." Naruto said, still kissing Miss Valentine's legs but taking off his hitae-ate and sage coat to cast them to the side of his bed, "It was always up to you. I half-expected you to just jump me whenever you wanted after you told me how you felt."

Miss Valentine gave him a slightly offended look, "I don't give off that kind of vibe do I?" She noticed Naruto had stopped kissing on her just as he had reached her knees to give her a deadpan look. She eventually laughed slightly, "Okay, I guess the draping myself all over you and all of the other things did give off that kind of vibe." She leaned back and sighed in relief when she felt him resume his attention over her again.

Naruto kissed his way to Miss Valentine's thighs where she stopped him. He growled at having his flow broken until he felt Miss Valentine pulling on the collar of his shirt, taking it up over his head. Once his eyes locked with hers again he saw that she wasn't even looking at him, just at his body, seeming to take him all in.

Taking advantage of the temporary lull, Naruto formed a Kage Bunshin that got Miss Valentine to widen her eyes, "Naruto no. I want to do this but I'm not-."

Lime Start

"It's not meant for that reason Valentine-chan." Naruto said amusedly while the clone started mumbling in resentment at his stingy creator. It walked over to his desk and grabbed a seal tag before slapping it on the wall and activating it. With its job done, the Kage Bunshin flipped Naruto off and dispelled, "There, now no one can hear you cry out. Now where were we?" He asked Miss Valentine who placed his face back against her thigh, getting him to keep kissing his way down her leg. She shut her eyes and enjoyed how gentle he was being with her only to squeak in surprise when she felt Naruto tug her panties to the side and begin rubbing her pussy.

"Naruto…" Miss Valentine had a heated blush on her face as Naruto pulled her panties off. Her own hands absently worked their way to her chest where she began pinching her own nipples while her blonde captain began to use one of his digits to play with her slowly.

Naruto tossed her undergarments to the side and positioned his head back between her legs, "Calm down Valentine-chan. Just relax, okay?" He gave the insides of her thighs another kiss before gently attaching his mouth to her sex. His tongue began licking along the sides between her pussy lips, eliciting a soft moan from the recipient of his affections.

Feeling him give her a single long lick along her entire slit, Miss Valentine let out a shout before she quickly covered her mouth, trying to keep others from hearing her. Naruto fought back the urge to laugh and instead chose to return to using his fingers to push in and out of her while he continued to savor her taste.

Miss Valentine spread her legs further, coaxing more activity from Naruto and giving him more space to work with. Squeezing down on his head with her thighs might have been her instinctual reaction, but not only would it make it harder for him to eat her out more freely, if she let control of her powers slip for a moment she could wind up breaking his neck or crushing his head.

She gently grabbed a hold of the back of his head and guided him further as she felt his tongue slide deeper inside. Biting her lip to keep from yelling out a little too loudly she remembered that his clone had put up a seal that would keep her voice from getting any further than the four walls that comprised the room they were in, "That's it Naruto, keep going just like that."

Naruto's tongue touched against Miss Valentine's clit and he felt her tense up and pull on his head, bringing a smirk to his face, not that she could see it. He let his tongue flick against it again and again and felt her involuntarily shift in place, trying to fight the urge to slide back on the bed away from him.

Abandoning all pretense of gameplan at this point towards pleasuring Miss Valentine, Naruto simply took to licking anywhere his tongue could reach as he felt her breathing grow heavier and heavier. He grabbed a hold of her hips and pulled her as close as he could, finally getting Miss Valentine's voice to sing out loudly, "Yes Naruto! Don't stop! Please!" She exclaimed joyfully.

As he continued to do just that, he realized that was one of the things he truly enjoyed about Miss Valentine. She pretty much wore however she was feeling out in the open. It was pretty easy to tell if she was angry or sad so he could always know when to cheer her up fairly quickly. And the times when she actually had been angry or sad were few and far between. More often than not she had the most beautiful smile on her face that could light up a room. It made him feel important whenever she would shoot one his way, and he wanted to do whatever he could to keep it with her.

While she did tease very often for fun, she didn't play games with him and pretend that he had to know something he hadn't the faintest clue about. Like today, she left little to no pretenses about what she wanted from him and that allowed him to immediately give her exactly that.

Miss Valentine knew she couldn't take Naruto's oral ministrations on her clit for too much longer as she could feel her body want to lock up on her right then, a certain heat pooling around her stomach telling her she was close, "Naruto… I'm going to-." She heard him try to speak a reply, but his words were muffled. Either way, he got the gist of it but didn't care one bit. Miss Valentine decided to just ride out her climax and enjoy it. Shutting her eyes she grabbed a handful of Naruto's hair and tensed up with his head still firmly planted between her legs.

It didn't take much longer after that for Naruto to begin tasting the tell-tale fluids that let him know that Miss Valentine came. Her body went slack on the bed and she shivered slightly with each extra lick he gave her, trying to keep any of the liquid from escaping.

Miss Valentine simply laid back and caught her breath, scratching Naruto's scalp softly as he continued to clean off her pussy and the inside of her thighs with his tongue, "Well I hope you learned your lesson." She said with a smile.

Naruto's head shot up with a questioning glance until a look of understanding crossed his face and a grin slowly spread, "Yeah I think I have. If I'm going to steal food I have to get much better at doing this."

Miss Valentine sat up and moved towards Naruto to give him a kiss, not really caring whether or not she tasted herself on him, "No I don't think you do. That was just fine to me." She let out a yawn and laid back down, "I think I'll take a nap for right now, do I have to leave?"

Naruto gave her an offended look and laid himself down next to her, "A Kage Bunshin is manning the helm and if it isn't then Vivi-hime can do it. Of course you can stay. Not only that, but I'll stay right here with you okay?" Miss Valentine pulled herself close to him, not caring that the lower half of her body was still bare as Naruto covered them both with the covers of his bed.

Lime End

XxX

(The Next Day)

"You're killing me here Naruto-kun…" Nojiko said as she stood on the deck of the ship in her Waver Skates. Naruto was making her get better at using them by making her do everything in them as much as possible.

Naruto watched her move around from the helm with a smirk on his face, "Eventually you're going to get sick of creeping around here in slow-motion and you're going to play with going faster. Now come here and tell me where we are."

Nojiko glared at him but slowly crept her way up the stairs in her skates, taking all of three minutes to do what should have taken ten seconds at the most, "I can't wait until I'm fast enough on these things to make you miserable."

"Maybe…" Naruto said as she finally made it to his side, "But until then you're going to be the cutest turtle I've ever seen." He saw her pout as she continued to work her ability to use the skates, "Would you just go faster? What's the worst that could happen?"

Nojiko turned towards him abruptly with her hands on her hips as she tried to work on going backwards, "I could fall off of the ship! I could hit the mast! I could end up going into the ship itself and tearing stuff apart!"

Naruto started listing things on his fingers for everything she had said, "You can swim, I can swim, and you can stand on the surface of the water with those things." He said about her first point before continuing, "If you hit the mast we have a live-in doctor whose job it is to patch us all up after the stupid things we'll end up doing. And who cares if you break something, I can get Paulie to fix it."

"I will not be irresponsible like you Naruto-kun." She said in determination as she started getting more technical with how she used the skates, practicing abrupt turns and ducking motions while still going slowly.

Naruto gestured for her to come over to him, "You will be, I'm telling you. Now come and tell me where we are."

Nojiko rolled her eyes and moved over to him, taking a handmade map from her equipment, "Okay, move over." She moved Naruto to the side and placed the map on the wheel, marking their place with her finger, "We are about a month from Constellation Island at this pace." She heard Naruto groan and grabbed his whisker-marked cheek, "Don't complain. It is what it is. You're lucky the ship is so fast or it would take longer than that."

A sigh came from the blonde shinobi. It wasn't that he hated travelling, he just would rather move under his own power. Riding on a ship made him rather stir crazy, but hopefully something would come along to liven things up before he started doing stupid/self-destructive things to entertain himself. He could go to mess with the Straw Hats, but he wanted them to call him for something rather than just drop in and bother them whenever, he didn't want them to get sick of him. CP9 hadn't contacted him yet and he wasn't about to just appear out of thin air on them either. Who knew what they had gotten into since he left them on St. Poplar?

"Uzumaki!" Soren scrambled from the inside and up to the helm where Naruto was before stopping in front of him and Nojiko, looking like he was getting ready for a conflict. He wore a black bandanna on his head and a sleeveless red shirt tucked into black pants with a belt that had a silver skull buckle. On his feet he wore brown boots. "Punch me in the face!"

"What?" Naruto replied in shock, Nojiko next to him, giving him the same look, "No. What the hell's wrong with you, are you drunk?"

"No!" Soren said in an offended manner before taking a moment to think about it, "Yes… but that's not the point. Now hit me you punk-ass!" He once again prepared himself to react to a punch.

"I'm not going to punch you in the face." Naruto said with a dry look on his face and his arms crossed, "Get someone else to hit you."

Soren grit his teeth at having to explain himself, "I dodge everyone else off of instinct because most of them are too slow. That Onigumo guy I killed told me that I had been using some of the techniques that those CP9 guys had; Kami-e (Paper Drawing) and Soru (Shave). If I can learn those then I can learn the rest, and I want the one that was supposed to harden your body right now, Tekkai (Iron Mass). Now punch me you blonde bastard or did your hair color finally make you brain dead?"

Naruto shook his head, "Insulting my awesome hair and intelligence isn't good enough to get a violent reaction out of me."

Nojiko smiled at him and nodded, patting him on the shoulder, "That's very responsible Naruto-kun, I'm proud of you."

"Your hair is the color of piss and fail!" Soren was then sent flying backwards with the smacking noise of someone's fist bouncing off of his face… three someones actually, "Oi! I said Uzumaki only! Why'd you two hit me too?"

Naruto stood in the middle of Miss Valentine and Paulie, all of whom had their fists outstretched from hitting Soren in the face. All of them then pointed at their blonde hair before Naruto cracked his knuckles, "Piss and fail huh?" Miss Valentine brandished her umbrella and smacked it into her palm threateningly and Paulie brandished some of his thick ropes from his sleeves, "Well the good news is that you're going to get one hell of a training session for that Tekkai that you want so badly. The bad news is, we're going to kick the shit out of you."

Soren stood back up, not really feeling like getting beaten up even though he did basically ask for in not even five minutes prior, "Oh yeah? Bring it!" Naruto wordlessly made a hand-seal and large wave rocked the side of the ship, crashing over the top and splashing Soren, drenching him, "You cheating bastard…"

"Ninja." Naruto said, as if that explained it all away, before Paulie wrapped Soren in his ropes now that he couldn't melt his way through them, "Look at the bright side, now you _have _to up your physical abilities to take the asswhipping we're about to give you since you can't use your Devil Fruit powers. Isn't that great?"

Soren scoffed, "I'm strong enough to break some weak-ass ropes with my own strength." He strained against the ropes and blinked, "What the hell?"

Paulie smirked, "These are my specially weaved ropes. They're damn near unbreakable by normal means." He said, pulling them tighter to rid them of any wiggle room possible.

"Fuck…" Soren said as they all closed in on him.

XxX

(A Few Hours Later)

After every blonde crew member had 'helped Soren with his training', or in other words beaten the crap out of him for insulting their hair, Nojiko had organized a meeting inside in the common room to inform everyone of where they were. Everyone sat around with Muret multitasking and bandaging up Soren while Nojiko spoke.

On a large map spread out on the table in the center of the room, Nojiko pointed out their position on the map, "Okay, while we head towards Constellation Island we're going to be pretty danger close to the Calm Belt. Everyone needs to be more vigilant now. If you don't feel the slightest wind for a short while, or if you see the waves stop completely you need to run and tell Naruto-kun."

Yosaku rolled his eyes and raised his hand from his seat at the 'assembly', "Um, why? Does it really matter if we're on the Calm Belt or not? Naruto-aniki can _make_ wind and waves, and the bottom of the boat is lined with Seastone. We can do whatever we want."

Nojiko gave him a dry look, "There is still a chance of huge fucking Sea Kings bigger than this ship trying to devour us whole."

This time Naruto raised his hand, "Yeah, but then I can use our super kick-ass new weapon that I had installed behind the eyes of the front of the ship to blow the damn thing away." He noticed Nojiko giving him a stern look, "What? By now you should know how I operate. I'm just going to walk out, step on its neck, and shoot it in the head… because that's how I roll."

"What if it attacks from the side or the back?" She asked with a twitching eye.

Naruto answered her, "From the back, I channel wind to the sail, mess with the water to make waves, and we run like hell. From the sides…" He shrugged, "…I suggest you all grab your ankles and kiss your asses goodbye."

"Exactly." Nojiko said, pointing at him as if he had just proved her point, "No Calm Belt. Calm Belt bad. Nojiko says so." She said as if she were speaking to children around the entire room while she tapped the indicated area on the map.

"Muret know Calm Belt bad." Muret said much in the same childish manner that Nojiko did, "Naruto-sama and idiot swordsman # 1 don't know that Calm Belt bad." She quipped, finishing up patching Soren up.

Naruto picked at his ear vacantly as he heard the two women talk about him as if he weren't there, "Naruto-sama does know Calm Belt bad. Naruto-sama just doesn't _care_ that Calm Belt bad. Naruto-sama is the man."

Vivi interjected, getting perturbed with the conversation, "Can everyone here stop talking in the third person and speak like adults please? You're all older than me, and I really don't feel comfortable being the only person here using near proper grammar."

Naruto grinned at the princess who was in a huff over trying to act older than her age, "Stop pouting Vivi-hime." He then looked over the map, "Alright then, so for one month we have to coast along the edge of the Calm Belt heading towards Constellation Island, and we can't drift _into_ the Calm Belt because Noji-chan is a scaredy cat-."

"I am not a scaredy cat!" Nojiko griped at Naruto who blew a kiss to her.

"Love you scaredy cat." Naruto said before he saw Nojiko lift a pistol, "You know you're not going to hit me with a bullet so why waste the ammo to ruin a brand new couch?"

Nojiko put her pistol up, "Stop picking on me…" She said melodramatically with crocodile tears in her eyes, floating around the room in her Waver Skates slowly, "Meeting adjourned. I'm going to go crash in these skates some more." Heading down the hall to go further into the ship towards the dojo, she left everyone in the common room.

XxX

(The Next Day)

At the front of the ship steering the ornate vessel, Naruto stood now going without his sage coat since he was sick of it getting messed up every time he did anything at all. Instead he now a white t-shirt underneath a dark green flak jacket that he left open so that he could access all of the storage seals he had placed on the inside of the piece of clothing. He still wore his black pants and black shinobi sandals as well as his hitae-ate.

While he had a clone work with Vivi on her own training, and others were off doing whatever they wanted at the moment, Naruto felt two people coming up behind him, "What do you two want?" He asked, cutting them off before they could get any closer. Behind him, Johnny and Yosaku froze in place.

Johnny still had the tattoo on his cheek with the kanji for 'sea', still had his sunglasses, and he still wore his blue hooded jacket with a purple shirt underneath, but the jacket was slightly zipped up. He now wore green pants with a metal shinguard on his right leg that also covered his knee, the kneeplate held the kanji for 'quick' to go with a talisman that hung from his jacket that had a kanji for 'iai'. His left pants leg was bandaged from the shin down. He let his hair grow out enough for him to put it in a stubby ponytail on the back of his head.

Yosaku still wore his headgear on his head that he refused to lose and still walked around with his green trench coat shut until it reached his chest which he left open to show the black shirt underneath.

Johnny and Yosaku looked at each other wondering how he kept doing that kind of stuff, but they set that thought aside for the moment to ask their question. Johnny cleared his throat before speaking, "Naruto-aniki, we were thinking, we need an allowance."

"No. What are you, seven?" Naruto said plainly, "Everyone on the ship keeps up with their own money. We split up a fraction of everything we get when we first get money, the rest goes into savings in case we ever need a ton of cash for anything. You guys knew this already. Why are you hitting me up for more?"

"Because no one else would spot us any..." Yosaku said under his breath until an elbow from Johnny got him to speak up properly, "We want stuff. Everyone has their own stuff except for us."

"That's it?" Naruto said with a twitching eye that they couldn't see, "You just want 'stuff'? That's the only reason? Most of us provided our own stuff by paying for it or bringing it from home! What the fuck happened to the money I gave you two? I never saw you spend any of it!"

They both snapped at him irritably, "You took it all when we kept gambling with you!"

Naruto blinked before returning to an uncaring temperament, "Well that should teach you a lesson. Don't waste your money by gambling with me, I have terrible life-luck, but with stupid little useless things like needless gambling I clean up."

Yosaku kept complaining, "Come on Naruto-aniki… we're broke here!"

"Fine!" Naruto said, not feeling like hearing a grown man complain like a child, "The next time we get to a town you both find your own ways to get some pocket cash so that we don't have to hear you two bitch about it again… I don't know when we're going to get near an island with a town though."

Hearing him say that brought smirks to both Johnny and Yosaku's faces. Johnny's sunglasses gleamed in the sunlight as he adjusted them on his face, "It just so happens that we're close to an island right now. It's not too far off-course at all, so we can go right?" He saw Naruto turn around to frown at them, "It's not out of the way, we already checked with Nojiko-aneue."

Naruto held up two fingers, "Two days. That's it. If you two can't get anything together in two days then it's your problem because you're not putting us behind schedule like that."

"What schedule?" Yosaku asked belligerently, not noticing the tick mark appear on the back of Naruto's head.

"Samehada's feeding schedule you ungrateful motherf-." In a puff of smoke, Samehada appeared in all of its glory in Naruto's hand with the mouth at the top of it revealing its razor sharp teeth, "Look Samehada, a snack." Naruto said, pointing at Johnny and Yosaku before the two took off running. Naruto filtered enough chakra to Samehada for it to be able to move on its own as it took off after them, "Jerks…" He muttered as he walked inside to find out where he was changing course to.

XxX

(Several Hours Later – San Salvacion Island – Port Town of Erusia)

The town was relatively quiet with cobbled streets and low, colorful, rancher-style buildings. The place didn't seem relatively large, but for some reason it was rather crowded for an island on the edge of the Grand Line near the Calm Belt. One would think that an island this far out wouldn't get much tourism except for pirates on their journeys that had been brought that way sort of like the Foxhound Pirates.

Naruto stepped off of the ship after docking along with everyone else on the crew, "Remember, two days." Johnny and Yosaku both nodded and bolted into town to find some way to make themselves some money, "Think they're going to make anything?" He asked everyone around him.

Miss Valentine let out a laugh, "We're probably going to have to wind up paying some kind of damages while we're here because of them… or any of the rest of us."

Naruto immediately formed the cross-seal with his fingers, "Good point." In a puff of smoke he had made a batch of Kage Bunshin to watch the ship, "They're for just in case we need to get the hell out of here in a hurry."

Soren looked around the island town, "Why would we need to get out of here in a hurry?" He then blinked and realized who he was talking about, "Oh yeah. *chuckle* Nevermind. Experience says a quick out is always cool to have with us being us."

Paulie looked over at the second newest member of the crew, Muret who had taken Funkfreed out and was riding on the transformed elephant's back, "Is an escape plan really necessary with these guys?"

Muret gave him a humorless smile from atop Funkfreed, "As far as I've seen, yeah. Pretty much."

Not far into town, they saw Johnny and Yosaku staring blankly at some poster on the side of a wall. Vivi giggled as they all walked up to them, "Well I wonder if staring at a wall is a paying job on this island."

Everyone moved behind them to read what they were staring at so hard. Naruto's eyes went wide once he saw what was written there, "Whoa. I swear, we have the most awesome shifts in luck of anyone in the world." He got unanimous nods from everyone including the formerly catatonic Johnny and Yosaku, "We're going to pay like hell for this later though, I know it." Another set of nods came from that statement.

"**Showdown in Paradise" Swordsman Tournament**

**Rules:  
-8 Fighter field.  
-Competitors must use a blade of some sort for direct combat.  
-No time limit.  
-Open to all willing to enter.  
-Killing, while frowned upon, is allowed.  
-Fights end on referee's command, fighter surrender, or death**

**Prize: 10 million beli for the winner.**

**Injuries and potential deaths are not the responsibility of event promoters. Signing up is signing away all liability of your injuries from the promoter. Skilled fighters only. Amateurs will only die.**

"We're so in there." Johnny said, memorizing the place where the fights were going to take place, "Come on Yosaku, it's today! We need to get there before it fills up!" In a blur, Johnny rushed towards the site while Yosaku followed behind at a slower pace.

Nojiko looked up at Naruto, "Are you going to enter Naruto-kun?"

Naruto shook his head, "No. I don't need the money and I would just cheat the entire time anyway. What, do you think I have to get into a fight everywhere I go?" He ignored the yes from all of the female members of the crew, "Let's go see how they do."

XxX

Sitting in the stands of a plaza set up for spectators to view the tournament, Smoker sat and watched as his subordinate Tashigi go through her sword katas in last minute preparation for her entry in the tournament, "I don't think I need to tell you how to handle yourself out there. You know more about swordfighting than me." She nodded and continued to practice, "And remember to keep your damn glasses on!" He shouted at her, surprising her out of her form.

She took a deep breath to settle herself down and adjusted her glasses on her face, "I know already." She looked around the plaza at all of the people abound, "There are a lot of pirates here though. Are we to go after any of them?"

Smoker scoffed, "Everyone here is a small fry under 50 million beli. We're not going to get better ranks no matter how many of them we defeat. We can't chase Straw Hat much further if we don't prove that we can survive in the New World part of the Grand Line. That's where this is inevitably going to end up." He remembered a certain blonde captain that he knew for sure was going to end up there if their last pair of fights were any indication to go along with the raised bounty, 'You too Uzumaki.'

Tashigi frowned and nodded before returning to her exercises as she waited for the tournament to start.

XxX

The Foxhound Pirates, minus Johnny and Yosaku who were signing in, took their seats in the stands to watch the tournament. Nojiko sat with her hands on her cheeks as they waited for the event to get underway, "So does anyone think they can win the whole thing?"

"It depends." Soren said, taking a sip from his flask, "If they fight each other before the finals then who knows?" The crowd began to cheer as the fighters began to file out for the match drawings. As Soren's eyes scanned over all of the entrants he took another sip only to spit it all out over the back of the guy in front of him's head.

"What the fuck?" The guy, a rather large man, said as he turned to glare at Soren. He reached for the sword at his waist, "Do you know who I am? I've got a bounty of-." He stopped, noticing that he wasn't paying attention and got a good look at Soren's face only to pale in realization. Soren's new bounty had been circulated through the newspapers as did the rest of the crew's and the man noted that every last one of them, including Uzumaki Naruto, with the exception of two were sitting right there. He simply turned around and returned his attention to the competitors before he started something he couldn't finish.

Paulie raised an eyebrow at Soren choking on what was probably a combination of lemon juice and booze of some sort, "What's wrong with him? Did he see a ghost or something?" He patted the acid-spitting pirate on the back to help him clear his throat.

Miss Valentine looked through the line-up of entrants and smirked deviously, "Oh he's fine. He's just love struck because he saw his girlfriend about to fight in the tournament." Soren kept coughing and turned a glare to Miss Valentine who just stuck her tongue out at him, "That kind of reaction just tells me I'm right on the money."

"Not my girlfriend." He choked out, pounding his chest with his fist to clear his airways, "She wants to kill me."

Naruto grinned at Soren, "If a girl points a deadly weapon at you that just means that she likes you, right Noji-chan?" He said to his blue-haired sniper who was looking intently through the rest of the crowd, "What's the matter?"

"If that Tashigi girl is here then that means that Smoker is here." She replied, eyes perusing the area to spot said man before he saw them. Eventually she saw him all the way across the set up arena looking down at the ring, 'Got him. He doesn't seem to be able to recognize Johnny or Yosaku, so as long as he doesn't see Naruto-kun we should be fine. He was the only one Smoker ever got a good look at.'

Vivi looked between Naruto and Nojiko in concern. Nojiko looked rather serious while Naruto seemed to have a look of anticipation on his face waiting on the fights, "If Smoker is here then shouldn't we leave?"

"We'll leave right after the tournament." Naruto said to the young princess, "Johnny and Yosaku would be pissed if I just plucked them up and made them drop out. I know I would be." He then smirked at Soren, "Besides, I want to give Soren a chance to shadow his little love interest for a bit."

"My life is like hell…. every day." Soren grumbled at being teased by both Naruto and Miss Valentine, "I hate you all from the bottom of my heart."

Miss Valentine patted him on his head, getting him to growl at her, "Aww, you'll feel so much better with the love of a good woman in your life Soren. You'll just take all of that anger and sarcasm and hate and just throw it all away."

Vivi noticed Paulie shaking his head at the banter between the crewmates, "It's like this every day. You'll get used to it soon enough, just don't let any of them get anything on you that they can make fun of." She gestured to Soren who was holding back killing intent so that he didn't alarm any other spectators, "Or else stuff like that happens."

XxX

The emcee of the tournament, a man in a black suit with slicked back hair took a microphone and began to speak as he stood in the middle of a ring that was 50x50, "Welcome everyone to the Showdown in Paradise Swordsmen Tournament!" He said as the crowd started to cheer loudly, "To all of our competitors who have ventured out to our little island at the edge of the Grand Line, every two years for the last twenty years we've hosted this tournament to find powerful up-and-coming swordsmen! Now it's time to see who takes home our massive prize this time around!" The crowd cheered again and he pointed towards the aisle set up to lead to the ring as the competitors for the first match appeared.

XxX

In the back, Johnny and Yosaku were excitedly waiting for their turns when Yosaku thought of something, "Shit!" He said suddenly, "I need to go find Naruto-aniki!"

Johnny stared as his friend ran out of the back area and towards the stands where their friends were sitting, "You idiot, get back here! Your fight is next!" His cries fell on deaf ears as the other competitors snickered at Yosaku's absent-minded mad dash out of the preparation area. He let out a sigh, "If that jackass gets disqualified before I get to fight him in the finals I'm going to kill him." He then saw Tashigi return from her fight and he yelped in a high-pitched voice before turning around trying to hide his face, 'For once I want someone to not know who I am… Doesn't that suck?'

XxX

Soren was gritting his teeth and fighting back the urge to leap over Miss Valentine and kick Naruto right in his sack… because that would probably bring down a wrath from more than just Naruto if he did. Still, it was hard to fight back that urge, "Man…" Naruto said to Soren, "Watching his girl kick ass like that in the first round probably turned him on. He's probably into girls that have the potential to chop his junk off." Soren bit into his own hand to keep from attacking Naruto, "Hey it's cool if you're into that kind of thing. To each their own."

Soren simply decided to glare at Naruto and speak lowly, "You don't know where, and you don't know when… but when you think you're totally safe and there's nothing that could do anything to you I'm going to get you back… badly. Asshole."

"Blah, blah, blah. Whatever lover-boy." Naruto said absently. He turned his head to the right to see Yosaku scrambling through the stands, "What the fuck are you doing here? You fight next dumbass!"

Yosaku turned to Miss Valentine and quickly drew Kubikiribouchou, startling half of the crew and most of the normal people around them, "Put the weight back on it like when we fought Strawberry."

Miss Valentine gave him a dry look, "What am I, your portable power-up?"

Before Yosaku could speak again, Naruto snatched the sword out of Yosaku's hand and slapped a seal tag on it, as well as the holster on his back, "There. Now get your ass down there before you lose by default and waste all of our time. When you have the sword holstered you won't feel anything, but when you draw it you'll feel like the thing weighs a ton."

Yosaku could feel the weight as Naruto made the ram seal and activated the seals, "How do you do that?" He asked as he placed the blade back into its holster.

Naruto shrugged and waved him off, "Seals are magical. Now get to the ring before I throw you down there." Yosaku didn't have to be told twice and worked his way through the crowd down to the ring, "*sigh* There's just something off about that guy. No matter how much we point it out it's never going to change, is it?"

Paulie smirked and scoffed, "What? There's something off about all of you. You said that like _you're_ the portrait of sanity or something."

Naruto didn't even bother looking his way, he simply pointed to the side as he watched Yosaku head down to the ring, "Look, a girl in a mini-skirt and a tight t-shirt that definitely isn't wearing a bra." He said lazily.

"What?" Paulie instinctually snapped to his feet and yelled over in the indicated direction at the top of his lungs, "What in the hell is wrong with women these days? Show some modesty in front of men damn it!" He then realized that there was no woman like the one Naruto had identified over there.

Naruto kept his eyes on the ring, "Prude."

Paulie turned back to glare at him, "Pervert."

XxX

"Alright!" The emcee said in the ring as Yosaku finished clamoring his way through the crowd to get there himself, "Our next first round match is between Danton and Yosaku!" He yelled out introductions as Yosaku finally jumped into the ring and cleared out quickly thereafter.

"Man that was close…" Yosaku said, unfastening Kubikiribouchou from his back to take up his stance with it as he faced off against Danton.

Danton was a towering man in black armor that covered his entire body. His head was uncovered by a helmet to show a flat-top haircut of brown hair and in his hands he held two twin broadswords. The large opponent smirked down at Yosaku as they waited for the signal to start, "Can a puny wimp like you even use a sword like that? It looks like you ran into a weapon shop and grabbed the biggest thing you could afford."

Yosaku grinned, "You're about to find out aren't you?" His grip on Kubikiribouchou tightened in his hands, "Heh, if you don't watch yourself and fight smart then I'm only going to need one shot. I never really cut twice with this thing."

"Begin!"

"Goodbye runt!" Danton yelled as he charged forward at Yosaku, "Good luck getting through my sword _and_ my armor!"

"Luck's for people that need it." Yosaku said as he drew Kubikiribouchou high over his head and brought it down with a single slash, "Saidan Hakai-sha (Guillotine Buster)!" The resulting slash stopped Danton in his tracks as he looked at Yosaku with a glazed expression on his face, "You're lucky I timed you well enough to cut as shallow as I did." He said, placing Kubikiribouchou on his back once more.

Danton's swords dropped from his hands, one of them broken near the center, and his armor made a loud cracking noise before splitting down the middle. Blood gushed from the wound that resulted in Yosaku cutting past the thick armor and he dropped to the ground beaten.

"The winner; Yosaku!" The host of the event shouted, getting the crowd to cheer for the wielder of the large sword.

Yosaku walked towards the back with his arms crossed and his head down, eyes shut with a placid expression on his face, 'That's right, and look cool all the way to the waiting area. Don't trip, don't sneeze, don't even grin… Just keep looking cool.' He saw Johnny standing by the exit waiting for his fight that was next, "How you feeling? Are you in the zone?" He asked his friend.

Johnny's fingers were nervously tapping against the hilt of the Kusanagi, "I've never fought anyone with this sword before. What if it turns on me like Naruto-aniki said it might?"

"Then I'll win the prize money in your honor." Yosaku said, grabbing Johnny and shoving him forward to go out for his fight, "Now get out there and get it over with." Johnny stumbled forward and glared back at him before rolling his shoulders and heading towards the ring. Yosaku backed up, watching him leave until he bumped into someone behind him. Turning around he found a dark haired girl sitting on the floor having just fallen there as she looked for her glasses. He noticed the sword at her waist and took a step back, 'Shit, it's the Tashigi girl Soren's crushing hard on!'

XxX

Soren's eye randomly started twitching and he suddenly felt angry for some reason, which was strange since everyone else had stopped picking with him after Yosaku and now Johnny had exited to fight their matches. And speaking of Yosaku-, 'Why do I want to turn that headgear-wearing dunce into a puddle right now?'

XxX

Meanwhile, back with Yosaku, Tashigi had regathered herself and went to check out his sword the way she had been before he bumped into her, "Um, can I help you?" He said, really hoping that she didn't know who he was.

Luckily for him, her glasses had fallen off before she could have gotten a good look at his face and right now her focus was solely on the massive sword on his back, "Where did you get this? What's its name? This sword is amazing, how can you even swing this thing around?"

Yosaku rubbed the back of his head, "It's called Kubikiribouchou and I was given it by my aniki, he's awesome. And I can swing it because I'm a power-based swordsman anyway. You probably already saw that when I beat that other guy I just fought." He looked out front and walked forward, being followed by Tashigi who was still gawking at his sword, "I've got to watch my buddy's fight now so…"

"Oh!" Tashigi said, still not taking her attention away from the sword, "Don't mind me, I'll just be admiring your beautiful weapon until it's my turn."

Yosaku sighed, but he guessed that was as good as he was going to get for the time being.

XxX

"Last match of round one!" The emcee cried out, "Winner meets Tashigi in the semi-finals! We have Johnny going up against Mavado!" Mavado walked forward at his introduction. A man with messy black hair, light black armor on his chest, black pants, and a black trench coat. From his back he drew a wicked pair of hookswords.

Johnny just shifted himself into his ready stance with his hand around the handle of his blade, prepared to draw, "Move first or you're not going to get another chance." He said as he moved his hand down and flicked the guard of the sword with his thumb to loosen it from the sheath.

Mavado rushed towards him and took a pair of swings with his twin hookswords that Johnny stepped back from. He still had yet to draw his sword, instead opting to slip out of the way of Mavado's attacks.

As Mavado missed very wide with one of his attacks, Johnny's eyes caught it and he focused in intently. Before Mavado could move, he felt a breeze, saw a blur, and Johnny was behind him, his sword slid back into its sheath. Johnny simply kept walking away, not bothering to turn around even when Mavado did, "Jigoku de no Kage (Shadows Over Hell)." He said as he let his sword finish placing itself away with a click.

Mavado was about to head after him again when both of his swords fell to the ground out of his hands. Both of his shoulders had deep puncture wounds in them and he had a slash wound across his chest joining them. Blood began to pour from the wounds as he dropped to his knees and the emcee moved in to check him over, "Mavado can no longer hold his weapons, therefore the winner is Johnny!"

"Woo! Yeah! The sword didn't kill him! Way to go Johnny!" Naruto's voice echoed out across the area above anyone else cheering.

Johnny just grinned up at where he knew the Foxhound Pirates were sitting and gave them a small salute before heading to the back once more to wait for his semi-final round match.

XxX

Smoker snapped to attention when he heard Naruto's voice shout out over everyone else's. He looked around for any sign of Naruto but got no sight of him whatsoever, 'I know that voice, it's very specific. I know you're here somewhere Uzumaki. As long as I have eyes on that guy that you know I should find you easily enough…' He said as he watched Johnny head to the back only to high-five Yosaku who was on his way out next for his semi-final match, 'Next round Tashigi should be able to defeat that man on her own to soften your crew up for later. The other one too if he makes it past his fight as well.'

XxX

Johnny didn't even bother trying to see if Yosaku flattened his opponent. The sound of the crowd quickly cheering after the introduction told him all he needed to know, "Cool. Now after I win we're going to walk away with the money no matter what."

"Is that why you entered this tournament?" He turned to find himself facing Tashigi, "Just for the prize money?"

'Damn I'm glad she can't see without those glasses. She probably doesn't know who I am anyway.' Johnny thought to himself before frowning at her, "No. Me and Yosaku entered this thing to see how far we've come as swordsmen, but so far we haven't seen anyone as scary-good as the person we want to surpass."

Tashigi ignored what others might have construed as a jab at their own skills since she agreed. There wasn't really much to see at this tournament, "And who would you like to surpass?"

"Roronoa Zoro." Yosaku said as he walked back into the back area with some blood on him from the last fight, it didn't seem to be his own though, "What's it to you?" He said, not really caring whether or not Tashigi knew who they were anymore.

She pointed at the two of them in surprise, "You two want to beat that guy too? Why? What did he do to you, did he deceive you and make you look foolish too?"

Johnny took a moment to think about it, "Well, yeah kind of but that's not why we want to beat him. Zoro-aniki is the strongest swordsman we've ever met, and ever since we first met the man we just ended up being his tagalongs. Whenever there were tough bounties we had to face, he wound up crushing them when we couldn't do anything at all. Ever since we've started our own journey we've finally started getting as strong as we knew we could be, and when we can finally face off with him and can beat him… well that's just our goal."

Tashigi watched Johnny as he stopped talking and headed out towards the ring, "It's our turn, let's go." He said to her.

She blinked before turning to Yosaku with a determined look on her face, "I'm going to defeat both of you and then I'm going to defeat Roronoa Zoro myself one day."

Yosaku shrugged and pointed towards the ring, "You're going to have to go beat Johnny first. Then if you have enough left in you you'll have to beat me too. Good luck."

XxX

Johnny stood impatiently in the ring waiting for Tashigi to get out there to fight him, 'Man if I beat her too bad then Soren's going to try and melt my sword later.' He thought as he looked up in the stands at his crew at said man.

XxX

Up in the stands, Soren was looking at Johnny oddly as the swordsman kept looking up at him every few seconds, "Why the hell does he keep looking up here?"

"Because he knows that if he hurts your girl then you're going to do bad stuff to him later." Naruto reasoned to his de facto second in command as he found himself laying on the seats provided for spectators, "Can I get up now?" He asked, as he was tied up by Paulie's ropes and had Nojiko, Miss Valentine, and Vivi all sitting on him to hide him, "I can barely see."

"Nope." Nojiko said, patting Naruto on top of the head as she sat on his upper back, "You almost got us all busted by Smoker when you yelled before so you're staying there until the fights are over."

Vivi spoke next from her place sitting on Naruto's legs, kicking her own legs while she sat on Naruto, "So just lay there and behave Naruto. You aren't getting up anytime soon."

"You can't even feel me sitting on you, so no complaining." Miss Valentine chimed in last, sitting on Naruto's lower back between the two other women.

"Fine, it's all good with me." Naruto said, not really caring one way or the other, "I've got three pretty girls all sitting on me. This is officially the second best day of the week."

"Pervert." Paulie muttered, tugging on the ropes he had tied Naruto down with at the behest of the others.

XxX

Tashigi finally made her way out and drew her sword to get into her stance, noticing Johnny getting into his own unique posture, opting as always, to not draw his sword, 'His style is so strange. It's based around purely drawing his sword. No blocking or parrying, just dodging and speedy single attacks.'

'Okay Kusanagi no Tsurugi… let's do this.' Johnny thought to himself and his weapon as he flicked it loose and grabbed a hold of it, waiting for the fight to start.

The emcee stood between them to deliver introductions, "Okay ladies and gentlemen, this is the last semi-final bout to determine who will face Yosaku in the last battle for first place! We have the swift attack style of Johnny against the gritty fundamentally grounding style of the lovely Tashigi of the Marines!" He scrambled out of the way of the two competitors, "Begin!"

Wasting no time after being told to go, Tashigi rushed forward at Johnny and attempted a straight stab that he dodged before blurring out of her sight. Tashigi narrowed her eyes and immediately whipped around to swing at Johnny, who wound up blocking her with his entire sheath. As they struggled against one another, Johnny thought to himself, 'She blocked Jigoku do no Kage without taking a single wound.'

While blocking with his sheath, Johnny smirked and quickly drew his sword to take advantage of how close he was to Tashigi. She, however, was sound enough in her own body mechanics to switch her sword from attacking to a quick defense to keep Johnny from taking her head off. She blocked the slash but wound up taking a kick to the stomach from Johnny that sent her sliding back. She winced at taking the kick but her eyes snapped wide open when she saw him blur out of her sight again, 'Fast!'

A horizontal slash from Johnny in her blindspot cut her on the arm, but an attempt at following up was blocked. Johnny scowled and pulled his sheath up from his belt again, only this time he used it to smash Tashigi hard in the ribs again.

The unexpected blow to her body threw her off, but she was still able to retaliate with a swing of her blade that nearly caught Johnny off-guard. He diverted the path of the blade with his sheath and cut into Tashigi's torso with his Kusanagi.

Tashigi yelled in pain as she stepped back, still holding up her sword in her stance, 'He's way faster than me and he's stronger! All the technique in the world won't matter against someone that you can't move fast enough to hit when they make mistakes!' Johnny's reflexes were too sudden for her. His short-range speed was almost untraceable to her, 'Calm down and focus… I have to use that move, and I have to make sure that it hits.'

Tashigi backed off and took a deep breath to fight down the pain from taking her damage at the hands of Johnny. She held her sword down by her side in a new stance as she began to build energy.

XxX

Soren palmed his face in the stands, "And it's over…" He said in a somewhat disappointed voice, "She won't build enough energy fast enough to come up with a move that could actually hit Johnny if she couldn't keep up with him anyway."

XxX

"Kamatai-!"

Before she could make the full motion for whatever she was going to attempt with her next slash, Johnny had already rushed at her and had cut her down with a speed that could only be seen as a series of flashes, "Suberu J (Sliding J)!" He yelled as he slid to a stop on the other side of Tashigi, his sword still fully extended from his last motion.

Tashigi's glasses fell from her face and she dropped to her knees as wounds opened up all over her body, but she still held onto her sword. She used it to help herself shakily stand back up where she was barely able to lift her blade back up.

Johnny sighed and turned back around, his sword sheathed once more. He wasn't going to tell her to quit, because he wouldn't have quit if he had been her, "If I killed you, even by accident, someone in the crowd right now would kill me."

Tashigi glared at him defiantly as she planned to keep fighting, "Commodore Smoker wouldn't come after you. I entered this tournament knowing what would happen to me."

Johnny raised an eyebrow, "Smoker? Yeah, I didn't mean him though. I'm more afraid of someone else… that has a huge crush on you that he's been denying since Alabasta, so-." Before she could question him on his strange comment, he rushed towards her and kept her from trying to attack again by smashing his sheathed sword over her head, knocking her to the ground unconscious.

"The winner, and moving on the final round, Johnny!"

Johnny tucked his sword and sheath back into his belt and headed towards the back just as Smoker appeared in the ring. The newly promoted Commodore stared at Johnny, cigars in his mouth producing tons of smoke, "Tell Uzumaki he isn't getting off of this island today."

Johnny nodded and kept walking, "Yeah, I'll tell him. You should get her patched up before Soren tries to kill you for ignoring her later…"

Smoker walked over to Tashigi and picked her up, "I'll be back for the rest of you later." He said as he carried her off to get medical treatment.

"No you won't." Johnny said under his breath with a smirk, walking over to the emcee.

The prize for the finals had been carried out for the last match and placed under guard until the tournament ended, "Coming up next is the final round for our glorious prize and for title of the year's best swordsman!" He opened his mouth to say more, but Johnny's hand on his shoulder stopped him, "It looks like one of our competitors would like to address his audience or his upcoming opponent."

Johnny took the microphone from the man's hand and looked around at the crowd with a grin on his face, "You guys enjoying yourselves?" He got a loud cheer from the crowd, "You guys want to see some more fighting?" That got an even louder cheer as Yosaku started to come out from the back, "Are you guys ready to get this final round on already?" He yelled at them, getting them all fired up more than before, "…Well that's too damn bad because I quit!"

Yosaku started laughing raucously as he walked over to the table where the money had been neatly placed into a sack while they had been talking. He shoved the confused guards out of the way "That means the money is mine!" He looked back at Johnny who had a victorious grin on his face, "And what's mine is yours bro!"

Johnny pumped his fists into the air, "There's no 'I' in 'team', but there sure as hell is in 'beli'! As in, 'I'm the proud owner of half of 10 million beli, so you can all suck it!'"

"Fucking brilliant!" Naruto yelled from his seat as the crowd started to boo. In a Shunshin he appeared and grabbed both Johnny and Yosaku, "I'm so proud of you both! Now let's get the fuck out of here before they try to kill us." He said as Yosaku swiftly grabbed up their gained cash.

The emcee that had promoted the event roared at them angrily, "You can't just take that money! You have to win the tournament! You're stealing!"

Naruto blinked and tilted his head in confusion, "They _did_ win the tournament. All you would have gotten out of it was one more fight."

Yosaku and Johnny nodded and then spoke simultaneously, "Besides… we're pirates."

Naruto growled at them as the entire crowd boxed them in and started to slowly close in, "For the last time, we are not fucking pirates! I'm a ninja! I haven't done a single thing that would make me a pirate."

Johnny rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses, "Then why'd you let us call ourselves the Foxhound Pirates Naruto-aniki?"

"Foxhound Pirates?" One man repeated, stopping everyone cold in their tracks, "Naruto-aniki?" They all took a good hard look at Naruto and took special notice of the whisker-marks on his cheeks, "Holy shit that's that guy! Uzumaki Naruto!"

The people started to panic and ran away from Naruto, Johnny, and Yosaku, leaving them alone in the plaza with all of the money. Yosaku looked around and chuckled, "Well at least that gave everybody else time to get out of here."

Naruto shrugged as he grabbed a good hold of both swordsmen, "I'm not that scary am I?" Johnny made a gesture that meant 'kind of' and Naruto took them both with him using his Hiraishin to return to the ship.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Vivi was behind the helm as the others watched the clones prepare the ship to leave. Nojiko stood back as the clones had gotten everything set, allowing Vivi to begin to steer the ship out of the bay, "Why are you steering the ship and not a clone of Naruto-kun?"

Vivi smiled back at Nojiko as she continued directing the ship, "Because Naruto taught me how to run the ship one night when I couldn't sleep." She giggled slightly, "The only thing I don't know how to do is whatever those weird eyes at the front of the ship are for. No chakra to use. He said he wouldn't teach any of us how to use that anyway, it might kill us."

Clattering from inside could be heard before Johnny and Yosaku ran outside and vomited over the side of the ship. Naruto walked out after them shortly after, shaking his head, "Yeah, it took me a while to get used to moving like that too." He walked over to Vivi who relinquished control of the ship to him, "Good work Vivi-hime, but I'm going to need to be in control for this next part." He said, pointing ahead to where a bunch of Marine ships were converging broadside to cut off their exit from the area.

Soren from up in the crow's nest yelled down at them, "Fucking Smoker beat us back to his ships and cut us off Uzumaki! What are we doing to get out of this one?"

"Don't get all pissy Soren. You can flirt with the Sword chick the next time Smoker tracks us down somehow." Ignoring Soren's growl of anger, Naruto sat down in a meditative position in front of the helm with his eyes shut until he opened them to reveal the Rinnegan, "We're gonna make a hole."

"How?" Soren yelled back down from up top.

"Like this…" Naruto said as he started to pump chakra through his body into the seal array beneath him on the deck, "Man this is going to suck for me…" He sighed and made a ram seal so that he could manipulate his own chakra through the array.

XxX

(Onboard Smoker's Ship)

Smoker looked out at the half dozen ships he had, all prepared to fire on the Foxhound Pirates' ship which was heading straight forward towards them, "What's your endgame Uzumaki? Even with your weird powers you can't just walk right through this…" He looked over at a nearby enlisted man, "Prepare to fire! Send word to the other ships!"

"Yes sir!" The man said before receiving a message from another Marine, "All ships are ready to fire on the cue of this ship sir!"

Smoker nodded before yelling, "Fire all guns!"

"Fire all guns!" The Marine shouted to everyone else as they all opened fire on the Natural Disaster.

"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!" That yell echoed out over all of the cannon fire just as the allied ships opened fire on the ship housing Naruto and his crew. Every bit of ammunition that been launched at him flew back and hit the ships themselves, taking out sails and smashing into ships.

Smoker turned his body to smoke to avoid taking a direct hit from a cannonball that smashed into the deck behind him, "What the fuck just happened?" He growled out as the Marines scrambled around the ship. Smoker then noticed Naruto's ship still coming right for them, "What is that idiot doing now?"

"Meimokudama no Rasengan (Figurehead's Spiraling Sphere)!"

Smoker stumbled about as from the figurehead eyes of Naruto's ship massive blue orbs of energy formed and began to drill through the blockade, turning the portions of ship that wound up getting hit into wooden scraps. After the orange colored ship got past, it seemed to pick up speed incredibly quickly and get itself out of dodge in a hurry, "I hate that person so much… I'll bring you down Uzumaki, mark my words…"

XxX

After Naruto had put a good distance between their ship and the Marines that had been directed by Smoker he fell backwards and collapsed, panting, "Man I should have taken the hitae-ate off before I tried that…" He flipped over onto his belly and picked himself up off of the ground, "I knew that thing would be a chakra monster…"

Miss Valentine looked back at the ships that had just been left in the dust, "Okay what just happened? That looked like one of your jutsu thingies only bigger."

Naruto smirked, "I can use the ship as a medium to channel seal-less or one-seal jutsu through. They just take at least ten times the chakra that they would normally take… and all of my seal-less ninjutsu take inhuman amounts of chakra to be effective anyway." He finally reached his feet and staggered slightly, "It has more of a kick than I thought it would though, and having all of those clones out when I did it didn't help at all."

"So now what?" Muret asked from her spot making sure that Johnny and Yosaku weren't totally sick other than with the motion variety due to Naruto's Hiraishin.

Naruto pointed at the ship's blue-haired princess, "Vivi-hime steers until after I take a nap and get my chakra back. If anything happens wake me up."

Paulie's jaw dropped at the thought of a captain taking a nap while his crew did his other duties for him on a ship, "Wait, you're just going to leave the princess girl in charge and let everyone else do whatever they want?" He expected some kind of orders to be given, but as he looked around he noticed that everyone already had their places.

Soren was in the crow's nest. Johnny and Yosaku were busy with their own usual grunt work of cleaning the deck and later the hold as well, only now they were busy talking about how much ass they kicked and how they walked off with all that money. Muret had already done her job helping Johnny and Yosaku get over their momentary motion sickness. It wasn't time to eat so Miss Valentine was just killing time talking with Vivi until then, and Nojiko was at Vivi's side as well making sure that she had them back on course the way they needed to be.

Naruto looked at Paulie through half-lidded eyes, "Yeah, I am. Vivi-hime is a good girl. I've been teaching her how to steer and run the ship in my place since a few days after she came to us. It helped her relax at night when she couldn't sleep early on and gave her something to do other than be scared." He turned back to Vivi who was behind the wheel chatting with Nojiko and Miss Valentine, "Vivi can you run the ship?"

Vivi stopped her conversation for a moment and gave him a playful salute, "Aye aye captain."

"There you go." Naruto said to Paulie, "She's fine. Vivi-hime is my helmsman… err, helmswoman." He thumped the shipwright on the back, "Calm yourself down Paulie, we all know what we're doing here."

Paulie scratched his head as Naruto walked towards the door to head inside, "Well what am I supposed to do other than run maintenance checks? Everyone else has a job or hobby or something."

Naruto stopped at the door, "I don't know. When in doubt, train. That's what everyone else does. Do you _want_ me to give you a job to do?" Paulie looked around blankly before nodding, "Fine, I order you to find your own damn busy work." He said, turning and entering the hold grumbling, "What do I look like around here, the captain? Who complains about _not_ working? Shikamaru would strangle you if he was here…"

Paulie palmed his face before grabbing a cigar from inside his jacket and lighting it up, "This is going to a long trip…" He said to himself before shoving his hands in his pockets and going over to Johnny and Yosaku, "So guys, about that 10 million you just won. As your newest crew member I request a welcoming gift of say… 10%. Senior crew members like yourselves should set an example after all." He said with a smirk.

XxX

(Marineford)

Shortly after returning to the main base of the Marines, Aokiji walked through the halls with his hands in his pockets. He still had signs of bruising on his face and a few bandages on his body, though his ability to make ice on cue kind of helped with any swelling, making his overall appearance better.

As the admiral continued heading through the building, he eventually came across Kizaru who had his usual apathetic look on his face as the two stopped right in front of each other. Kizaru adjusted his glasses on his face slowly as if he were trying to decipher exactly why Aokiji looked the way he did, "Well…" He drawled out slowly, "What, pray tell, happened to you when you went to Enies Lobby?" He asked in dry amusement. Kizaru already knew of course. Anyone with a rank worth a damn already knew.

Aokiji, to his credit, simply blinked and kept a lazy appearance as he responded, "Hmm, I guess I could tell you if you ever decided to tell me why you decided to take that little detour from Alabasta to Kamabakka Kingdom." He noticed Kizaru twitch slightly before the two started to walk away from each other.

"I guess…" The light manipulating Marine said as they parted ways.

The reason one didn't try to pick with the other past the point they both attempted to was because at this point neither of them were sure which was worse; getting beaten nearly to death as an admiral and being left for dead for two days in shallow sea water until a ship arrived to pick you up, or being sent to an island of transvestites until a ship could arrive in two days to save you from that horrible fate. Garp had teased them both relentlessly over both things after learning of them and self-esteem for both had to be at an all-time low.

XxX

(Marineford – Sengoku's Office)

His admiral had been defeated by Uzumaki Naruto rather decisively this time instead of just a technical defeat like the last time around against Kizaru. Sengoku drummed his fingers against his desk repeatedly as he racked his brain trying to solve this new issue. Not only did this man help Monkey D. Luffy storm Enies Lobby, he almost single-handedly completely destroyed the Buster Call attack that was sent out to raze the rest of the island to the ground and defeated Aokiji who arrived to view the proceedings and eventually had to step in to prevent more losses.

"And we can't even box him in with a blockade?" Sengoku asked himself as he had received the reports from the lower ranks about how Commodore Smoker had him cornered on San Salvacion Island and was still unable to keep him pinned down.

Naruto was too dangerous to be left to roam about, this much was clear. If he wound up making it to the New World part of the Grand Line there was a chance that much like the Yonkou he would become nearly untouchable. Marine influence there was tumultuous to say the very least of the military situation out there and there was a chance that he could take his own spot among the Yonkou, or even from them if he was pressed to.

And the balance in the world was already being upset enough as it was. Crocodile had just been recently replaced after his defeat by some upstart, Marshall D. Teach, and this loss of Enies Lobby wasn't going to help matters at all. CP9 were still unaccounted for, and there was officially a chip in the armor of the Marines.

Sengoku reached to the side on his desk and poured himself a cup of tea, "I'm getting too old for all of this."

* * *

**Chapter done, so bite me… I'm sorry, I'm in a rather irritable mood these days after losing my fucking flash-drive with all of my college shit on it. Now I'm going to have to double time and make all of my unfinished stuff on my hard drive back up in the next two weeks in time for all of my deadlines or I'm screwed. **

**Gah, I'm pissed! Fuck you world! You just keep taking your little punk-ass sniping shots at me don't you? First my hand, then my money, and now this? Bring it on then damn it, I can take this shit all day! At least I still have my legions and legions of my lovable Kenchiholics out there!**

**Whatever… Like always nobody really cares as long as you all get your fix.**

**Kenchi out… I've got to go do academic stuff to save my testicles from being cleaved off for failing college due to lack of attentiveness.**


	31. Detour From Hell Or Heaven

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I am currently holding voodoo dolls in Kishimoto and Oda's likenesses and am currently sticking pins directly into their genital parts. The pain will stop once I am contacted by either of them signifying their desire to give me their rights, the lucky one that calls first will have their suffering end. I want my rights to your manga franchises you bastards!

**Chapter 31: Detour From Hell… Or Heaven**

* * *

It was still pitch dark out as dawn had yet to rise over the seas and Naruto stood near the helm of the ship with a rather perturbed look on his face. Standing in front of him was the princess of Alabasta, Nefertari Vivi, fidgeting under his unflinching gaze, "I said I was sorry Naruto." She said rather shamefacedly over the whole matter.

"It's not that I'm mad because I'm really not." Naruto said, calming the young princess down even though his face didn't change from the look he was steadily giving her, "If I was honest I really couldn't care any less if you paid me to, but the thing is, Noji-chan will care and she will freak right the fuck out in about three or four hours when she wakes up and comes outside. We are not going to be able to flip a u-turn and go back the way we came, and if we're going to get back on course the right way we need to get the Log Pose. The Log Pose that Noji-chan keeps on her person, on her wrist at all times and we will not be able to touch without getting a sleepwalking gunshot fired at us."

Vivi raised an eyebrow, "Why'd you teach her how to shoot things in her sleep anyway?"

Naruto shrugged his shoulders, "It seemed like a good idea at the time. But that's not important. I want to know how in the hell you managed to get us all the way off-course… into the middle of the goddamn Calm Belt."

"Well…" Vivi found her boots and the deck of the ship very, very interesting, "I was on night watch the way I usually offer to do since you know it's kind of hard for me to get to sleep at night."

Naruto nodded, "Right, because you're a cute little night owl."

Vivi blushed but continued explaining, "And I got kind of bored so I went down to the steering wheel and played with it for a bit, but I swear I put it back the way I found it and didn't make it go off course, honest! I know how to run the ship by now!"

Naruto stared at her for a moment, not sensing any lie in her voice, "Did you make sure to lock the wheel in place before you left it alone?" He saw Vivi's eyes widen and sighed, "That's a no."

Vivi held her hands in front of her mouth looking terrified at Naruto's reaction to her mistake, "I'm so sorry! I didn't mean it, I completely forgot to do that when I wasn't using the wheel!" She exclaimed, steadily getting more upset about her blunder.

"It's okay. Everything is still fine Vivi-hime." Naruto assured her, rubbing her back to calm her down, "Once you get a good feel for the ship, the ocean, the breeze, you'll know when you do things like leave the wheel unlocked. Just chill out okay? Relax." Vivi simmered down at his behest, "Yeah, there you go."

Vivi let out one last deep breath before turning her brown eyes up at Naruto, "Are you sure?" Naruto nodded, smiling in a disarming manner, "Good. Thank you."

Naruto waved off her thanks, "It's really not as big a deal as Noji-chan makes it out to be. I'll kill a Sea King if one attacks us no matter how big it is. I'm still me, and by now you all know that I'm awesome, right?" Vivi giggled when he posed in a grandiose manner, "If Noji-chan starts acting up I'll take the heat for this one, but be more careful next time okay. And don't play with the wheel... I don't even do that."

Vivi pouted and turned away from him, "Well it's boring all alone at night. Carue is good company but he can actually sleep, so it's mean to make him stay up with me. What exactly am I supposed to do all night, and don't say train. I train enough during the day."

"It's never a bad time to train." Naruto said, sitting against the back of the steering wheel in the grass, "But then again you don't have my stamina so maybe it's not a good idea for you to drive yourself into the ground. But I'm not a doctor so what do I know?" He then snapped his fingers, "That's it, go see Muret. Maybe she has something for you to help with that, and if not my door's always open you can come to me if you can't sleep."

Vivi raised an eyebrow, "What on earth would I do there except keep you up like me?"

Naruto laughed, "I don't need sleep Vivi-hime, I just sleep because it's more fun sometimes than not sleeping. If I had to I could stay up… forever maybe. But that might be exaggerating." Their conversation came to an end when they heard footsteps on the grass coming towards them, "Nice… I got rid of the heavy footsteps of people walking on the deck. No early morning migraines."

Soren appeared, walking up the stairs with a yawn, "What's up you jerks? What are you guys doing up so early?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at Soren's morning greeting, "We could ask you the same thing. What the hell are you about to do, train?"

"Duh. I'm going to get those bastard Rokushiki moves down. Tekkai's really coming along and Geppou ain't none too shabby either." Soren said, starting to stretch himself out, "I know why the princess is up and about, because she's got bad insomnia, but why are you up? Shouldn't you be unconscious with the rest of the lazy people on this ship?"

"Vivi-hime woke me up with some news." Naruto said calmly while Vivi poked her fingers together nearby, "Guess where we are?"

Soren blinked before looking around and taking a distinct note of the lack of decent waves and wind. Narrowing his eyes he turned back towards Naruto, "We're on the Calm Belt aren't we?" Naruto and Vivi both nodded, "Nojiko's going to have a coronary, you know that right?"

"Oh hell yes I know that." Naruto said, standing back up off the ground, walking over to Vivi who looked rather unnerved at the prospect of facing down a gun-toting Nojiko and explaining where they were and why, "Vivi-hime come here." Vivi quickly snapped to attention and did as he asked. Once she got close he put a hand on her shoulder, "Do you want to tell Noji-chan why we're on the Calm Belt?" He didn't even need to hear her answer, just seeing the fear in her eyes gave him one, "Okay, then sleep." A quick motion of his hand to the side of her neck followed by a squeeze put Vivi into sweet unconsciousness.

Soren held back a laugh when he saw Vivi go out like a light, "You're a better man than me Uzumaki. You do know that after what you did to her guns, she's ten times more dangerous with those damn things now don't you?"

Naruto picked up Vivi bridal style and began walking towards the door leading inside, "She still can't hit me yet if I try to dodge… I think. I'll just jump off the ship and run away for a bit, I think I'd rather fight a Sea King than deal with a scared and pissed off Noji-chan anyway."

Soren grinned ferally, "She can still hit you with the scoped rifle in the canopy if she wanted to, unless you're really willing to run more than three miles away from the ship."

Naruto blinked and gave him a dry look, "Bullshit. That thing only has a range of 2500 meters. It doesn't even see half of that distance."

"_It_ can't see that distance, but Nojiko's the one actually aiming and shooting Uzumaki and she can see just fine, especially with that Haki of hers, she'd consider that practice." Soren said with a laugh, "On the open ocean unless you're making tracks to really get away from the ship and stay away, there's nowhere you can go that she can't hit you so good luck with that." He said before laughing again, letting Naruto carry Vivi to her room.

"Fine." Naruto said shakily before coughing the sound of fear out of his voice, "I'll just stand still for a moment and use Sage Mode for a split second and dodge from a distance. Besides, she wouldn't really shoot at me for real."

XxX

(Several Hours Later)

Vivi and her pet duck were stirred back to the waking world after a booming blast rang out on deck. Vivi immediately grabbed her gear and ran up to the deck prepared for a fight, only to see everyone lazing around on deck with the exception of Paulie and Nojiko, the latter of them looking out over the side of the deck through a pair of binoculars and frowning at whatever she saw in the distance, "Reload it." Nojiko said, as Paulie seemed a little too eager to grab another cannonball and load it.

Johnny and Yosaku were standing near the edge of the ship with the latter holding onto a pair of binoculars as he looked out over the ocean. Johnny tapped his foot on the ground impatiently, "What's he doing?"

Yosaku ignored him for a moment before registering what was going on after a cannon blast, "What?"

"I said what's he doing now!" Johnny yelled at him, making damn sure he heard him that time.

Yosaku bared his teeth angrily as he kept the binoculars to his face, "Goddamn I'm getting so sick of answering that stupid fucking question-."

"Okay look." Johnny said, "You have the binoculars, I can't see shit! So don't bitch at me, because I'm not just going to stand here all day and play with my dick. I want to be kept in the fucking loop."

"Fine!" Yosaku yelled taking the binoculars away from his face and holding them out as if he were pointing out over the ocean, "He's running away, okay? That's all he's doing, that's what he was doing when you asked me ten minutes ago, that's what he was doing when you asked me two minutes ago. So in thirty seconds when you ask me 'what's he doing?', my answer's still going to be he's still running away!"

Johnny just looked at him for a moment before speaking, "Where does he think he's running to?" He asked.

Yosaku just snorted like a bull and kept looking out at the ocean through the binoculars, "You know what? I fucking hate you."

"What's going on?" Vivi asked, scratching the side of her head as she wondered what they were shooting at so casually. Cannon fire usually meant battles. Despite her inexperience with it she knew for a fact that battles weren't ever nearly this calm.

Nojiko looked through the binoculars and adjusted the cannon according to her estimations of aim, "Naruto-kun said that he got us lost in the Calm Belt and then he jumped off of the ship before I could even say anything-."

Johnny scoffed, "Maybe the fact that you had your fingers on the shotgun before he even finished talking had something to do with it. I'm just saying."

"-Anyway…" Nojiko continued, "And now I'm shooting at him until he decides to stop being stupid and come back onboard so we can get back on course. I mean, did he really think I'd be that mad at him for just telling me what was wrong?" She said as she lit the small wick at the top of the cannon, "Fire!" The cannon blasted off another shot out at the ocean.

Soren yelled down from the canopy crow's nest, "You're shooting a goddamned cannon at him as we speak, and you say you're _not_ mad? What the fuck?"

Nojiko got a tick mark on her head at the thought by the others that she would ever actually try to hurt Naruto for real and turned to yell at Soren, "None of these are even going to come close to hitting him! If you had eyes you could see that he's dodging everything by a mile! Literally! He's even blowing kisses at me every time I miss too. If really I wanted to try and hit him I wouldn't use the cannon, I'd use the rifle!" She then stopped yelling and pulled out her pistol, holding it over her shoulder just as she felt someone wrap their arms around her waist, "You done playing Naruto-kun?"

"Are you?" He asked in return, ignoring the barrel of the gun tucked under his chin. Nojiko's body shook with silent laughter as she nodded yes, "Anything to play with the cannon huh Noji-chan?"

"You were the one that ran away." Nojiko said, moving away from him and towards the helm, "All you had to do was stand there and let me verbally freak out for a minute or two, but you ran away like a kid trying to avoid a spanking."

Naruto shook his head as he followed her, "And you shoot a cannon at me?"

Miss Valentine laughed from her place sitting under the branches sticking from the mast, "Stop acting all offended. You know you liked it, crazy."

"Whatever." Naruto replied dismissively, "Noji-chan's just lucky that a Sea King didn't sense the vibrations of the cannonballs hitting the water or else we'd be fighting one right now, and by 'we' I mean me."

Nojiko looked at the Log Pose and showed Naruto so he could get the ship back on course, "Vivi the next time something like this happens just wake Naruto-kun _and_ me up since we can't redirect the ship without the Log Pose and I can't power the ship's auxiliary controls."

Vivi paled at hearing Nojiko speak to her about the ship, "You know it was me?"

Nojiko nodded, "You're the only other person that really steers the ship, and if Naruto-kun had really done it he would have tried to carry me to the deck without even trying to wake me up so he could redirect the ship that way, hoping that no one found out about it." She said, smiling at Naruto rolling his eyes, "We back on course Naruto-kun?"

"Getting there." He said as he locked the wheel in place, "I don't know how long it'll take though, since I don't know when Vivi tried playing with the wheel, it's going to take at least all day to get back on the Grand Line so get comfortable, we're going to be at least a whole day off-schedule."

"Sorry everyone…" Vivi said sadly. She was finally making strides towards being useful to them in her mind and just took a huge step back by hindering them, knocking them off-course into dangerous waters.

Yosaku shrugged off the situation, "It's alright Vivi, all of us mess up."

"Especially you." Muret chimed in at Yosaku's expense, getting him to tear up at how mean his beloved was.

Paulie put a cigar in his mouth and lit it up, "I haven't messed up yet, because I'm cooler than all of you."

Naruto stared at him blankly, "You've been here for three weeks… how could you mess up in three weeks when you don't even have a real job you bum?"

Paulie growled and got in Naruto's face, "You want to fight you blonde sack of shit? I'll come up with my own job; sinus cleaner, by shoving my foot so far up your ass I clean your damn nose out."

Naruto just stared at the glaring shipwright before speaking, "I wonder I'd look cool with facial hair." Paulie face-faulted out of his staredown with Naruto as the captain continued his random thought, "A mustache would suck, but maybe a beard…" He turned towards Miss Valentine, "Valentine-chan would I be sexy with facial hair?"

Miss Valentine put her green eyes on him and thought about it before speaking, "I think you'd look scraggly… I'm not sure you could pull it off Naruto. I don't like facial hair anyway. You're cuter without it." She said, winking at him.

Paulie walked off with a sigh, shoving his hands into his jacket pockets, "I swear you are the most random guy I've ever met in my entire life."

"Yo Uzumaki!" Soren suddenly yelled from the crow's nest, "Get your ass up here and check this out!" He shouted as if it was something really important, "Seriously, you're going to want to see this!"

At the behest of his acid-spitting ally, Naruto ran up the mast until he reached the top where Soren was looking out with one of the pairs of binoculars provided at the station, "What's the matter?"

Soren smirked as he looked through the binoculars, "We're going loot the shit out of that ship over there is what we're going to do."

Naruto did the same and frowned as he did indeed see a ship in the distance, "Um not to burst your bubble or anything, but what part of 'I am not a goddamn pirate' do you not understand? I am not attacking a random ship!"

Soren bared his teeth, "Look closer assface, do you see any life on that ship? There isn't any motion on that ship at all. They must have drifted out here, but didn't have the ways to escape like we do." He shook his head in pity, "Poor bastards didn't even get to die in a cool way like in a Sea King attack. If I kick the bucket out here that's how I want to go."

"Don't we all?" Naruto said in a sarcastic manner. Still, if they could salvage something useful from that ship then there was no reason to let it all go to waste, and maybe he could at least give them a decent burial at sea if there was even anyone on the ship, "Alright, let's do it." He then yelled down the mast at the others, "Vivi-hime turn us 35 degrees starboard and hold that direction, we're going to make a quick detour, not even out of the way!"

"Okay Naruto!" She yelled back to him as she did what had been asked of her.

XxX

As Vivi stayed aboard the Natural Disaster with Nojiko, the others jumped ship and boarded the one that Soren had spotted in the distance. Yosaku walked around the deck, reporting from the hold as he was the first to board, "Okay, there isn't anything on this ship worth taking."

Soren smiled sheepishly as he scratched his head through his bandanna, "Well that's the risk you run when you try to grab stuff from an abandoned ship. Sometimes somebody already looted it before you got there." He shrugged and planned to jump back onto their ship, "No harm no foul, let's roll."

"That's the thing." Miss Valentine said as she looked around, "It's abandoned. There's no blood, no signs of battle, there's just…" She pointed at the statues of people littering the upper deck, "Those."

Due to the motion of the ship at times some had crumbled, some were broken into segments. Most were whole however, but there were so many statues of humans that much to their horror they were all fairly certain they used to be the crew.

Muret poked at the statues, as she noticed them frozen in time with lustful looks on their faces, "Okay what the fuck? Look at these poor suckers, whatever they saw last must have been damn good for them to look like this in stone."

Johnny came back up from the hold after a more through sweep, "Bad news Naruto-aniki. There are two things on this ship; jack and shit. It's a bust."

"Fuck…" Naruto muttered, stroking his chin, "Who did this?"

Soren gave him a dry look as he pulled out his flask and took a sip, "Do you really want to find that out for yourself Uzumaki? Some things are just better left a mystery sometime. This ain't our problem and there ain't nothing we can do about it now. Sometimes you live and keep walking around, sometimes you get turned to stone, that's just how things work." He made a whirling motion with his finger, "World keeps on turning baby."

Naruto gestured to the ghost ship they were on, "And what if this happens to someone else?"

Yosaku and Johnny looked at each other before answering in an unsure manner simultaneously, "Sorry about their damn luck?"

Muret picked up a disembodied stone head and waved it at Naruto, "You want to go look for the person who did this? I wish I could slap you for your stupid hero-complex Naruto-sama, but you would probably kill me for it."

Naruto frowned at her, "I'd never kill any of you… and my hero-complex isn't stupid. It's a habit cultivated over years and years of combat with dickheads and jerkasses that take over countries, kill thousands, and have god-complexes that inspire them to try and take over the world."

"Right…" Miss Valentine said with a smile, "Anyway I think we should get away from the creepy, bad omen ship with human statues stuck in the middle of the Calm Belt so that we all don't die a nameless death like this. All for getting the hell out of here?"

"Aye." Everyone on board said, eliciting a sigh out of Naruto who relented and allowed everyone to leave.

"Fine… but this isn't over." Naruto said, walking to the edge of the ship and jumping back aboard theirs.

"Yes it is!" Soren said cheerfully, "Because we aren't going looking for a stupid, useless fight that will cripple half of us and you don't have any idea on how to find who did this. It's way over Uzumaki. Deal with it." He was suddenly splashed by a wave of water, "Asshole…" Soren muttered as he wiped the sea water out of his face.

XxX

(In the Distance)

Onboard another ship, a woman walked calmly towards her destination. She wore a black short jacket with orange frills that remained open to reveal her bosom and torso as well as a black and yellow cloth around her waist with an orange belt and long black stockings going down her legs. She had her short black hair in a bun on top of her head and a cigarette in her mouth.

Eventually she reached her destination, "Hebi-hime, we've found another ship near the one that we just finished sacking."

"Hmm…" A woman replied in a rather detached manner, "Any colors Rindo?"

The woman, Rindo, responded with a nod, "Well… the ship is orange… and they're flying a jolly roger. So what are our orders?"

"Change course to give chase to that ship. If we can get two ships back-to-back so quickly then that's just our luck isn't it?" Rindo again nodded and turned to go and change their trajectory so that they could pursue, "Another set of fools have drifted into the Calm Belt it seems. Unfortunately they won't be making it out, but it's okay, they will forgive me. Because I am… beautiful."

XxX

(Hours Later – With the Foxhound Pirates)

Johnny had taken a pair of binoculars and was looking through them with a massive stupid grin on his face, snickering every few seconds. Although everyone else just played off his behavior as no more stranger than how anyone else acted most of the time, he eventually felt he had to discover his find with someone, "Hey, someone come and look at this really quick."

Being the closest to him as they were all around the helm, Nojiko and Miss Valentine, who had been sunbathing, got up and went over to him with the blonde woman looking through the ocular device first, quickly smiling and letting off a rather amused laugh before passing the binoculars to Nojiko and going back to laying down.

Nojiko frowned as all she saw in the distance was an island, "It's an island. What's the big deal about it?"

Johnny pointed out in the direction of the distant island, "You're telling me you really don't see that? How can't you see it? It's right in front of your face, Miss Valentine saw it in five seconds. It's so great!"

Nojiko passed him the binoculars back, "No I don't see it Johnny, so what's out there?"

Johnny started excitedly hopping up and down as he kept pointing, "It is an island that is literally giving us the middle finger!" He shouted loudly.

"What?" Every other man on the ship exclaimed before rushing over to Johnny as they began fighting over the binoculars, a fight that was won by Naruto as he was the first to look, "Holy shit he's right! That island is totally flipping us off!" Naruto said as he passed the binoculars off to Yosaku who looked through them next, grinning like a ten year old.

Nojiko rolled her eyes, "I really doubt that an island looks like that, and even if it does, who cares? It's a natural formation, the island isn't _really_ flipping you off."

"But it is!" Naruto exclaimed, running to the wheel to change course to that particular island, "It's mother nature saying 'fuck you' in its most pure form. As if it's mocking ships that got caught in the Calm Belt."

Nojiko blinked before waving her arms around animatedly, "What do you think you're doing? Are you really going to make us go to this island because of you wanting to see a stupid rock formation?"

"Yes I am." Naruto said as he turned the wheel with not a second thought, "Are you honestly surprised by this? We're only going to be there for a little while anyway." He gestured towards the direction the island was in, "That island called me out. I bend nature to _my_ will, not the other way around. I'm going to fucking own that island. What's it called?"

Nojiko crossed her arms and gave him a stern look that he ignored, "How should I know? The Grand Line in general is mostly rumor and speculation, do you really think I know anything about the stuff that might be in the Calm Belt."

Naruto then smirked, "Cool, then I'm going to go name that island."

Nojiko palmed her face hard enough to let off a harsh smacking noise, "Why can't you just name it from here and let me get the latitude and longitude down for it?"

Naruto scoffed in reply, "How can you name something that you didn't even explore? That's really messed up Noji-chan, and besides, how will I know what to call it without going there?" Nojiko just stared at him blankly as he happily steered the ship towards the mystery island.

XxX

(On the New Island)

"Oh Kami look at this place, it's so awesome!" Naruto yelled as they all walked further inland from where the ship was on the backside of the island. Once they landed, they found that the outsides of the island was surrounded by trees in a rather wilder set-up. The rock formation was exactly what it had appeared to be from a distance, a mountainous hand sticking up in the air giving off the middle finger sign, "I've got to climb that thing and put a Hiraishin kunai at the top, let's go!"

Vivi stared up at the obscenely gesturing land formation rather distastefully, "Why?"

"Why not?" Soren answered in the captain's place as they walked through the forest, "I can see why he'd want to come back here. As far as I can see it's a really nature-heavy island, untouched by anyone, so this meditating fool would feel right at home here wouldn't he?"

Muret had Funkfreed out in his elephant form as he carried her on his back, happily looking around at his surroundings. Muret rubbed the sword/elephant on top of his head, "Funkfreed seems to like it too. It's really peaceful here, look." She said as she pointed at a monkey that was sitting in a tree watching them.

Soren walked towards the tree that the monkey was in with a smirk on his face, "Well would you look at that? This thing doesn't seem to be scared of us at all." The monkey then proceeded to calmly flip Soren off with both hands, "What the fuck? You stupid monkey!"

"Soren!" Naruto yelled, keeping the man from possibly attempting to kill the poor creature, "It's a monkey. It lives by a mountain with a hand that does that 24/7. Don't you think it would have picked up how to do that itself?"

Soren growled as he looked between his crew and the monkey, "It flipped me off right after I said something. I think it knows what that means, and it's calling me out."

Vivi shouted indignantly, "Why is everyone on this crew so crazy? A monkey can't 'call you out', it's a monkey! It doesn't even know what it's doing!"

"That's just what it wants you to think!" Soren yelled, pointing angrily at the monkey that had by now dropped its hands and was looking to leave, "It lures you in with it being a cute, exotic animal, and then bam! It's making all kinds of inside jokes behind your back! It knows! It totally knows! I don't like it!"

Paulie smirked at Soren's anger, "It doesn't like you either, because it just told you to go fuck yourself."

As everyone went further into the forest towards the rock formation they found something quite amusing. Every single animal they saw had the capability, no matter what it was; bird, bear, wolf, it didn't matter, if it had paws it was able to mimic the gesture of the island's most prolific trait, the hand giving the middle finger. By the time they had actually reached the foot of the mountain, Naruto didn't think he could actually climb it.

Because he was laughing so hard.

By this time, Naruto was crawling on his hands and knees out of breath, but still laughing his ass off, "I love this island!" He managed to say between bouts of laughter as he pushed himself to his feet against the mountain itself, "Alright, "I'm going to go dominate nature… you guys can do whatever you want until I'm done."

Paulie walked over as well, "I'm going too. Having animals flip me off was funny at first but now it's starting to piss me off." He ignored Soren's shout of 'see?' to keep talking, "Besides, who knows what would happen to you if you fell off, idiot."

Muret turned Funkfreed back into a sword and headed over to the mountain climbers, "Can one of you take me? I want to see if there are any decent medicinal herbs up there that I can use. We found a few walking through the forest."

Naruto nodded before turning to the others, "So anyone else want to go?" Everyone else shook their heads.

Vivi looked over at a nearby pair of flamingoes… that flipped them all off, "I don't feel like climbing a mountain. I'd rather just stay down here until you guys come back." She said as Carue returned the gesture back to the flamingoes, "I want to look for a lake. If there are flamingoes then there must be a lake somewhere."

Miss Valentine waved him off, "I could just float up there if I really wanted to. Why would I climb?"

Soren glared at the previously mentioned flamingoes, "I swear to God, if I see one more animal flip me the bird I am going to hurt it. Animal rights be damned… Just climb the damn mountain and hurry up so we can leave."

Nojiko smiled at Naruto, having gotten over going out of their way again as it was a pleasant little side-trip all things considered, "Get going Naruto-kun. We'll all stick around nearby for whenever you finish climbing."

Naruto looked over at Paulie, "Okay you heard her. Tie yourself and Muret to me so we can go."

"Yeah, yeah you bossy bastard." Paulie muttered, rolling his shoulders out before doing as he was told, "Roupuakushon: Moyai Musubi (Rope Action: Bowline Knot)!" From the sleeves of his jacket shot a pair of ropes, one that wrapped around Naruto's waist, the other around Muret's. Paulie detached the ropes from himself and tied them together around his own waist, keeping them all stuck together. He gave a thumbs-up to Naruto, "All good to go."

Naruto rubbed his hands together before channeling chakra to his feet and walking directly up the wall, dragging Paulie and Muret behind him as he climbed that way, "I'll be back before you know it." He said to the others as Muret and Paulie eventually found themselves lifted off of the ground, suspended in the air, "Hold on tight you guys."

Muret started to look fearful as the ground got further and further away, "This rope better not break." She said timidly.

Paulie didn't seem to care at all and decided to light himself a cigar as he allowed Naruto to drag him to the summit, "These ropes don't break, I've woven them myself." He took a puff and enjoyed the ride, "It's fine, just calm down. Hey Uzumaki, easy does it yeah? I want a brisk, smooth pace here." Naruto turned his head and flipped him off, getting a chuckle out of Paulie, "This island's rubbing off on you isn't it?"

XxX

At the shore of the island, a large ship being pulled by a pair of large green sea serpents with black manes going down their backs sat near land. On the deck sat a mansion-like structure and the color scheme of the ship was pink, black, and dark brown. The main sail had a jolly roger of a skull surrounded by nine snakes centering from it while the back sail had 'Kuja' written on it in kanji.

As much of the crew were disembarking onto the island from the ship in the bay, observations were being made. "What an ugly ship…" A woman said amusedly in reference to Naruto's ship that was nearby. She was a rather tall woman that had long blue-green hair, a long forked tongue, and her head was somewhat disproportionately larger than her body. She wore a green bikini and a white cape over her back, "Does the captain of this thing want every Marine on the seas to be able to see him from anywhere?"

A large, physically imposing looking woman with long orange hair that wore a blue top and a blue cloth around her waist spoke up next, "You saw just how fast this ship was. If it had noticed us and kept going they would have gotten away for sure." She said in a stern manner, "I think there is something strange about this crew Sandersonia."

Sandersonia laughed a little bit, "There's something weird about most of the crews that ever get to the Grand Line. It doesn't matter who they are Marigold, you know that."

As they spoke, the small vessel carrying most of the other pirates of the crew made it to land. The unique thing about this crew however, was the fact that there wasn't a single male among them. Everyone that had travelled on the main ship that had come to this island was a woman.

"Steady the vessel for Hebi-hime!"

"Don't let any drop of the ocean touch our Pirate Empress!"

From the small ship, a woman stepped off at the behest of her underlings. Unlike the two women that were already ashore, she was heart-stoppingly beautiful. A tall, slender woman with long black hair and light brown eyes that held an aloof tint to them. She had a figure most men would fight to the death over, with large breasts that accentuated every curve that already existed on her frame. She wore a revealing red blouse that showed much of her chest and her body as well as a long dress with a slit cut in it that showed off her long legs. Around her body, a white snake with red dots that had a skull on top of its head and blue hair was wrapped around her body, sporting a perpetual smile.

As she walked off towards the two women that had already been there, she stopped as she found a baby monkey in her path, "Who left this monkey here?" She asked as she punted the monkey aside out of her way.

"Sorry Hebi-hime." One of the other female pirates apologized as she held on to the monkey to keep it from attempting to maul her in response.

"You should be more careful in the future…" She said as she continued on. As she walked towards the two other lead women she looked up at the rock that consisted of the hand giving the middle finger, "What an obscene place."

Boa nodded, thinking the same thing about the island before they had even landed, "We'll find the crew that left their ship here so that we can dispose of them lest they attempt something while we take their things."

Sandersonia and Marigold fell into step with their beautiful apparent leader as Sandersonia took this moment to speak, "So how many do you think there are?" She asked.

Marigold smirked at her question, "You're asking like that matters. We're the Kuja Pirates, led by 'Pirate Empress' Boa Hancock. Do you really think a ragtag group of pirates are going to be worth anything here?"

XxX

(With Naruto)

"I rule this mountain with an iron fist!" Naruto shouted, echoing through the empty air as he continued to climb upwards by way of walking. He tried to run, but he kept smashing Paulie and Muret against the cliffside whenever he did, so they both berated him to walk like he had been before.

"Are we there yet?" Muret said, checking over her nails out of boredom. The novel terror of constantly ascending the side of a sheer cliff left her not too long after they left the ground, thus from this point she was more bored than anything else, 'I wonder if I'm getting used to this kind of thing? God I hope not…' She was hoping that once they got higher she would find something worth taking in a medical view of things, "I think my legs are falling asleep."

"Then kick them." Naruto replied, keeping his steady walking pace, "You're supposed to be a doctor, shouldn't you know to move them for blood flow?"

"S-Shut up!" Muret replied, "I knew that!" She exclaimed before a loud snore broke through their conversation, "How can Paulie sleep right now?" She asked about the man hanging above her by his waist, snoozing away.

"You want me to wake him up?" Naruto asked her with a raised eyebrow, "I can always start running again."

"I'd rather you didn't." Muret said with a sweatdrop.

"Cheer up." Naruto told her, "We passed the knuckles and now we're climbing the single finger. We're almost to the top!" He yelled again at the top of his lungs, "Echo!" Naruto shouted just to hear his own voice reverberate out over the middle of nowhere. Muret palmed her face as she dangled precariously by the rope around her waist.

XxX

(With the Foxhound Pirates)

It hadn't taken long after Naruto, Muret, and Paulie had departed up the mountain for Vivi to find the lake she had been looking for, not far from the foot of the mountain back through the forest. So the Foxhound Pirates took to lounging about, waiting for Naruto to finish up and come back down so that they could leave.

Miss Valentine just sat down by the lake and lay down on the grass, relaxing in the pleasant climate. Nojiko was close by, soaking her feet and legs in the water and taking in the beautiful scenery as she cleaned her guns. She had already marked the island's location on her smaller scale model of a map of the area and planned to place it on the large world map on the ship once they returned. Soren was interacting with the wildlife, much to Vivi's amusement.

Soren was crouched down, staring at a small ocelot. The small wildcat just blinked at Soren blankly as he eyed it down, "Go ahead. Go ahead and do it and see what happens… I dare you."

Vivi sat nearby, petting Carue as they both took in the scene before them, "It's a little cat Soren. How would it even pull it off?"

As if directly responding to Vivi's question, the ocelot stuck up its paw and flashed its middle toe at Soren, forcing the man to growl and take a swing at it. A swing that missed the nimble creature, "You little bastard!" Soren yelled over Vivi's laughter, "Eat this! Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!" Soren threw a kick that sent off an air blade but missed. Growling at his miss, he began to chase the cat that had gone over near Nojiko and Miss Valentine.

Once he began to disrupt the girls in his pursuit of the animal, Miss Valentine grabbed a hold of his leg, holding him in place, "Kilo Kilo Henkan (Kilogram Conversion)." She said disinterestedly as Soren found his body weighing him down more than enough to let the Ocelot get away.

He stopped trying to chase after it and stomped over to Miss Valentine who smiled at him innocently as she grabbed his leg again and turned off the effect of her technique, "I wasn't going to hurt it. I was just going to teach it a lesson."

"Sure you were." Nojiko said in a deadpan voice, showing just how much she knew he was lying.

From the water, Johnny and Yosaku emerged, shirts off with their weapons attached to them, Johnny smirking while Yosaku glared at him, "Damn you. You think you're better than me?"

"Well judging from the fact that I touched the bottom of the lake and was able to stay down there longer than you, yes, yes I am." Johnny taunted, "Even with that anchor on your back you still couldn't stay down there longer."

"Rematch?" Yosaku suggested.

"Loser sharpens the winner's sword." Johnny confirmed as they both dove back down under the water to renew their challenge.

Vivi and Carue walked around the lakeside, content with the lazy feeling of the day's events. She honestly loved being a part of the crew. All of the places she had seen, all of the weird situations she had found herself in. She almost wouldn't have believed she could do it if she hadn't lived through it all. They didn't baby her or treat her like royalty either, they just treated her like a normal girl. She had first felt that way with the Straw Hat Pirates, but Vivi could now honestly say that she felt like the Foxhound Pirates were akin to family. They even felt fine with bearing the onus of kidnapping her just to keep her country safe.

"This is nice, isn't it Carue?" She asked her feathered companion, getting a positive quack from him before his head turned towards the forest in suspicion.

While cleaning her guns, Nojiko's ears picked up sounds of people moving closer that broke the tranquility. Miss Valentine picked up the tension on Nojiko's face seeing the younger woman put all of her guns back in their rightful places on her person as she drew her go-to guns, her pistols, "What's the matter Nojiko?"

Nojiko put her Waver Skates on her feet and lifted her guns towards the forest near them, "Everybody get ready to move, now."

Soren heard the seriousness in her voice and cracked his neck as he loosened his body up, "We're backed up against the lake so we can't really run away here. Me and Valentine can't swim and the idiot brothers are holding their breath underwater as we speak." A smirk crossed his face, "Guess we've gotta fight huh?"

Miss Valentine stood up, twirling her umbrella before setting it over her shoulder, a frown on her pretty face, "Wildlife?"

Nojiko shook her head as Vivi and Carue made their way back over to the others, "Nope, definitely people. The footsteps aren't anything like an animal's. It's not Naruto-kun, Muret, and Paulie either. There are way more of them."

Vivi gulped as she grabbed the weapon that doubled as her belt, "Maybe Naruto's playing around with his clones or something like that?"

Soren let out a laugh, "You can keep thinking like that if you want to. The rest of us will settle for staying alive." Vivi puffed out her cheeks indignantly at being made fun of by the former thief.

"Dodge!" Nojiko shouted, turning her Waver Skates on and breaking away just as a mass of arrows ripped from the forest at them, prompting them to take evasive maneuvers.

Soren aptly dodged the arrows fired at him, and was glad that he did as he saw them make contact with the ground and smash small craters into the earth, "Man I'm glad I'm faster than those stupid arrows."

Vivi and Carue on the other hand were using every single scrap of Naruto's critical edge dodging training that they had to keep out of contact with the arrows as well as avoiding slipping into the craters formed, "Who's attacking us?"

Nojiko could tell from the trajectory of the arrows flying at them where they were coming from and reached into her supplies to pull out a pair of grenades that she quickly bit down on the wicks with to shorten explosion time. Lighting the explosive orbs, she hurled them into the forest and produced a mighty explosion. She smirked as she saw the fires she managed to start, "That should smoke them out."

The end to the barrage of arrows came as a relief to Vivi and Carue who were able to stop their deadly dance with the projectiles, allowing Vivi to draw her ranged jewelry belt weapon, "Kujakki ga Shinreideatta (Peacock Ranged Slasher)!" Vivi linked three of the long chains together and slung it out at the woods in a lightning-fast manner, the razor-sharp blades cutting down trees and the like.

"Way to clear cut princess!" Soren said before puffing his cheeks out, timing the fall of the trees with the launching of his attack, "Hide from this! Ibi Ibi no Ame (Rot Rot Rain)!" A rainstorm of acid rained down from above directly over what had been the edge of the forest as Soren cackled once the alarmed cries of their attackers sounded out. He stopped after taking a minute to listen to the voices, "Wait a minute… those are all chick voices. Not a dude in the bunch."

From what was left of the forest, all of the people cleared out revealing them to all be women as Soren suspected, scantily clad women, "Awesome." Soren said before blinking, "I mean not awesome! I almost melted a ton of women!"

Nojiko narrowed her eyes at them, there were so many, at least one hundred in all, "What do you all want? Why did you attack us?"

"To test you all to see if the Gorgon Sisters would be needed for you." One of the women said, holding up a stiffened out snake as if it were a staff, "The acid-spitting man that you all have with you melted most of our arrows with his last attack."

"Yeah…" Soren said in a smug manner with his tongue sticking out of his mouth, "I'm just awesome like that."

"Leave us alone." Nojiko said holding her pistols up towards them, "We don't want to fight, we're just resting up."

The women all started laughing at her, "You don't have a choice in the matter. Do you think you can tell the Kuja Pirates to do what you want us to do?"

"Fine." Nojiko said, lifting one of her guns into the air and firing it, smirking for an unknown reason.

"10,000 Kilo Oshitsukeru (10,000 Kilogram Press)!"

Miss Valentine dropped from the sky above them and smashed into the ground between the two groups. The Foxhound Pirates had all been prepared and thusly had braced for impact, however the Kuja Pirates had not and they were knocked to the ground by the tremor created by Miss Valentine, "Kyahahahaha, I love doing that so much!"

While the others were prepared to continued the fight, Soren was thinking about something, "Kuja Pirates… I swear I've heard that somewhere before. Yo Valentine, have you heard of the Kuja Pirates before."

The blonde woman stopped laughing and nodded, "Yeah, why?"

"We're fighting them." Soren explained to her. Due to her being so high in the air, Miss Valentine had missed hearing that part of the conversation between the two crews, but when she heard that fact her eyes widened, "What? What's wrong?"

"That's a Shichibukai's crew." She said, with no humor or amusement in her tone at all, "Like Crocodile or Doflamingo."

Vivi and Nojiko's jaws dropped at that revelation, "Another one?" Vivi questioned, "Why the hell do the keep running into us like that? Our luck fucking sucks!" The others all looked at the princess, not used to ever really hearing her curse.

"Sweet!" Soren said, excited at getting a chance to fight another Shichibukai with no Naruto in sight to take the battle over, "Who's the government dog I'm putting down today? Because I'm young, I'm violent, and I've been good. I haven't killed anybody in weeks!"

"Don't you talk about our Hebi-hime that way you foolish man!"

"Hebi-hime will destroy you when she finds what you've done!"

Soren stood mimicking the irate women, unafraid of whoever it was he was about to prepare to fight while Miss Valentine racked her brain trying to think of who the captain of this crew was, "So this is the crew that sails on that ship with the horridly offensive colors?"

The entire crew seemed to cheer at the sound of the rather aristocratic sounding voice as they cleared a path, "Hebi-hime! Yes, finish them off!"

"You're so beautiful!"

"The most gorgeous woman in the world! 'Pirate Empress' Boa Hancock!"

And once they all got a glimpse of her, the Foxhound Pirates had to agree. Nojiko and Miss Valentine felt rather jealous of her good looks, as she seemed to be far more attractive than they were, it almost wasn't fair. As weird as it was they were strangely attracted to her… and they could never let Naruto know that they had that kind of inclination of attraction towards other women as well, because he would never let it die.

Vivi was moved by how noble she looked, if she was a real princess she wished that she could move with such a gait one day.

Soren on the other hand stood with his jaw almost hitting the ground, "So~~ hot. Like… so~~~ hot. It's not even funny." He said in an awestruck manner, "This is the Shichibukai I said I was going to beat up? I think I have to take that one back, you know?"

Hancock stood, flanked by Sandersonia and Marigold as she looked at the Foxhound Pirates and the looks in their eyes that she found familiar. Everyone that had ever seen her had looked at her much the way that they all had, "You all find me to be beautiful don't you?"

Soren nodded furiously, "That's like asking me if this island flipped us off. Yes. Why are you telling us obvious stuff?"

"Oh, no reason." She said with a small smile as she formed a heart shape with her hands and aimed at them all. All of the crew members were aware of how important the placement of one's hands were for attacks, having spent enough time around Naruto to know how dangerous his hand-seals were. Nojiko turned on her Waver Skates to move and Miss Valentine extended her umbrella to float away while Vivi hopped on Carue to retreat away, but it was too late, "Mero Mero Mellow (Falling-Down Drunk Sweet Wind)."

A beam in the shape of hearts came from her hands that expanded and caught everyone in its radius with the exception of Soren who hit the deck and used his powers to melt a hole into the ground and avoid being hit with it. The other crew members that were hit with the beam were turned to stone, freezing them in place. Miss Valentine never even got off of the ground to attempt to fly, Nojiko's skates deactivated and she landed back on her feet. Vivi was frozen as she sat on Carue, who was also frozen.

Marigold looked at the hole in the ground that Soren had carved out with narrowed eyes, "He managed to avoid or dear sister's attack."

"Hmm." Hancock said dismissively, "It doesn't matter. One useless coward of a man running away from my beauty and strength doesn't matter."

Sandersonia smirked, "He's not planning a counterattack as far as I can see. He really must have run away."

At that moment from the lake, Johnny and Yosaku emerged with the latter carrying the former to shore before dropping him and stepping on his stomach, "Breathe you idiot, breathe!" Yosaku said in a breathless manner as Johnny spat up water like a spigot, "You shouldn't have made me punch you in the stomach stupid!" He yelled at him, ignoring the others before them.

Johnny's head snapped up and he jumped to his feet, kicking Yosaku and driving his foot far into his stomach, "That doesn't count as your win asshole! You were about to crack, ten minutes is your limit! You went out like a cheater!"

Ignoring the Kuja Pirates, the two got into each other's faces and shouted, "There weren't any rules!" Yosaku yelled.

Johnny gripped the hilt of his sword at his waist, "Let's settle this!"

Yosaku quickly brandished Kubikiribouchou in response, "Anytime you're ready little man!"

They both jumped back and faced off from each other, preparing to fight until they finally noticed the audience they had for their friendly little scrap, "Whoa." Both of them said with wide-eyes once they saw the Kuja Pirates. Johnny took off his sunglasses for a moment to make sure what he was seeing was real. Once he confirmed it was indeed real he placed them back on and grinned, "Well hello there." Yosaku followed his lead and put his sword up

Hancock just looked at them and slowly raised her hands up in her heart shape again, "Mero Mero Mellow (Falling-Down Drunk Sweet Wind)." And just like that, they were turned to stone. With that done, Hancock turned on her heel and walked away back towards her ship, "Take those men. We can find use for them and then dispose of them." She said without much care over the matter with the exception of the distaste she said 'them' with, referring to Johnny and Yosaku.

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto finally reached the summit of the mountain and threw his hands in the air in victory, "Yes! Yes! Oh Kami yes!" He exclaimed, "Who's the man!" He waited for his echo to dissipate, "I'm the man!" He finished, exclamating his point by stabbing a Hiraishin kunai directly into the rock.

Muret was happily collecting the herbs that she found in what would have been the fingernail of the middle finger, "Yes, yes Naruto-sama, you're the man." She said in a placating fashion, "So what are you going to call the island since you made it up here."

Paulie jolted awake, "How about 'Go Fuck Yourself Island'?"

"Nah." Naruto said swiftly, "That's not creative or cool at all."

"Up Yours Island?" Paulie suggested again.

"Nope." Naruto said, pacing about back and forth waiting for something to come to him, "One-Finger Island. That's the name."

Muret shook her head as she finished loading up on medicinal herbs, "You're so dumb Naruto-sama I swear…"

"Alright time to go back down…" Naruto said, bouncing on his toes as if he were preparing for something, "I'm gonna jump." He said with a feral grin.

"No!" Paulie and Muret both pleaded as they were still tied to him.

"Aw…" Naruto said, having had his bubble burst by his crewmates, "You guys are no fun at all."

XxX

(At the Foot of the Mountain)

Soren had managed to dig himself far enough away to escape the Kuja Pirates. With Boa Hancock's powers it was way too dangerous to try and fight them all by himself, even if the ability of the crew severely dropped off after that point. The girls were all petrified and the idiot brothers were petrified and taken, probably as trophies of war or something. He couldn't do anything about this by himself. Fighting by himself would be stupid.

He was pacing around impatiently, looking up and waiting for Naruto to get back down with the others. Climbing up would take longer than just waiting for him to finish climbing and drop back down, and there was a chance he would miss him on the way up, "Come on Uzumaki, get your ass down here… this isn't a good time to fuck around…"

XxX

Johnny and Yosaku found themselves in a daze as they had just been depetrified and swiftly tied up, their weapons taken away from them. Johnny was the first to recover as he glared at the Kuja Pirates aboard their ship, "What do you all think you're going to do to us?" He growled out. All he knew was that they had better not sleep on them or else they'd break out and tear that ship down around them. The two swordsmen were not to be fucked with, in their own minds anyway.

Yosaku felt much the same way, in disbelief and anger that they had been captured, "We're not going to cooperate with anything you guys say." He smirked darkly, "We're shitty prisoners we're sorry to say."

All of the women just stared down at them, "We're not going to do anything to you. Only a few of us are actually in need of anything from you."

Johnny growled lowly, "You think you're going to get anything from us? It'll be a cold day in hell…"

One of the women shook her head, "You don't get a choice in the matter. You're going to sire the offspring of a select few women of Amazon Lily whether you like it or not."

The two swordsmen quickly put an end to their pseudo tough guy prisoner act once their brains registered the words 'sire' and 'offspring'. They looked at each other before turning back towards the Kuja Pirates and disputing their fate vehemently… yeah right.

"No." Johnny said in a deadpan voice.

Yosaku followed suit, speaking much the same way, "You monsters, how could you?"

"Have mercy." Johnny followed up in monotone.

In their heads however they were singing a different song, 'Dah-dah dah-dah-dah, dah-dah dah-dah-dah, dah-dah dah-dah-dah, dah-dah dah-dah-dah… Foxtrot! Uniform! Charlie! Kilo!' Man, what was so bad about being a prisoner? This was going to be great, 'I don't think we made it out of that lake. Maybe we drowned and went to heaven?' They thought.

* * *

**Chapter done. Not much to say everyone so I'll leave you with this. Hope you enjoyed, and as always there will be more coming.**

**It's 3 a.m. so I'll catch you guys later. Kenchi out.**


	32. Don't Poke the Fox

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Boo…

**Chapter 32: Don't Poke the Fox**

* * *

The walk down the mountain was far quicker than the walk up, mostly because they didn't need to stop every time Muret spotted an herb worth collecting for later.

As soon as his feet touched the ground after walking down the mountain Naruto found himself hoisted off of the ground by the collar of his flak jacket and shaken frantically by Soren, "Uzumaki what the fuck took so long, I need your goddamn help right fucking now, no joke!"

Naruto got Soren to stop shaking him and also got him to let go of his flak jacket, "Damn Soren, grip. What's the matter?"

"We are fucked, that's what the matter is!" Soren exclaimed more animatedly than Naruto had ever seen him before in his time knowing him, "Johnny and Yosaku's dumb asses got captured and the girls and the duck got turned to stone by that bitch…" At this point his eyes glassed over in remembrance, "…Bitch she was, but she was so hot… like, so hot."

Naruto's mind however, had stopped on the part where his swordsmen got captured and the girls were turned to stone, "The girls got turned to stone?" He said with an unreadable tint in his voice, "Like those guys we found on that ship?" Soren nodded, "What the fuck happened, where the fuck are they, who the fuck did it, how the fuck did they do it, and how the fuck did you get away?" He ordered.

"Follow me." Soren instructed, prompting Naruto, Paulie, and Muret to quickly follow after him towards the site of the short conflict between the Kuja and Foxhound Pirates.

XxX

At the lakeside, right where he left them, Soren led Naruto and the others to the statuesque forms of Nojiko, Miss Valentine, Vivi, and Carue, "This is it." He said lowly, "There wasn't anything I could do. By the time we realized something was up it was pretty much too late. I got lucky and dodged the beam she used but they couldn't, it was a wide shot. I had to melt my way into the ground to escape. Sorry."

Naruto remained silent for a moment as he touched Nojiko's stone face, "No, it wasn't your fault. If you were going to be turned to stone like the rest of them then how could you have stayed and fought?" Soren let out a grunt, letting Naruto know that he certainly was not okay with deserting the others and retreating, "How long ago?"

"Twenty minutes." Soren responded tersely as he watched Muret walk over to the petrified crew members, "So what do you think?"

Muret frowned, she actually really liked the crew, they were definitely better than Bellamy's for sure. But if this was just like what had befallen the sailors on the ship they had found, she had no clue of what to do, "I don't have any idea of what to do. The best thing I can think of is to take them with us-."

"-While we look for who did this." Naruto finished for her, a growl in his voice, "So I can beat the fuck out of them." He noticed that the others could see how angry he was, "No I'm not going to kill who did it though… then everyone would be stuck like this. I'm going to make sure they live so they can turn them all back, and if they hurt Johnny or Yosaku then they're going to pay double." He said as he made clones to carefully lift the statues to carry back to the ship. He himself took on the task of carrying Nojiko's himself.

"Then let's go." Paulie said, "If we're going to chase them, a twenty minute head-start is nothing for our ship to close the distance on."

Naruto held onto Nojiko in statue form tightly, "Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go already." He muttered rather darkly in a manner that sent a shiver down Muret's spine.

"Naruto-sama seems… um, perturbed." She commented as she turned Funkfreed into his elephant form to keep up with the faster crew members that were still being left in the dust by Naruto and his clones.

"Duh." Soren said with a steely gaze directed at nothing in particular, "Why wouldn't he be pissed? Hell, I'm pissed. I just hope Uzumaki doesn't kill the bitch that did this by accident, she might be the only way the girls can turn back to normal." He cracked his knuckles, "Besides, I've got a bone to pick with those bitches…"

XxX

(Kuja Pirates Main Ship)

Johnny and Yosaku were both still totally tied up, their arms and legs bound to four corners of a bed as they lay there in their boxers. "Oi!" Johnny said, speaking up loudly to the multiple women in the room, "Can you like, take one of us to a different room? If this is going to happen, having it happen while I'm in the same room as him would mess with my stroke." He said, nudging his head towards Yosaku.

"Agreed." Yosaku said before mustering up some fake anger, "You evil women! How could you do this to us! We're people, not cattle!"

"Silence." One of the Kuja Pirates said, "Now we've worked out how this will go as far as your usefulness will go." She pointed towards Johnny, "You are the more aesthetically pleasing one."

Johnny smirked and looked over at a growling Yosaku, "You know what that means Yosaku? It means I'm the sexy one, too bad for you."

The woman then continued, pointing at Yosaku, "Yes, however from what we've seen he is the one that is far more powerful."

Johnny's jaw dropped in shock as Yosaku began laughing, "It's just a fact. The ladies know quality awesome when they see it. It's no one's fault, but do be jealous, I like that."

"What the fuck?" Johnny tried to argue, "How does he seem stronger than me? It's the sword isn't it?" He got a series of unanimous nods from the women, "Oh come on! He's totally overcompensating with that big piece of crap! Don't take that at face value here!"

Ignoring him, the Kuja Pirate in command of the situation continued her explanation, "As a result of these things it has been decided that the pirate named Yosaku will be with the least desirable of our crew. So that his good stock may possibly improve the quality of their offspring. Meanwhile Johnny will be given to the most enviable of our crew looking to bear children due to their already dominant good genes."

Johnny's face lit up, "Sweet!"

"Boo!" Yosaku said in displeasure, "Fuck you Johnny! Karma's a motherfucker, you'll see!"

"I'm sorry buddy." Johnny said, wishing he could dance right now just to rub his victory in that much more, "But my 'suffering' will be that much greater than yours. Just so you know…"

The women broke into two groups with the one running the show pointing to one side that was standing around Yosaku's bed. The more shapely, smaller women gathered around him and picked his bed up to take into another room with Yosaku's tongue hanging out and hearts in his eyes the entire way, "Pirate number one will be used by the petite women with lesser physical ability…"

"And I'm just a-ok with that!" Yosaku happily interrupted as he was taken into a room with the door shutting behind him.

She then pointed at the ones that surrounded Johnny's bed, as his eyes were bulging out from behind his sunglasses at the size of the women, "Pirate number two will be used by the women with the optimum strength, the cream of the crop." She said about the gargantuan women, one of whom lifted Johnny's bed to carry into the room designated for them.

Johnny struggled against his restraints in an attempt to get away, "Can't we switch? Why would you want your best to breed with my weak ass? Let them go with Yosaku, let me have the weak ones? Please? _Please?_ Can't we just cuddle?" He let out one last scream as his door closed, "Nooo! Naruto-aniki save meee!"

"Be a good wingman Johnny!"

"Fuck you Yosaku!"

"No thanks, I've got women willing to do that for me!"

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Soren's head snapped up as he sat in the crow's nest with a pair of binoculars in his hands, "Something good and/or hilarious is happening to someone I know very well right now and I'm clearly missing the punchline of the joke. This day just keeps getting worse and worse…"

"Soren!" The man in question looked down from his roost at Naruto who was sitting under the tree-like mast that Soren was at the top of, "How close are we? Give me a time-table of us catching up."

Soren held up one open hand, "Five minutes Uzumaki. In five minutes we'll be there. When we actually do get there, what's the plan?"

Naruto replied in a robotic monotone, "Get onboard their ship, beat their asses unmercifully until we find who petrified the girls, make them turn them back, get Johnny and Yosaku, leave… and maybe blow up their ship on the way out."

"Right." Soren said with a sweatdrop before pointing down, not that Naruto could see it from his angle, "By the way when this all goes down you're the one fighting Boa Hancock. I'd rather not risk my neck with getting petrified if I can help it, especially after dodging that bullet the first time."

"That's what I wanted anyway." Naruto said, agreeing to the terms of engagement. Can you take whoever else we'll fight?"

Soren grinned ferally, "I can certainly try can't I? There's no way I'm running away twice in one day." His grin dropped when he thought of something else, "What about the others? Muret is no fighter and we don't have a clue about what Paulie can do other than the little scrum you had out with him back in Water 7."

Naruto thought about Soren's words before letting off a shrug, "This is what we've got. They're not attacking anyway. We are, or should I say I am. You're getting the idiot brothers out all sneaky-like while I'm running amok looking for that Hancock woman." His eyes angrily flickered gold for a second, "Then I'm going to force her to turn my girls back."

"Good luck with that." Soren said honestly. Unless Naruto utterly abused his Hiraishin the way he had planned to against Aokiji then he would eventually get turned to stone. The beam Hancock used was very encompassing of space, but Naruto was probably wily enough to find some way to overcome it, "If that's what you want Uzumaki, you've got it."

XxX

Inside, Muret had the statues of the girls and Carue all safely held in her medical bay area attached to her room. They were on beds and secured so that they wouldn't fall easily and break like the statues she had seen on the ghost ship a ways back, "Is there anything I can even do here?" She asked herself and her pet elephant/sword rather desperately as he sat near Carue, trumpeting sadly over what seemed to be the loss of his fellow crew pet, "This isn't even medical. This is supernatural, I can't do anything with this…"

She paced around and looked over all of her stone-encased patients before letting out an indignant yell, "Gah! What is Naruto-sama even paying me for if I can't even help when I'm needed! Can't our medical problems be _actual_ medical problems for once?"

"At least you could have been of some use." Muret turned to the door of the room to see Paulie standing there with a cigar in his mouth, "What good am I in this situation? I'm a damn shipwright if you haven't noticed."

Muret gave him a dry look, "The medical bay is a no-smoking… oh I don't really care right now." She said to no one in particular. Muret sank to the ground, leaning against Vivi's bed and put her hand on the stone princess, "I hope Naruto-sama beats the hell out of every last one of those stupid Kuja Pirates… Shichibukai or not, I don't really care who did this."

"It's going to be tough." Paulie remarked, leaning against the doorframe.

Muret smirked and looked up at him with a gleam in her eye, "You didn't watch him during the stuff that happened at Enies Lobby did you?" Paulie shook his head as he had in fact not. He had gotten away before Naruto's eventual trouncing of the Marine forces, "I'm not saying a word about it then. Just watch and see."

XxX

(Onboard the Kuja Ship)

Naruto's ship didn't bring much of a haul for the Kuja Pirates all things considered. The most that they were able to steal were valuable pieces of jewelry from Vivi's room, and the more expensive clothes that Vivi, Nojiko, and Miss Valentine kept for themselves. None of the men really had anything worth value… to the untrained eye. For example, in Naruto's room all of his valuables were kept in scrolls that were left out in the open, because no one could open them except for him. At face value they looked useless, so no one took them.

What they had taken however, were the very well crafted and valuable looking weapons that Naruto kept up in a display on his wall. Small knives with wooden hilts that had something inscribed on them, the blades of which had three prongs.

As the Kuja Pirates on deck looked over the little they had taken from the Natural Disaster, attention turned to the weapons. The weapons there happened to be Kubikiribouchou which all of them found difficult to even begin to try and wield, the Kusanagi no Tsurugi that seemed like regular ornate sword to them, and the weird knives that garnered the most speculation from the women, "How does anyone even use these things in battle? They don't look very applicable towards a fight."

Another of the pirates grabbed the weapon from the first one's hand, "Maybe that's why they were on display, because they're useless in battle." She said with a laugh before tossing the weapon aside, sticking it in the deck blade-first.

"Finally!"

Everyone's head turned towards the knife that had just been thrown to see a veritable small squad of five blonde men all looking exactly the same, standing there with serious looks on their faces, "I wondered when one of you idiots would throw one so I could make sure you actually took my entire batch of Hiraishin kunai."

"Your what?" One on the female pirates asked before the group that had been hoarding around their ill-gotten goods found themselves all knocked away by a single Naruto who appeared in the middle of them, standing over all of his remaining kunai.

Naruto calmly bent down and picked up all of his kunai, sticking them inside of the pockets of his flak jacket that had been set with the same pocket seals that his sage coat possessed, "Now I'll ask you all nicely one time. I want you to bring me Boa Hancock so she can turn my crew back to normal, and I want the crew members that you guys took. Give 'em up now and I'll be nice… don't give 'em up and I'll just take 'em."

Laughter erupted from all of the women on deck, "Who do you think you are?"

"I'm glad you asked." Naruto said as his clones sprang into action and began taking on the crew members that thought it was smart to laugh instead of pay attention to a potential threat. Naruto's four clones had more than enough chakra between them to make clones of their own that matched the numbers of the Kuja Pirates and then some, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and you're not getting a full introduction from me when you're not even going to be conscious long enough for it to sink in."

"How dare you!" One of the larger female pirates swung their snake weapon at him like a club only for Naruto to deliver a punch to her stomach that sent her flying back into the mansion-like construct built on the deck of the ship to house the more elite crew members.

"How dare I?" Naruto asked with his fist still outstretched from the punch. His clones were definitely doing some damage to the crew, but dispelling after only one hit was problematic when his goal was to leave them alive to find the person that petrified his girls. Still, the authoritative show of physical force done by his punch stopped the fighting females in their tracks as he continued to speak, "You should be asking your own fucking selves that question! What the hell were all of you thinking, attacking and turning my precious people to stone for no reason? I would kill you right now if I didn't need you alive to unfreeze them!" He shouted, radiating nothing but pure anger from his person.

Naruto's clones all shared his sentiment from the stern looks on their faces, though on a lesser scale, as they dispelled to have Naruto save his chakra for his own battle, seeing as how he could take more than one hit and they couldn't.

With only one target to take aim at, the Kuja Pirates turned their snake weapons into bows and all pointed their arrows at Naruto who shut his eyes as he felt his clones leave him, "You've come to the wrong place to try and give orders fool."

Naruto shook his head as an orange pigment appeared around his eyes signifying him entering Sage Mode by standing still for as long as he had been. They opened back up to reveal the Rinnegan out and about as he extended his hands and spoke the name of his jutsu, "Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!" Before they could fire their arrows at him, Naruto knocked them all away with an unseen force before lifting one hand towards one of the women that he sent flying away, "5, 4, 3, 2, 1, Banshou Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All Creation)!"

A woman of average size flew into Naruto's grip as he held her by her collar. She tried to draw another arrow to attack him, only for him to snatch the snake weapon from her with his free hand and throw it overboard before it could bite him. The woman found herself unnerved once she looked into his strangely patterned and felt paralyzed under his demanding gaze, "W-What do you want with me?"

"Name." Naruto ordered, getting nothing but nervous quivering from her until he gave her a shake, "Name or I'll just take it from you and that's the last thing you want!"

"Ran!" The woman said, "My name is Ran!" She saw a frown cross his face that scared her as to her fate, "W-What are you going to do?"

"Nothing since you're not Boa Hancock." Naruto said informatively, noticing Ran's eyes widen at something, and that something wasn't anything that he had done, it was behind him. Avoiding something that would have smashed him into the deck, Naruto jumped out of the way and turned, still holding onto Ran, to stare down his attacker, "Boa Hancock?" He asked hopefully as he looked at the woman that stood a full body taller than him, only for her to shake her head at him, "Not Boa Hancock… then I don't really want to deal with you."

"It's true that I'm not my sister…" Naruto's ears perked up at hearing that the new arrival to the battle was Hancock's sister, "I am Boa Sandersonia… and there's no reason for my sister to have to personally handle a suicidal man like you that thinks he can attack the Kuja Pirates and live."

Naruto held Ran up to eye-level and looked at her, "Well the good news is I'm going to stop scaring the hell out of you now. I have a better hostage to pick with, unless you still want to fight too?" He asked with a dangerous tint to his voice as he looked around at the slowly recovering Kuja Pirates he and his clones had beaten back, "I'm in a really bad mood right now and I might just kill you."

He began emitting pure killing intent as the women could nearly see him tearing their ship asunder and sucking it underneath the ocean in a massive whirlpool in their minds. 'What is this feeling?' Sandersonia thought, at first attributing it to the rarest of the three existing Haki out there, but it seemed full of a more specific purpose, not based on his will, but on his intentions and it only seemed heightened by the power he was radiating. The Kuja Pirates backed away even further from Naruto than before. Some dropped to their knees as if they were being strangled, others dropped their weapons, and an unlucky set of them even fainted from the pressure they felt like they were under.

Unaware, or uncaring of the effect he was having on the women far weaker than him, Naruto unceremoniously tossed the now unconscious Ran aside and dropped into a fighting stance directed at Sandersonia, "The bad news is that I'm going to kick your ass until your sister gets out here and makes everything right."

"I'd love to see you try." Sandersonia said, getting her swagger back as her already tall body turned into a green human-snake hybrid, her body lengthening immensely as well, taking on the form of part anaconda, "How do you like this?" She asked in amusement as her body had already begun to trap Naruto, cutting off parts of his area to move about.

"I _don't _like this." Naruto said matter-of-factly, tapping his foot impatiently, "Because beating the crap out of you isn't going to do anything for my crew!"

Sandersonia's tail lunged towards Naruto in an attempt to ensnare him, "Oh boo-hoo, I'm so sorry! Let me give you a hug to make you feel better!" Naruto jumped into the air and descended with a Rasengan in his hand that the snake-woman escaped from easily, "Too easy! Give me a challenge would you?"

Naruto growled to himself, 'In Sage Mode she shouldn't be able to keep up with me. Kami knows she's not faster than me. She's just hard to anticipate and scout with that body of hers.' He observed as he kept missing his kicks and punches that he swore were coming right for her head. Even when he started attacking at her body itself he couldn't land a hit. Even the Kawazu Kumite (Frog Kata) backlash didn't hit her, as if she could see it before he threw it just like-, 'Damn it she can do the Haki thing that Noji-chan can do can't she?'

"Just face it, it's over." Sandersonia said as she kept up her game face and teased him. The fact was, she was concentrating as hard as she could to stay less than one step ahead of him. He was criminally fast and if it wasn't for the fact that they were fighting on a ship she probably wouldn't have been able to avoid damage, "If you surrender now you might not die. We'll probably just take you to the Marines to see how much you're worth."

"Yeah whatever." Naruto said as he brandished a Hiraishin kunai. It wasn't like he didn't know how to overwhelm people with that particular Haki, Nojiko complained about her weakness with it all the time. When someone moved faster than she could keep up with there was nothing she could do. He threw the kunai, missing her head by inches before disappearing in a yellow flash.

"What?" Sandersonia said as she felt something grab the end of her tail tightly in an iron-like grip. She felt herself lifted from the ground and swung around before she was let go of and thrown into the water, "No! I can't-!" She tried to shout before she landed into the water with a splash.

Naruto rolled his eyes as he heard the women that he hadn't knocked out exclaim about how he had thrown one of their beloved sisters into the ocean, unsealing Samehada and throwing it overboard into the ocean after pumping his own chakra into it to allow it to grow, "Go fetch for me Samehada, just under the water."

"Gigigigigigi (Samehada is not a dog!)" The sentient sword communicated as it went under the surface of the water after Sandersonia.

Naruto waited until he heard a splash and jumped into the air, running up the side of one of the masts on the ship as Sandersonia was thrown up over the deck of the ship, now turned back to normal. Samehada shot from the water like a missile and while in the air batted Sandersonia at Naruto who jumped off of the mast at her with his right arm drawn back, an aura of chakra taking on the form of a fox, "Rariatto (Lariat)!"

And as Naruto's arm hit Sandersonia, they went flying into the wall of the mansion that had been built on the deck, destroying a portion of the wall. After picking the wreckage out of his hair and dusting off his clothes, Naruto looked down at an unconscious Sandersonia as he heard the Kuja Pirates outside call out in alarm that he had just defeated her. Naruto walked to the hole he made in the wall and yelled out, "Samehada stand guard would you? Nobody gets in here until I come out!"

And just like that, the sword jetted to the front of the mansion, with the toothy mouth at the top of it growling threateningly at any pirate that was in half enough condition to fight.

XxX

(Inside the Kuja Pirates' Ship)

When Naruto used Hiraishin to make his way over, he grabbed Soren and threw him away from him, using his clones as cover. Getting what he was meant to do, Soren went down to the hold intending to find and leave with Johnny and Yosaku, 'Now if I were a pair of idiots in statue form where would I be? I don't know why these chicks decided to take these guys as spoils of war.'

The inside of the Kuja ship was well lit and rather ornate, with the light colors of the walls showing their femininity despite the fact that Soren knew they weren't weak. No way they were if they were on the Grand Line. It couldn't have just been the Boa Hancock woman that made the crew so good.

As he pondered this, he heard heavier footsteps than his own walking towards him, bringing him to a stop as he looked around, 'Damn, nowhere to hide in this corridor. Not without making it obvious that I'm here. And Uzumaki is probably tearing shit up topside.' Sighing, resigning himself to his fate to probably have to fight, he set himself in a fighting stance and cracked his neck loudly.

Around the corner at the end of the corridor came the larger, more muscular woman that had been with Boa Hancock and Soren inwardly swore, 'It couldn't have been a crony. Someone I could have taken hostage, no it had to be one of the stronger ones that don't need those stupid bows with the Haki arrows to fight. Ugh, fine. It isn't Hancock herself or I'd be in legit trouble. At least this is a fight I've got a better shot of winning.' With this in mind, Soren spoke up, "Hey, you guys took a pair of guys that might have had swords on them. One's stupid, wears sunglasses, has a tattoo on his face, and has a really poor disposition. The other is really stupid, wears stupid headgear, and swears up and down that he's awesome. Can you just take me to them so I can leave?"

"We need those men to propagate our tribe. Then we will dispose of them once it has been confirmed that they've given offspring to the women intending to carry." Marigold just gave him a serious look as she brandished her large halberd/axe weapon from her back, "I could kill you or beat you until that's what you think happened though. Would that work for you?"

"Not really." Soren said, now fully prepared to fight. The woman was twice his height and width, thus blocking him from taking any way around her except for through her to progress through the corridor. He hated fighting in places with little space to move, but there was no choice here. He had no angles to use for getting a blindspot shot at her, melting through the walls would not really have helped him here in that regard. It was heads up fighting or he might as well got back up to the deck and ask Naruto for help. Yeah right, as if he would ever live that down, and as if he would ever ask his dumbass captain for help in the first place, "Yeah, fuck that I'm pissed, let's fight."

"You're a vulgar one aren't you?" Marigold said as her body started to transform, turning herself into a snake-human hybrid the way Sandersonia did only yellow in color instead of green. Seemingly in response, Soren turned and spit on the ground, his saliva burning into the floor, "Very vulgar."

"I'm de facto first mate on my ship." Soren said with determination in his voice, "You've got my friends down here somewhere and I'm getting them out. Then Uzumaki's going to make your leader turn everyone back to normal, because that's how we roll. I don't care what kind of weird Devil Fruit powers you have."

Marigold narrowed her eyes at him, he had to die here before he started saying that around their crew. Otherwise the curse of the Gorgon story that they had been telling as the origin of their powers would be in jeopardy. Luckily there was no one there but she and he. She'd make this quick, "You won't get away twice."

Soren rushed directly at her to test the waters of just what he could do going toe-to-toe after learning what he could over the last month of tough training, "I was not retreating, I was advancing to future victories!"

Marigold spat a liquid substance at Soren that he dodged, not wanting to test out exactly what it was. Jumping onto and off of a wall he delivered a hard punch right to her stomach that she couldn't dodge in the confined area, bringing a smirk to his face until he realized that his fist never sank into her belly. Soren blinked and looked up, only to find that Marigold was smirking down at him, "That tickled…" The end of her tail appeared over her shoulder, aimed like a spear, "Hebi Bou (Snake Stick)!"

Soren backstepped the hell out of dodge, using Soru for good measure as the tail of Marigold stabbed into the floor. Soren looked at his fist before glaring at Marigold, "Let me guess… it's Haki again isn't it?" He wasn't really asking, he already knew, "Fine, if Yosaku could bust a vice-admiral's Haki with his big-ass sword then I can do it after all of the bullshit I've been putting my body through."

"Feel free to try." Marigold said before spitting her substance at Soren again, only for him to spit his own acid in response that overpowered hers, "Wait for it." She said as she let the acid hit her skin. After a small amount of sizzling, it dissipated to show nothing more than a slight amount of burning done, which didn't matter as her skin was easily shed anyway in that form.

Soren chuckled, though it was more out of him having nerves than anything else, "Guess I've got to go a little harder to win don't I?" He began dealing off multiple kicks that formed air blades heading towards Marigold, "Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!"

As the attacks bounced off of her body, Marigold laughed, "Do you want to surrender now or are you going to keep trying to make me laugh."

"Right now I'd rather make you cry!" He shouted as he ran forward. If nothing short of major acid damage that might destroy the entire interior of the ship would beat her then he would have to use his good old hands and feet all the way, "You'd better use that stupid weapon of yours this time instead of just holding it and trying to belittle me!" He yelled as he ran towards her, taking a deep breath before launching his attack, "Soru: Hyaku Higyou Yama (Hundred Mountain Strikes)!"

Soren's arms whipped out at Marigold in blurs as he delivered punches that couldn't be seen singularly. He pounded away at Marigold hard enough to actually drive her backwards from the velocity of his fists bouncing off of her body and face. Still, her Busoushoku Haki held strong as she lifted her weapon and cleaved at Soren, missing him and hitting the ground, hissing angrily at her miss when he flipped her off.

"Heh, that stupid island is rubbing off on me." Hearing her sound so angry at not being able to hit him, Soren started getting some bravado back after she hissed, "Oh what's up gigantor, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" Still, he didn't hurt her with his attack, and that was a problem that he had to get around… or through in this case since there was no going around.

Marigold had played with Soren for more than enough time. If Sandersonia were with her the fool wouldn't have even survived for as long as he had, but the fact was that her sister wasn't with her, and all he had to do to avoid her was backstep out of her range. Even the poison that she spat at him was just negated and powered through by whatever he was spitting at her, something that seemed to be acidic in nature. Still, he couldn't break through her Haki, that was something to take solace in at least.

Soren looked at his right arm and flexed it out tentatively, "Man I wish I had tested this out on something alive before today, like on that stupid monkey on the island…" He said, still remembering his less than pleasurable experience on what Naruto had dubbed One-Finger Island, "But I guess you'll have to do. You're going to wish you could have moved after this is over with. I wonder how much of a beating you can take once someone gets through your Haki?"

'Gets through my Haki?' Marigold thought amusedly, her forked tongue flickering out at Soren, 'Okay, I'll bite. He'll do his stupid attack and then I'll rip him in half when it clearly won't work. As if this no-name could break through my defenses.'

The muscles in Soren's right arm tensed to the max, bringing out every vein to be visible in the limb as it seemed to expand somewhat. He sighed, as if he knew what was about to happen, "Learning Tekkai (Iron Mass) is hard." He commented informatively, "I had Valentine hit me while Paulie kept me tied up every day for hours until I could learn to brace and harden my body." His eyes locked with Marigold's in a deadly serious glare, "This is one of the things I learned how to do."

He set himself in a traditional horse stance and set his right arm back to throw, "If I miss I lose, but with you crammed into this hallway with nowhere to go there's no way I'm missing. One-hundred punches, let's see if you can stop 'em all." He ran towards her with his arm ready to fly and began delivering his punches with the one tensed arm while the other held it, bracing it for the potential recoil it would provide, "Kezu Iwa-Ki Tora (Tiger Jackhammer)!"

"Modoku (Deadly Poison)!" Marigold spat a large amount of some corrosive liquid from her mouth, only for Soren to smirk darkly as he ran right through it, seemingly unfazed by any of it, 'No! I can't use my best move or it will destroy the ship!'

Soren's arm jetted out at Marigold with more force than his last physical attack, his right arm enhanced by his Tekkai. The speed his arm flew at was even faster than his last move, only with the muscles in his arm hardened to the extent that each punch forced out a low booming noise as they ripped through the air before bouncing off of Marigold and her Haki shield, 'He's hitting the same exact spot! Is he really-?'

"We're only halfway done bitch!" Soren shouted at the top of his lungs as he kept up the onslaught. Eventually, Marigold spat blood following his final punch. She stood straight up, her eyes rolled back in her head as there sat on her stomach where Soren's fist still remained, an angry red fist mark, on her back was an even bigger fist mark three times the size of the one on her front, "Now we're done. It looks like your will isn't stronger than my body." He said as his arm fell limp and he stepped over her to continue looking for Johnny and Yosaku, holding his temporarily useless arm.

XxX

(With Naruto)

Naruto walked through the Kuja mansion with a blank look on his face, behind him he dragged Sandersonia by her hair as he searched. With him still being in Sage Mode he was easily able to traverse the mansion as he was able to find the person that had the strongest aura on the ship behind a set of doors that he walked to. Baring his canines in anticipation, he swung Sandersonia by her hair and threw her through the door, knocking it wide open. As he entered, he saw a woman enter from a room to the side, looking down at her Sandersonia's beaten frame before looking up and locking eyes with Naruto, Rinnegan seeming to stare into her very soul.

"And you are?" Hancock asked him, no expression on her face in return. After a moment of no response from Naruto, she figured he had been paralyzed by her overwhelming beauty, 'Just like all the others…'

"It doesn't matter who I am." Naruto said, taking off his limiting hitae-ate that let his bangs fall into his face as he slowly started walking into the room towards Hancock and Sandersonia, stopping at the latter and placing his foot directly on top of her, "It matters who you are, because you're Boa Hancock. I fought my way through this place just to get to you."

"How flattering." She said with a ghost of a smile on her face, seemingly ignoring Naruto's foot placed on her sister, "And you defeated my sister all on your own, you're a dedicated fan." She gestured with a flourish to herself, "Well feel free to take in my beauty as a prize for coming so far."

Naruto's eyes narrowed at her, as if to ask if she was serious, "What I want as a prize is for you to give me my crew members back and turn my others back to normal. They didn't do anything to you and you just turned them to stone." His voice started coming out in a growl, "You're going to turn them back, or I'm going to make you. And if you can't turn them back then you don't want to know what I'm going to do."

At that, Hancock's eyes began to try and stare a hole through him, as if she was looking down on him with her impassive glance, "Are you angry with me for what I did?" She asked, beginning to walk a circle around Naruto, "Are you upset with my actions?" Naruto stayed silent as she walked back around to his front, "It doesn't matter in the end, because no matter what I've done or will do to you, you will forgive me… because I am beautiful." She said as if it was a fact, standing in front of Naruto with a look of victory on her face.

Naruto's face didn't change a bit, he simply lifted his foot that was placed on Sandersonia and stomped down on her hard, forcing out a yell of pain from the woman. Naruto didn't blink and neither did Hancock, though Naruto could see her aura spike with his legendary eyes, "Really? Well forgive me for _that_… because I'm blonde." He kicked again, "Forgive me for that because I'm right-handed." Each kick he delivered her could see Hancock getting angrier. Lifting his leg one more time to deliver his point once and for all, he didn't let up, "Forgive me for this because I'm-!"

"Enough!" Hancock finally shouted at him as her large snake weapon flew from the back room she came from, heading directly for Naruto to take a bite out of him. Naruto backflipped away to avoid the attack and stood crouched down, glaring at Hancock as the snake wrapped around her in a protective manner, "You think I would let a despicable man like you lay a hand on my sister and I would just let you do as you please?"

Naruto sneered at her before responding in a biting, sarcastic way, "No, because she's your sister; someone precious to you right? So why the hell do you think I'd let you do what you want just because you're supposed to be beautiful? What kind of fool would forgive you just because of that?"

"You can think about that while you're stone like your friends!" Hancock said as she lifted her hands quickly to take aim, and with her beam's widespread ability to cover area in a flash he wouldn't be able to avoid it, "Mero Mero Mellow (Falling-Down Drunk Sweet Wind)!" As the beam flew at Naruto he stayed crouched even though his Rinnegan eyes allowed him to see the power behind the move. As he was engulfed by the beam he merely held still, only tilting his head to the side in a curious manner as Hancock ended her attack, "Why are you not stone? Anyone that falls prey to my beauty turns to stone when I perform that technique!"

"That's easy…" Naruto said lowly, still in his crouching position, "Because you could be right, you could be the most beautiful woman I've ever seen in my life, but right now I couldn't care any less if you paid me to. Right now when I look at you all these eyes of mine can see is how ugly you are on the inside… and all I want is to make you turn my girls back to normal!" In a puff of smoke, two Naruto copies rushed from the sight cover at her.

'He doesn't find me beautiful?' Hancock thought, growing more outraged at the prospect of someone being immune to her charms, "You obviously don't know who you're dealing with!" She said as the clones got closer, planning to subdue her physically and force her to heal his crew. This was not to be however when Hancock lashed out with her long legs, kicking one clone in the stomach and inexplicably turning him to stone that broke in half before it disappeared in smoke. The other didn't do much better than its brethren as it missed a punch directed at her and wound up taking a kick to the face that did much the same.

With both of his clones defeated, Naruto finally stood up from his crouch, "Just heal the people that you froze, give me back the crew members that you took from me, and I'll leave. It's that simple. I'll take you to them and bring you right back, I just want everyone to be okay. I haven't killed any of your crew so just put mine back to normal."

"Do you really think I would set foot on your ship? Do you think me a fool?" Hancock said with venom in her voice, "So that you can say that you caught and enslaved the 'Pirate Empress' Boa Hancock? So that you can sell me off to the highest bidder?"

"Slave?" Naruto said in a confused manner, "What are you talking about?" The thought of having anyone as a slave made Naruto sick to his stomach. Hell he treated his clones, constructs of chakra that _he_ created to do his own bidding, with a good amount of cordiality. There were slaves out here in the world? He thought he had seen the last of that when the turmoil of the Elemental Nations ended, "I would never do that to anyone! How could you say that? You don't even know me!"

"I know enough of the nature of men to say these things!" Hancock said, her voice full of allegation towards Naruto's intentions. As she spoke, her snake coiled underneath her like a spring, elevating her off of the ground as if it were a platform, "Now disappear! Dorei Yajirushi (Slave Arrow)!" Hancock breathed deeply and kissed out a large heart, pulling part of it like a bow before letting it loose at Naruto, shooting hundreds of heart arrows at him at a rapid-fire pace.

Naruto got on his proverbial bike and took off to avoid getting hit, not wanting to risk or see what would happen if he were to take a hit from them. Naruto found that they were fast enough to begin tracking him down and he turned, pulling out a regular kunai and fishing a Hiraishin kunai from his pocket. Multitasking, he threw the Hiraishin kunai somewhere out of the line of fire, and bought it time to hit the wall by trying to defend against the arrows with his regular kunai. He managed to deflect them narrowly by hitting their sides and not the heads with his own weapon before they could stab into him, but the very first arrow that hit his kunai with the point turned the small blade to stone.

'Not good!' Naruto thought as in the blink of an eye he tossed the stone kunai away in case it could move up and petrify his own hand and the rest of his body as well. Choosing to use Hiraishin to slip away, only for him to teleport right into Boa Hancock's beautiful face as she smirked victoriously.

She blew a kiss into her hand and pointed at him with her index finger, a heart shaped bullet on the tip of her finger, "Kenjuu Seppun (Pistol Kiss)!" Her thumb acted like the hammer of the gun and prompted her heart bullet to go flying right at Naruto and charged with her Busoushoku Haki, Naruto ended up eating it head-on right into his body, sending him flying across the room, hitting the far wall with enough force to utterly crack it with his body.

"Sweet Kami that fucking hurt!" Naruto exclaimed, holding his chest where he took the damage, "Gah, I haven't been hit that hard since I fought Aokiji!" Naruto decided to make a note to himself if he got out of this to seek out someone that readily knew things about Haki that _wouldn't_ try to kill him on sight. There was no way she hit him that hard with a simple anything and harmed him in Sage Mode. She didn't have overwhelming strength or speed behind her attacks as far as he had seen so it had to be the Haki. This little ability was getting to be more troublesome than he thought it would be.

Hancock crossed her arms over her ample bosom as she watched Naruto sit in the wall holding his chest, "That bullet didn't pierce your body ja? I'm rather impressed I should say." She said in a condescending way that grated on him rather heavily, "Why do you fight so hard? Why not just leave? Nothing good can come of you attempting to fight me, a member of the Shichibukai, so why come all of this way just for that?"

Naruto pulled himself out of his hole in the wall and fell to his feet on the ground, having gotten over the impact that he had sustained moments ago, ready to keep fighting if he had to, "Because I want to. I would do anything for my friends… and I'm not as far away as you would think that I am." He said cryptically, although in his head he was cursing up a storm for the sheer fact that what he was about to do was stupid for three major reasons.

In his right hand he charged up a Rasengan and prepared to charge Boa Hancock head on as he drew another Hiraishin from his pocket, getting her to narrow her eyes at the object that by now she had deduced was the point of focus for his little teleportation act. Naruto let the kunai fly from his hands and disappeared instantly. Hancock immediately got as far from the kunai as she could as she saw Naruto reappear and grab it out of the air, smirking to herself until she saw him disappear again.

"Gotcha."

Her eyes widened when she heard the satisfied voice of the very man she had been fighting in her ear from behind her. His arms were wrapped firmly around her waist, eliciting a gasp from Hancock as she realized what he had done, 'The first one that he threw was still stuck to the wall in this room!'

Naruto had thrown the first one as a feint to get her to move and divert her attention. His real intention was to collect the other one he had thrown earlier before taking Hancock's hit. All he wanted was to retrieve his valuable weaponry, the fact that she all but jumped right near the wall his true aim was for was just a bonus he had to take advantage of to finish his plan, "Welcome to Uzumaki Naruto's Hiraishin no Jutsu (Flying Thunder God Jutsu)! Please keep all arms and legs inside of the wormhole at all times and enjoy your trip through space-time!" He said before they vanished in a yellow flash.

XxX

(With Soren)

"Why the fuck is it so hard to find these two idiots?" Soren asked no one in particular quietly as he kept skulking through the interior of the Kuja Pirates' ship, "Honestly, I've got nothing here." He thought until he heard two different voices yell out.

"Who hasn't enjoyed the fruits of my awesome yet?" Yosaku exclaimed loudly, "You've all seen that sword I carry? I've got more than enough stamina for all of you girls!"

"Please no more… the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and spongy…" A tired sounding Johnny said, "Just give me forty-five minutes… that's all I need… I think."

This led Soren to two doors that were beside one another. He stood in front of them with a blank look on his face, pondering which one he should enter into first. He finally shrugged to himself as he picked Yosaku's door, "Meh, what can I say? I'm a dick at heart. Ibi Ibi no Hifu (Rot Rot Skin)." He said calmly as he pressed his body against the door and melted a human shaped hole through to find a group of naked Kuja women inside. Holding his nose to stop a nosebleed he spoke, "Go get some clothes and get out of here now." He said, the women glaring at him as they left through the hole he made. Fighting like this would have sucked for them big time.

Yosaku stared at Soren, untied at this point, "Dude what are you doing here?" He asked.

"I'm here to get you out." Soren informed him before ducking out of the way of a punch, "What the hell?"

"You'll have to kill me!" Yosaku said manically as he stood up and wrapped a blanket around his nudity, "Today has been the greatest day of my entire life! I never want to leave, here I'm somebody! Did you see those chicks you chased out of here?"

Soren gave him a dry look, "Yeah I did, and you should know that once you get all of those girls pregnant their going to kill you in a painful and probably humiliating way." He put his hand on Yosaku's shoulder, "You've got to make a call here. Are you going to live in delight for a few days tops only to die for it, or are you going to keep trudging along until you find true happiness?"

Yosaku tried to argue with his eyes quivering, "But… but I'll never get another shot like-."

"I know." Soren assured him solemnly.

Yosaku stomped his feet in place like a child, "And they're sooo-."

"_I know_." Soren reinforced, making sure that Yosaku knew that he understood where he was trying to come from, "Take it like this. A great love is a lot like a good memory. When it's there, and you know it's there, but it's just out of your reach, it can be all that you think about. Then you can focus on it and try to force it, but the more you do, the more you seem to push it away. But if you're patient and you hold still, well maybe, just maybe, it'll come to you. You just have to be somewhere she can find you. And I mean hell... if you have to live the rest of your life in a memory, you might as well make it a good one."

Yosaku just stared at him for a long and hard time before sighing and going over to dig his clothes out of a pile, "I'm going, I'm going…" He then added something as an afterthought, "Where's my sword?"

"On the deck. It should still be there actually since no one followed me down here." Soren said before pointing at the wall that led to Johnny's room, "Are you ready to get him out now so we can leave?"

They both then heard Johnny shout out desperately, "Oi! I said forty-five minutes! If that was even five I'll eat my sunglasses! I am not a machine, I'm just a man!"

Both Soren and Yosaku sweatdropped before they both spoke simultaneously, "We'll give it a little while longer…"

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster – Naruto's Quarters)

Naruto's plan in its most rudimentary form eventually devolved and was dumbed down to this; somehow grab Boa Hancock and flash back to his own ship where he would somehow either bargain with her, or beat her up until she agreed to turn Nojiko, Miss Valentine, and Vivi back to normal. Again it must be reiterated that even Naruto, the mastermind of this 'foolproof' strategy understood this to be incredibly stupid.

Reason number one on why it was stupid: From what he had seen she could petrify him if she managed to hit him. That would suck getting any part of his body turned to stone for any reason.

Reason number two as to why it was stupid: They were just taking the conflict from her ship, that he wouldn't have lost any sleep over destroying in and out, to his ship. If they wound up going a few more rounds and the pace of the fight picked up anymore than it already had they would tear his ship apart inside out, and while he could repair it, it would take time and a ton of chakra, even for him.

Reason number three on why taking the fight from her ship to his was completely asinine: Even though he beat the crap out of a good number of them and what he believed to be their best fighter outside of Hancock herself, he left Soren and Samehada alone on the Kuja Pirates' ship. Does anymore need to be said on why that's a horrible thing? Then we'll just move on to the story from here.

In a flash, Naruto and Hancock dropped onto his bed with the Hiraishin kunai stuck deeply into the headboard marking his teleportation point. At this point, Hancock was able to get her legs loose to get her feet between herself and Naruto, enabling her to shove him harshly into the ceiling of his room with all of her force and righteous anger, "You pig!"

All Naruto was able to get out was a confused 'Meh?' before he found himself kicked right through his own ceiling, hard enough to go all the way through and land on the deck, "Ugh… she kicked hard enough to drive me through the ship and the soil on the deck? Damn…"

Boa Hancock emerged through the hole she had created by way of her snake weapon acting as a platform as she stepped off and stomped towards Naruto, "Where am I?"

"Welcome to the Natural Disaster." Naruto said as he stood back up, "This is my ship. Now take the petrification off of my crew and I'll let you go back to your own ship. Otherwise you aren't going anywhere." He said as he made a Kage Bunshin and sent it to the helm to make sure the wheel was locked before dispelling, "I'll make sure of that."

He really should have thought that out before he said that out loud, especially considering how certain she was that he was going to try and enslave her before this moment.

If she wasn't mad at all of the things that had preceded those words she sure was at this point. Naruto could sense the dark shift in her emotions and was almost unprepared for her to lash out at him the way that she did. That thing that he said about her not being fast could not have been any further from the truth he soon learned as he was forced to dodge her very quick and agile kicks lest he wind up like his clones did.

"I! Will! Kill you!" Hancock screamed at him, trying her best to just hit him as hard as she could, to turn him to stone and smash him into pieces all with one shot.

Naruto got sick of dodging her, but didn't want to harm her too badly, he needed her in good enough condition to help Nojiko, Vivi, and Miss Valentine, as he didn't know exactly what her freeing them would entail. Naruto dodged a kick and jumped onto the mast, sticking to the side of it as he made a few hand-seals. That power of hers to turn things to stone wasn't natural, and if it wasn't natural he knew what it had to be, and how to stop it, Now that they were outside on the deck he was free to utilize what he needed to finish this, "Suiton: Suigadan (Water Release: Water Fang Bullet)!"

From both sides of the ship, Hancock saw that spinning masses of water surrounded her, 'That strange name Uzumaki…' She thought to herself, 'So he's the one that can apparently control the force of the ocean itself. It isn't just hearsay and talk.' Not showing any fear at the sight of the water coming for her, she formed her large heart in front of herself and drew it back to fire her rapid heart arrows at the water that was bearing down on her, "Dorei Yajirushi (Slave Arrow)!"

Naruto's jaw dropped as his attack was stopped in its tracks the moment that the arrows hit his water jutsu, "She can freeze the momentum of things too? Damn it this is one tough cookie!" As the water fell back into the ocean, Naruto's patience was running out as he seemed to have made no headway in convincing her to undo her petrification on his crew, "Put my crew back to normal damn it or I'll… I'll-!" He looked around for a significant threat he could use against her only to find that he couldn't see anything useful… except-, "If you don't turn the girls back to normal and let me get my other crew members back then I'll just strand you."

Hancock's eyes widened in horror before narrowing on him, "You're bluffing. And what do you mean strand me? Do you think I would really let you sail to a deserted island just to leave me there?"

"I'm not even close to bluffing." Naruto asserted, crossing his arms as he walked down the side of the mast, "And I don't need to sail, I left a kunai there as a marker. I'll Hiraishin over and drop you at One-Finger Island and leave you there all by yourself until you do what I ask.

"You wouldn't dare." Hancock said, though she wasn't nearly as confident in that as she sounded.

Naruto laughed humorlessly, "Don't you get the news? I destroyed Enies Lobby for one woman that _wasn't_ on my crew. Do you think I really care about leaving you on that island for the rest of your life? It's not like I'm killing you. You could easily survive there… you just probably won't ever see anyone again. It's pretty far out of the way of anything. As far as I know I'm the only one that can find it, making me your warden. So you'll have to get used to seeing my face when I show up to gloat and ask you to help my friends, and each time you say no I'll just make things worse for you."

Hancock pointed at Naruto and tilted her body back, bending herself over almost completely backwards so that she was looking up at the sky, getting Naruto to tilt his head in confusion for the second time today, "You believe that defeating me would be so easy? Are you unaware of who you're dealing with?"

Naruto shook his head, drawing a Hiraishin kunai as a threat, "That's my line, because baby… you have no idea who _you're_ dealing with. Do you really think I won't get you eventually? And what will you do if you actually beat me? You're going to steer the ship yourself with no way to navigate?"

Hancock gestured towards her snake weapon, "Salome can help me with that."

With a sigh, Naruto dropped into a fighting stance, ready to proceed with the battle, "You're really not going to turn them back no matter what? You're absolutely heartless… how could anyone think you were beautiful after spending more than five minutes with you? There's no reason for you to leave them the way they are, you're just being nasty and hateful!" He said, getting angry again, "But don't worry, you'll have all the time in the world to think about how _beautiful _you are when you're all by yourself on my island!" He said, extending his hand toward her and gesturing towards himself, "Banshou Ten'in (Heavenly Attraction of All Creation)!"

As she found herself inexplicably drawn towards him, her snake weapon Salome wrapped around her waist and then around a nearby banister that held her and kept her from flying towards Naruto, making him quite perturbed as if he had put more chakra into the jutsu he would have started ripping chunks of the ship away indiscriminately as long as it was in his radius.

Naruto let go of the jutsu and decided to literally take matters into his own hands. She obviously couldn't paralyze him by just touching him, she had to hit him physically with force to do so or else he would have been petrified when he grabbed her and teleported her there in the first place. He ran at her as Salome released her from his grip. Hancock saw him coming and attempted a handstand, beginning to spin around wildly to deliver kicks directed at him, "Kousui Datai (Perfume Femur)!"

'She has to touch me to turn me to stone, well I don't have to touch her at all!' Naruto thought as he enacted his own attack, "Konoha Gouriki Senpuu (Leaf Strong Whirlwind)!" He shouted in response to her own attack as he concentrated his speed and power in a spinning back kick that traveled in the same direction of Hancock's kick, missing it by mere inches, but the chakra provided in Sage Mode did not, as it swatted her leg to the side and threw her off-balance. Naruto took advantage by spinning through again and delivering an authoritative back kick right to her torso that sent her flying off of the ship, "Don't you ever fuck with my crew!"

There was nothing she could do as she hit the water, only to find herself halfway submerged instead of drowning. Looking over at something that had a hold of her arm she saw Naruto standing on the surface of the water, "W-What?"

Naruto looked down at her, allowing Sage Mode to fade as she was no longer any kind of threat as long as she was at his mercy like this, "Yeah, I can stand on the water. Big deal, I'm kind of tired of people being so shocked by it."

"Not that…" Hancock said before continuing, "Why save me after defeating me?"

Naruto shrugged as he kept a firm grip on her lest she slip, "I still need you to help my crew, and if you do that then we don't have to be enemies anymore. I just want everyone to be safe. I don't want to just hate you… hate is useless in the end. It just winds up making more hate that consumes the world."

Hancock looked up at him, unable to even move as she was to try and break his grip, "What are you talking about?"

"Just rambling…" Naruto said as he used Hiraishin and teleported back into his room, taking care to keep going towards Muret's room and the medical bay where he found Paulie ready to fight in case it wasn't Naruto that entered, "Tie her up." He ordered a dumbstruck Paulie who shook it off and obeyed Naruto's order.

"I don't believe it." Muret said from where she was hiding behind Funkfreed, "You actually beat a Shichibukai. An admiral and a Shichibukai… just what are you Naruto-sama?"

"Complicated." He said as he walked over to the petrified girls and put a hand on Miss Valentine before turning to Hancock, "We'll talk about this once I get back." He then disappeared in another flash, leaving Hancock there with Muret and Paulie.

Paulie lifted a finger limply and pointed at her, taking a gulp before speaking, "H-Have you no shame? You should…" He struggled to get out his next words, "…Cover yourself up." He said in an almost pained manner before passing out as if he wasn't getting enough air.

"Wow…" Muret said, moving from behind her pet elephant to look at the captured Shichibukai, "Boa Hancock… you really are gorgeous, I'm so jealous. Even soaked to the bone you're absolutely stunning."

Paulie coughed weakly from the floor, raising a hand in a thumbs-up, "The being wet part does tons for the sex appeal." He got out before passing out again.

"And he said he didn't have slaves…" Hancock said, in reference to Muret.

"Huh?" Muret asked, confused at what she was implying, "Naruto-sama? Naruto-sama doesn't have slaves. He'd probably kill someone that had slaves with his bare hands."

Hancock raised a delicate eyebrow questioningly, "Then why do you refer to him in such a formal manner?"

Muret shrugged and sat down on one of the empty beds in the medical bay, "Because he hired me, paid me handsomely, and is the captain of the ship and strongest man that I've ever seen. You really pissed him off you know. He didn't kill anyone did he? Or did he blow your ship to pieces by accident?" She asked, worried that he might have gone overboard.

Hancock blinked in realization of a fact, "Now that you mention it, no. He didn't kill anyone on my ship, not even my sister who shares leadership responsibilities. And my ship is intact… for now."

Muret then smiled at her, "Well then after you unfreeze our friends everything will be fine. He'll take you back to your ship and leave you alone. He isn't the kind of man to hold grudges unless you're truly someone despicable, and seeing as how you don't really have a scratch on you he doesn't really feel that way about you."

"He's just another man." Hancock said, her eyes turning cold, "All they know is evil acts… this Uzumaki Naruto seems no different."

"Everything you hear is a lie." Muret said in full defense of her captain, "Other than the rumors about the things he can do, and the amount of people he's killed is probably actually close to whatever they say it is… but he only kills within reason. To protect us, to protect all of his friends. He searched you out and fought you without a second thought so you could help the other women."

Hancock looked at this mere doctor that didn't seem to have any special abilities standing up to her. Even though she was drenched at the moment she could probably still defeat her if she had to, "What makes you worry so much about how others perceive him?"

"Because there's nothing evil about him." Muret said as she crossed her legs and her arms, "And he's more of a defender of any kind of justice than the Marines. He'll fight anyone if he thinks it's the right thing to do… God help us all." She said, thinking of the trouble they could get into in the future if this was any indicator or form of foreshadowing.

"A defender of justice?" Hancock said to herself, almost in disbelief, "What a naive concept."

(Onboard the Kuja Pirates' Ship)

Johnny, Yosaku, and Soren stood back to back in the center of the deck of the ship along with Samehada. The two swordsmen had recovered their weapons and had them drawn while Soren had his acidic claws out and ready for action, "How are we getting out of this?" Yosaku asked.

Soren smirked, "Teamwork. It makes the dream work. Saves your keister."

"Speaking of teamwork." Johnny said, "What has happened to me on this ship will never see the light of day or I will kill you both in your sleep, understood?"

"Fine." Yosaku said with a smirk, "I won't talk about what we did at all, as long as we're saved in the next ten seconds."

A loud whistle got Samehada to grin with the teeth at the top of its figure as it rocketed into the air into the grasp of Naruto who landed along with his crewmates. Naruto held Samehada over his shoulder and looked out at the Kuja Pirates that were still willing to fight before baring his teeth at them, "Boo."

The Kuja Pirates all took a step back and Naruto grinned, "Group hug!" Johnny and Yosaku immediately latched on and Naruto took a whiff of the air, "Hmm… it smells like a combination of triumph, sex, and lots of shame."

Johnny frowned as Soren snickered, grabbing onto the group as well, "Just take us back to the Natural Disaster Naruto-aniki."

Naruto nodded and turned his attention to the Kuja Pirates, "Ladies, always remember this day as the day that you almost captured…" He stopped and thought about his choice of words for a second, "As the day that you almost killed-. No not that either. How about; as the day that you _fought against_, and _survived_ a fight with Captain Uzumaki Naruto! And don't worry, hopefully Hancock will be back here in just a few minutes." With that, they disappeared in a flash leaving the confused and stunned women behind.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Naruto marched with a purpose back to the medical bay, intent on convincing Hancock to somehow turn his girls back come hell or high water. As he turned the corner, his mouth wide open to begin arguing with her to somehow convince her to go with his request, he found himself surprised as all three girls that had previously been stone were all sitting up on their beds holding their heads with Muret checking them over. Carue had also been saved and Funkfreed couldn't have been happier about it.

"What?" Naruto said, staring into the room blankly, "Did Hancock-?"

"She turned them all back." Muret said with a smile to the captain before continuing to check up on the girls, it currently being Nojiko's turn, "While you were gone she had me cut her free and she did it."

_(Flashback – While Naruto Was Away)_

"_You want me to what?" Muret asked disbelievingly, "Can you say that to me again?"_

_Hancock rolled her eyes but did just that, "If you free me from these ropes I will reverse the petrification I placed on these women. The other two men that were aboard my ship are not currently stone, it's just them. I can do this right now." Muret held a scalpel in her hand and looked at it tentatively, "Even if I were to betray my word would it truly matter? Uzumaki Naruto would return in a matter of moments and we would just wind up fighting again."_

_A frown crossed Muret's delicate features before she stood up and cut away at the ropes that bound Hancock, "If you kill me then he would just find some way to defeat you again somehow so at least my death wouldn't go unavenged." Muret joked darkly before realizing how messed up that sounded, "God, that's horrible. What's wrong with me?" She asked herself as the ropes fell to the floor_

_Hancock didn't bother to respond as she merely walked over to the women and looked them over before sighing, "__Mezameyo (Awaken)__." And with that she blew a kiss, causing small hearts to wash over their bodies, returning them to normal as if nothing had happened to them at all, "There. It is done." She said, ignoring the shocked look on Muret's face as to how simple it was for her to change them back as she walked past her, stepping over Paulie to leave the room, "I will wait for Uzumaki to return to send me back to my crew on the deck."_

_As Hancock left her medical bay, Muret turned her attention to the women that were regaining their bearings. Miss Valentine blinked her bright green eyes in confusion before looking to the only person in the room that seemed to be aware of what was going on, "Muret, what on earth happened? The last thing I remember is us still on that island."_

_Muret shook her head happily as she made her way over to them, "I'll just say that it's been a very, very long day."_

(End Flashback)

Naruto simply smiled and walked over to Miss Valentine who was stretching out, feeling stiff after her petrification faded, "Are you all okay?" He asked, rubbing her shoulder in a comforting way.

"Yeah." Miss Valentine said with a small smile of her own, "So… long day huh?"

"You really have no idea." Naruto said with a chuckle as he headed towards the hallway, "And it's still not over yet. Take care of them Muret."

Muret waved over her shoulder as she continued her work on Nojiko, "You've got it Naruto-sama."

XxX

On deck, Naruto found Hancock, once again with her snake weapon wrapped around her, looking out over the railing of his ship as the sun was setting over the horizon. Her snake noticed his presence before she did, or at least it reacted to him by hissing at him dangerously, a clear warning to stay away. The snake's aggressive hissing was halted by Hancock's voice, "Salome that's enough. The fighting is over, and if Uzumaki is to hold up to his word we will be going back to our ship in just a moment."

"I always keep my word." Naruto said, tying his hitae-ate back onto his head as he walked up beside her, "I didn't kick you too hard and injure you did I? It was the cleanest hit I landed in the fight."

Hancock let off a light, airy laugh, "As if that would truly be enough to defeat me. Count your blessings that we were at sea Uzumaki. On land it wouldn't be nearly that simple to win."

Naruto shook his head and laughed as well, "Hey, a win's a win no matter how you get it."

Hancock just turned her head and stared at him for a moment as he kept looking out at sea, as if he didn't care that she was looking at him, "You are confusing me Uzumaki. I don't know how to feel about you." This got his attention as he looked over at her curiously, "First you look as if you want my head, then you try to reason with me, then you try to threaten me, and finally you're talking with me as if we are friends."

"Do you _want_ to be friends?" Naruto asked, surprising her, "I just say that because I really don't want to fight you and your crew again. And I'm a really useful friend to have, what with the teleporting and all that."

Hancock gave him an impassive look that he couldn't see through as it wasn't one hiding anger, "I am a Shichibukai and you are a pirate. Despite my lo-."

"Sorry to cut you off." Naruto said, grinning at her with squinted eyes, "But I'm not a pirate… seriously. I don't steal stuff, I don't steal ships. I'm usually on the up and up when I'm not kicking Marine ass."

Hancock just blinked and picked up where she left off, "Despite my loathing of the Marines, having a notable fugitive such as yourself as an acquaintance would bring me more trouble from the bossy government higher-ups."

Naruto shrugged it off, "Meh, whatever. Who cares about that, it doesn't matter does it? After all, they'll forgive you right? Why?" The grin on his face stretched widely as he remembered the first memorable thing she said to him.

"Because I am beautiful of course, ja?" She said, finishing her own line, eliciting a laugh from Naruto and a small quirk of her own lips. She stiffened when Naruto put a hand on her shoulder, "What do you think you're doing?"

"Taking you back to your ship remember?" He asked, looking at her through squinted eyes, "I have to be holding onto you or it won't work." He waited a moment and opened his eyes back up fully, "Can we go now, or do you like my ship that much?" He got a terse nod out of Hancock before they disappeared in a yellow flash.

XxX

After Naruto and the remainder of his crew's final departure, the now fully awake and aware Kuja Pirates all headed up into the mansion, in particular the room where Naruto had been fighting Hancock.

The recovered Marigold and Sandersonia stood by the kunai that Naruto left stuck in the wall. They both simply stared at it, as other than the wounds that many of them were sporting it was the remnant of the presence of the Foxhound Pirates on their ship. Sandersonia spoke up, "The man was incredibly powerful… but to disappear with our sister without a trace but this weapon…"

"She will be fine." Marigold said with finality, as that was the last she wished to hear of what may become of her sister's fate, "That crew is no laughing matter to trifle with. I was unable to use my best attacks lest they destroy the ship, but even with them I still may have lost. My opponent never seemed rattled for a moment."

Sandersonia rubbed her collarbone area, "I never even got the chance… the blonde man was not one for playing games against me."

Before the conversation could continue, Naruto and Hancock appeared standing in front of the weapon in the wall. Instantly every Kuja Warrior pointed their weapon at him, putting a deadpan look on his face, "Are we really going to have to go through this again?" He asked with a twitching eyebrow.

"Lower your weapons." Hancock said, and with her order they all did just that, "This is merely the working out of a bargain between the two of us. No more fighting between our crews… for now." She directed at those she could feel were stinging from the events of the day, "Is our business done Uzumaki Naruto?"

"In a rush to get rid of me?" Naruto tried to joke, only for it to fall flat. Do not joke around with people that you have just gotten through beating up, "Okay fine. Yeah, we're all good here. Except for one more thing." He stepped out of the way and flicked the handle of the kunai stuck in the wall, "You can keep that to summon me when you think you need me to by throwing it. And I gave you the frequency to my Den Den Mushi so feel free to call if you need something."

The Kuja Pirates narrowed their eyes at him, not trusting his change in attitude from that afternoon. How could someone turn a switch like that and go from a bonafide killer to… this?

Hancock nodded to him, "I will keep those things in mind Uzumaki. Now if that is all?"

Naruto backed away against the wall with his hands up behind his neck, "Yeah, that's everything. But I have to say before I go…" He said, directing his eyes right at Hancock, "If I weren't so pissed off earlier I probably would have been turned to stone when you used that beam of yours on me because you really are beautiful." Naruto didn't even allow time for his last statement to sink in, "Later." He then flashed out of the area.

Sandersonia just stared at the place that Naruto had been moments before as she addressed Hancock, "Sister, who exactly was that man, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Hancock just spared one last glance at Naruto's former place before walking away, heading towards her own personal quarters, "He's complicated."

XxX

(That Night – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Naruto was standing at the helm banging his head on the wheel hard enough to awaken anyone that had been sleeping until that point, "When shit goes bad… I swear to Kami…" Naruto stopped banging his head on the wheel and rested it there.

"What's the matter Naruto?" Naruto didn't bother looking behind him as he felt Vivi standing there, "You seem pretty upset."

Naruto turned around and gave Vivi a thorough frown, "All day long we've been watching over you girls that got petrified or fighting the Kuja Pirates." Vivi nodded, understanding things so far, "I set the ship on course to chase them down, but then they used one of my Hiraishin kunai and set off a beacon to let me know exactly where they were and that they had all of my kunai so I took Soren to go get the party started."

"And?" Vivi asked, still not getting it.

Naruto pointed over the side of the ship at the rolling waves, "What does that mean Vivi-hime?"

She looked at the waves and then exclaimed happily, "Ah! We're back on the Grand Line!" Her answer to Naruto's question only got her a slow pat on the head as he shook his head, "Huh? Am I wrong? Where are we then?"

Naruto began crying anime tears, "We're not even on the Grand Line anymore! The ship sailed off of the Grand Line and into the South Blue! How do you even get this lost? Now I need to get our bearings and find the way back onto the Grand Line where we were before we got lost in the Calm Belt! I need to Hiraishin back to the beacon I left on One-Finger Island so I can set it for us to follow! Why would you do this to me? I love nature! Why?" He asked the skies as if they would give him an answer, and it came in a clap of thunder and a sudden downpour, "The whole world's against me Vivi-hime, I swear to Kami…"

"Well…" Vivi said as she tried to brighten his mood and possibly get him (and herself) out of the rain, "Look at it this way, it's just an extended detour." This only made him cry harder, "You want to go inside?" Naruto nodded faintly, "Yeah? Okay, let's go inside." And Vivi led him inside like a child, patting him on the back all the way.

* * *

**And that's chapter. I hope you enjoyed it. Yeah, I'm going to go to work now… graveyard shift like a mo-fo for those of you in the know. Funderful, and by funderful I mean FUCK THE GODDAMN GRAVEYARD SHIFT! THAT SHIT IS BORING AS HELL! Oh well, at least the potential for hilarious things happening at work is more likely during this shift.**

**Anyway, later days my peepulation. Hope your weekends don't suck.**

**Kenchi out.**


	33. Round Trip

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I wish I did because I need more money. You see ladies and gentlemen I have a disease. It is a disease that is afflicting over 73 percent of young men and women in the world today. It is called Broke-itis. And there is only one cure… money. Come on Kishimoto… Oda… I am asking you to contribute to the Heal Kenchi618 Fund. But if you aren't either of these people then you can still feel free to donate. Every cent counts.

Heal my affliction.

**Chapter 33: Round Trip**

* * *

Nojiko stood at the helm directly behind Naruto watching his every move like a hawk, "Don't be so tense Naruto-kun, I'm not mad." She said resting her hands on his shoulders, massaging them gently before planting a kiss on the back of his neck, "It's not your fault. You were worried about us being turned to stone. How could you have been paying attention to the ship when you were focused on saving us?"

"The good news is that I can get us further along our actual route in the Grand Line from where I take us on the Calm Belt." Naruto said, grateful that Nojiko or anyone else on the crew didn't hold any anger towards being knocked so far off course by the events of yesterday, "The Hiraishin kunai on One-Finger Island is a really good status marker. I'll tell you when we get back on the Calm Belt so you can map out our trajectory to where we'll get back on at."

Nojiko smiled and let go of Naruto, moving backwards off of him, "Sounds like a plan to me. There's a good spot for us to use as a marker for getting onto the Calm Belt." She moved in front of Naruto and showed him a map of the South Blue, "Right here, this place Centaurea. Like I told you this morning we can use that as a good marker. It's the closest place to the Calm Belt so we can begin getting back on our route from there."

"On it Noji-chan." Naruto said as he already knew where to go. He had already been given coordinates and directions that morning and they had been en route for quite a while, "We shouldn't take that long getting there. I've had the sails catching the breeze in this direction since last night basically. I actually feel really hungry because I'm using so much chakra."

Nojiko rolled up the map and gave him a strange look, "You're hungry? How could you be hungry? We just saw you inside not too long ago during breakfast. You absolutely killed it."

In return, Naruto just gave her a blank stare, "Um no? I've been out here all morning since the crack of dawn. I only got two hours of sleep last night and that was just so I could dry off from the rain."

Tilting her head in confusion, Nojiko pointed back towards where the captain's quarters were situated, "Seriously, I saw you at breakfast. You ate and then you went to take a nap with Miss Valentine. When I saw you out here I just figured you stayed there until she fell asleep and then came back outside." Nojiko looked around in suspicion, "This is really creepy."

Naruto just stood there racking his brain for a solution before his eyes finally widened in realization prior to narrowing to slits. He set the wheel in place and grabbed a hold of Nojiko, "Come on, I think I know what happened." With that they disappeared in a flash of yellow and reappeared in Naruto's room at the foot of his bed to find another Naruto asleep with Miss Valentine holding on to him, "I fucking knew it." Naruto hissed out in a whisper.

The clone of Naruto cracked an eye before both shot open in alarm at seeing its creator and Nojiko, one giving it an angry look, the other one extremely amused, "Hey boss… Noji-chan. What's up?" The clone whispered, well aware of the sleeping Valentine wrapped around him.

"You ate my food." Naruto said in a low voice, "The only reason I made you when I woke back up this morning was to leave a message for Paulie. What do you think you're doing?"

Naruto's clone shrugged, not really caring about its fate at this point, "I like to call it living the dream."

The only response at first was a cracking of knuckles from the original Naruto, "I wish I could do this more than once." He said before punching the clone hard enough to dispel it in a puff of smoke. Miss Valentine barely noticed the loss of the clone's presence and compensated by grabbing a pillow on the bed in place, "Man that looks comfortable though…" He said in reference to sleeping in a bed with a pretty girl, before he could move to actually attempt to join her his stomach growled horribly, "But I'm so hungry… and I can't go back to sleep yet, I've got work to do."

Feeling compassion when it came to all three of Naruto's current grievances, Nojiko merely grabbed him by his hand and led him out of the room to the common area, "Come on, let's see if we can find you some leftovers or something to actually eat… and maybe some coffee too."

"Coffee?" Naruto said in a questioning voice as he blocked a yawn, "What's coffee?"

XxX

(Four Hours Later)

Johnny and Yosaku leaned against the tree-like main mast, covered in scratches and scuffs and panting heavily, "No more…" Johnny said waving his hand out in front of him, "That was just… I don't even know how to explain what just happened to us." He said before leaning his head back with a thud on the mast.

Yosaku tried to stand up but just didn't feel like he had it in him to do so due to his lack of energy at the moment, "I now know what it feels like to get my ass kicked in fast forward."

In front of them, Naruto was swinging a very satisfied Samehada, full from draining Johnny and Yosaku's energy in battle, about in a grandiose Samurai manner while in the background Nojiko, Vivi, Paulie, and Soren stood watching him act out, like all of his manic quirks decided to just come out all at once.

"God that was violent." Paulie said in reference to how Naruto had just handily dispatched both Johnny and Yosaku with Samehada, "Were they paying attention when they came out here to challenge him? I'm not getting near that guy until his buzz dies." He said, taking a puff from his cigar.

Soren merely stared at the scene while sucking on a tangerine from the tree outside. He then turned towards Nojiko who was hiding her face with her hands, "You gave him coffee didn't you?" His answer was a desperate moan from Nojiko that said she had, "As if he needed it. Why do you think none of us ever turned him on to the stuff?"

"I love coffee!" Naruto shouted, holding Samehada over his head as it vibrated in agreement with its user, "It's like a black, liquidy soldier pill!" He then pointed Samehada at Vivi who took an involuntary step back, "Vivi-hime get out here, it's your turn!" Said princess simply shook her head no, "It's time for your training though." He reasoned, re-sealing Samehada.

Vivi laughed nervously as she continued to step backwards, "I think I'll take the day off today." She then noticed him giving her a dry look, "You're not giving me a choice are you?" Naruto shook his head no, "I didn't think you were." Vivi quickly pulled off her ranged jewelry belt weapon and sent the end of it out, stabbing into the mast to allow herself to escape up the side.

Naruto growled and pointed up at the young woman, "You're not getting away that easily!" He prepared to run up the mast when he found a rope tied around his legs tripping him up and holding him back. He turned to see that Paulie had caught him with one of his ropes and tied him to the railing, "Why wasn't I paying attention to that?"

"Because you trust us." Paulie explained to him before flicking his tensed rope, "You can't break that rope with brute force, you'd just end up ripping the railing up before you broke the rope. Even cutting it would take a while. So just calm down until you get all of the caffeine out of your system. You're scaring more than a few of us."

The caffeine was strong however. Naruto jerked against the rope several times before the urge to go into Sage Mode or even further than that to free himself had to be quelled before he did damage to his own ship. He took a series of deep breaths to calm himself down, "Okay I'm cool… Everything's alright. You can come down now Vivi-hime."

Hearing him say that, Vivi dropped to the ground but kept a good distance away from Naruto as she jumped back almost ten feet when Naruto twitched intensely, "Naruto you're scaring me."

"I think I'm scaring me too." Naruto replied honestly before he found himself dog-piled by a vengeful Johnny and Yosaku who began stomping away at a downed Naruto while they had their advantage over him, "What the hell are you guys doing?" Naruto asked over the blows raining down upon him.

"You've been kicking our asses for the better part of a year!" Johnny said as he stomped away, "We are _never _going to get a chance like this to get you back ever again!" Yosaku jumped into the air for three elbow drops on the immortal blonde while Johnny kept stomping.

"It's justifiable vengeance!" Yosaku reasoned, relishing in getting Naruto back.

"Ow!" Naruto shouted due to the attack on his person, "You know I'm going to get you two back for this right? Ow! I'm going to get you both back so bad!"

Johnny and Yosaku stopped and looked at each other before looking back down at Naruto, "We don't care!" They both yelled simultaneously before dropping simultaneous jumping elbows on Naruto.

The other crewmates just watched until Soren finished his tangerine and climbed up on the banister, about to jump off until Nojiko grabbed his pant leg, "What the hell do you think you're doing?" She asked the acid-spitting former bounty hunter.

Soren pointed down at Naruto, "How many other chances am I going to get to do this and get away with it?" He asked.

Naruto heard him over his beatdown and yelled up at him, "You _won't_ get away with it!"

"That's not the point Uzumaki!" Soren yelled down to him. He then turned back to Nojiko, "Tell me that one time of them getting him back isn't worth the last ton of months of him getting one over on them… and me." Nojiko thought of all of the times when Naruto increased their weights without warning, beat them up during training, times that he just threw seawater on Soren, and everything else, prompting her to let go of Soren's leg, "Thank you." He said calmly before pointing down at Naruto, "Sweet, sweet revenge!" Soren cried out before diving off of the banister down onto Naruto with an elbow drop, "Tekkai Elbow Drop!"

Everyone else flinched when Soren hit the ground and Naruto with a solid thud. Naruto just lay there as Soren got up and the punishment ended, "I'm going to get all three of you back for this…" Naruto muttered as Soren spit acid on the rope keeping his ankles tied, "You guys are so dead when I figure out what I'm going to do to get you back." He said crawling on the ground towards the helm to wait for the feeling to come back to his legs.

Yosaku looked at Naruto crawling away, stopping at the stairs to the helm to turn and glare at all of them, making the hand-sign that he's watching them, "We're going to pay for that aren't we?"

"Oh hell yes." Johnny replied, not really concerned in the least with what could happen to him in the near future, "But tell me that it wasn't worth whatever he'll do to get us back."

"I don't know yet." Yosaku said honestly, picking his nose absently, "I'll tell you after it happens."

XxX

(Later That Evening - Centaurea)

On the shores of the island nation, a sentry posted as a lookout of sorts saw a strange orange ship based off of the design of the basic ship of the Marines, "So they sent scouts out here to prepare to counter the rebellion."

One of the men with him as his partner let out a laugh, "Ha! I didn't know the Marines were that stupid, don't they know it's too late for that? They can't save their precious World Government's hold on this island, we've already gotten rid of their representatives!"

"We should tell our commander, he'll want to make an example out of them. To not stand against the Revolutionary Army." With that declaration the men all chattered in agreement.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Naruto was still manning the helm only now he had Muret checking over the wounds that she had come outside to heal a few hours earlier after the caffeine incident, "I swear I never get over how fast you heal Naruto-sama. You should still have a face covered in scrapes."

"I'm fine." Naruto insisted the ship's medic, "You don't need to waste supplies on me Muret. I don't think I'll ever be so far gone that I'll need you to get yourself in gear to help me out or I'll die." The worry was nice, but he didn't need her all stressed out for nothing when he could get over most of his injuries in a day or two.

Muret in return gave him a dry look and gave Naruto a few pats on his cheek, "You gave me 1 million beli… up front… without even a second thought… and you _still_ pay for things when I don't need you to. Like it or not you've pretty much got my loyalty for life. I'm a doctor to the entire crew, and I treat everyone equally, not selectively." She finished with a smile.

"So you say that you work for me?" Naruto asked her, getting a cheerful nod in response, "Could I get you to drug Johnny, Yosaku, and Soren's food during the next meal? Nothing serious, I just need their awareness thrown off so I can get the drop on them… they beat the crap out of me."

Muret gave Naruto a serious look, "I'm not going to stick drugs in my patients' food Naruto-sama." Muret heard Naruto mutter 'damn it' getting her lips to quirk upwards, "I can just give you the drugs to do it yourself."

That cheered Naruto back up, "And that works for me."

"Uzumaki!" Hearing the voice of one of the people he had intentions of getting revenge on yelling down from the lookout point at him, Naruto looked out over the waters to his side to see four ships heading from the coast they were passing by, "What's the plan?" Soren asked from the crow's nest.

Naruto grabbed a nearby pair of binoculars and looked at the ships. They didn't look like any kind of Marine vessel nor were they flying any pirate colors. He didn't feel like fighting an unknown quantity today for no reason. Naruto simply sat at his bench at the helm and formed the ram seal to begin forming chakra, "They can't fire at us unless they're broadside. We're just going to speed back up and hop on into the Calm Belt from here. We'll lose them that way."

With that, a breeze started waving through the leaves of the tree-like mast and through the sails with the seals inscribed in them, speeding up the ship even further. The Natural Disaster simply tore right past the slow moving ships making their way out from the coast, unable to get into range to turn their cannons towards the Foxhound Pirate ship.

XxX

(With the Revolutionary Army)

The men on the ships attempting to pursue and engage the Natural Disaster were utterly stunned at the pure speed that the ship exhibited, "That ship is so fast!"

"The current isn't nearly strong enough to get that kind of speed, neither is the wind! We're right by the Calm Belt!"

"That is one funky looking Marine ship!"

The comments ran rampant on all four ships until one spotter pointed something out coming from the coast further down the island, "Look that's Dragon's ship! Right there!"

"Yeah, Dragon! He'll stop those government dogs!"

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"One more ship coming Uzumaki!" Soren yelled down from the crow's nest as he saw a ship with a figurehead that appeared to be a dragon, "It's going to cut us off… get ready for a fight!"

"We're _not_ fighting." Naruto said as he stood up and started making a long chain of hand-seals, "Suiton: Daibakufu no Jutsu (Water Release: Great Waterfall Jutsu)!" A massive wave rose fifty feet in the air at the side of the Natural Disaster, surprising Muret who hadn't seen Naruto's powers up close before, not even at Enies Lobby.

"Wow…" Was all that the medic could say.

Up in the crow's nest, Soren released a sweatdrop and stared at the wave with a twitching eye, "Tell me again how this doesn't qualify as fighting."

"This is why." Naruto said as he directed the wave to crash down a distance away from the dragon-figureheaded ship, making sure that all that occurred was the ship losing its momentum so that they didn't catch up with the Natural Disaster, "And there you go. No fighting necessary."

"That was impressive." An unfamiliar voice said onboard the ship, getting Naruto to turn around and stand in front of Muret protectively as she held her hand on Funkfreed just in case, "I don't think you caused an earthquake the way Whitebeard would have to do that… because his would have been bigger. You manipulated the water itself. Most Devil Fruit powers can't do that."

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the strange man on his ship leaning against the banister nearby with a sinister grin on his face, "I wasn't trying to hurt anyone. I just want to get to the Calm Belt." Naruto explained calmly. The man wore a long green cloak and had spiky black hair with a widow's peak of sorts. He had stubble on his face, no eyebrows, and a set of red tribal markings on the left side of his face, "Who are you?" He didn't even bother asking how he got there. Naruto could have done the same thing to any of the other ships himself.

"Well… that depends." The man said, his grin never dropping, "Most people call me 'The World's Most Dangerous Criminal'… but you don't look like a Marine. My men should have been paying attention to the fact that you fly a Jolly Roger." He then pointed to himself, "In that case you can call me Dragon."

Muret paled and took a step back her hands shaking as she drew Funkfreed from the sheath, "What do you want with us?"

Dragon merely laughed and stepped off of the banister, taking a step forward, "I didn't want anything other than to meet the new bane of the World Government. You're quite an infamous man Uzumaki Naruto. You don't look much like a butcher that delights in killing Marines though."

The silence emanating from Naruto started scaring Muret as she thought Naruto was intimidated, 'I've never seen Naruto-sama hesitate to speak to anyone before. Is he frightened?'

Naruto finally spoke up, a chuckle in his voice, "I was thinking of something witty to say, but I just can't think of anything. All I can think about is how much I want to fight a guy like you to see how strong I really am. That probably sounds really weird doesn't it?"

'Are you really that insane?' Muret and Soren both thought to themselves hearing Naruto pretty much challenging the most dangerous man in the world to a fight. Soren wondered where on earth all of the others were. Was Dragon really able to get onboard without alerting anyone to his presence? He only knew Naruto as someone that would have been able to pull that off.

"Actually yeah…" Dragon said, sounding amused at Naruto's confession, "It does sound very weird that you would want to fight me. Hell, I know Marine vice-admirals that don't want to fight me, and they actually have a reason to." He let out a laugh, "But I can't fight you… mostly because we'd probably destroy your nice ship in the process and maybe hurt your nakama." He said, nodding his head towards Muret who was still pretty scared, "And I still have a lot of work to do. The World Government isn't going to overthrow itself."

Naruto blinked as he thought about who Dragon was, "That's why you're so famous, because you're taking control away from the World Government?"

Dragon nodded, "Yes. We've just now gotten Centaurea free of their control. It took two years of fighting to do."

A frown came onto Naruto's face, "So you start insurrections and make wars happen?" The blonde shinobi shook his head, "I don't agree with that." He saw the grin drop from Dragon's face, "If you keep pushing like that then the World Government is going to push back hard. I just saw them take out an entire island filled with their own agents and Marines just to kill my crew and Straw Hat Luffy's crew. What would they do when you start knocking on their front door the way we did?"

The two stared each other down for a moment before Dragon's grin came back, "So you know my boy Luffy? I like that. He needs a friend like you out in the world." He then saw Muret and Naruto's eyes widen, "Ooh, I wasn't supposed to say that out loud. Could you just keep that a secret?" He saw Naruto and Muret both nod slowly, "Thanks."

"No problem." They both responded robotically.

Dragon then looked out over the front of Naruto's ship where he saw the waves start to end, "Well I'd love to chat with you for a bit longer but you seem to be headed into the Calm Belt and I just don't feel like going that far. I've got to stay with my men."

Naruto and Muret turned and looked at how far they had gotten from the rest of the ships around Centaurea before Naruto started fishing around in the pockets of his vest, turning back around to Dragon holding a Hiraishin kunai, "I can just take-." He turned to find Dragon no longer there, "Where'd he go? Soren where'd he go?"

Soren looked down and scratched his head under his bandanna, "I've got no idea Uzumaki I was looking at Centaurea. I wasn't keeping an eye on the guy."

"He's really fast…" Muret said rather fearfully.

"I'm just as fast as he is." Naruto replied, looking over at the ships that were getting further away on the horizon, "And I just met another person that's supposed to be one of the strongest men in the world." He smirked, "You know, I still really want to fight him. Isn't that messed up?" A frown then came over his face, "I don't like the way he's trying to deal with the World Government though, but someone like that isn't going to listen to someone like me."

After letting silence settle for a moment, Muret let out a huge sigh and dropped to her backside on the deck, "I just came face to face with 'The Revolutionary Dragon'… I really don't think I'll ever get used to being on this ship."

Naruto then frowned and stomped his foot on the deck angrily, "Damn it, I can't even call Luffy and tell him. I promised that I wouldn't tell anyone that I knew he was Luffy's dad. I didn't even know Luffy had parents. Who has to get together to create a guy like Luffy?" Naruto scratched his scalp, "Luffy's got the weirdest family members…"

XxX

(Two Days Later)

The Den Den Mushi belonging to the crew, complete with having its shell painted in crew colors of orange and blue with the crew Jolly Roger emblazoned on it in the common area was steadily ringing off of the hook, eventually finding itself answered by Miss Valentine, "Hello?" She said flipping herself over a nearby couch to lay down while she was talking.

"_Where is Uzumaki Naruto?"_ The voice on the other line said to her, getting straight to the point.

"Hmm…" Miss Valentine said in procrastination to the rather impatient sounding voice, "That's not the kind of tone you use when you want someone to do something for you. The right thing to say would have been, 'If it isn't any trouble could you let me speak to Uzumaki Naruto.' I would have also accepted anything with the word please in it as an answer." She said, a bright smile on her face as she let out a small laugh. It was so much fun messing with strangers, much more fun than messing with her friends.

She could hear the voice growl at her on the other line and she had to take her mouth away from the receiver to keep from laughing into the line and pissing the person off even more. If she was going to upset him then she wanted to make it more challenging for herself than just laughing at him. The gruff voice tried to regain his composure before trying again, _"Is Uzumaki Naruto there or not? I was told that this was how to reach him besides the other more direct way."_

Miss Valentine looked at her nails, pondering whether or not she had time to paint them and finish before she could get this guy to lose his cool and hang up, "Naruto… well he might be here. Then again he might not be. He has a habit of jumping ship and showing back up whenever he wants to in the blink of an eye. For all I know he could be a hundred miles away or right in his room. I'm not feeling quite up for getting up to check though. His room is a _long_ walk." She said, looking directly at the door that Naruto's quarters sat behind not even ten feet from where she was laying down at.

"_Alright I've had it up to here with you woman! Uzumaki or not if you don't tell me where he is I don't care who you are to him I will find you and turn you into a chew toy do you understand? Tell Uzumaki that Jyabura of CP9 is asking for him."_

CP9? Oh that just made this all the more fun for her. She didn't even care how they got this number, they had tried to kill her and her friends and haul her former boss Nico Robin off to Impel Down. She opened her mouth, about to come up with something to really piss the guy off when she heard a voice that stopped her.

"Who are you talking to on the Den Den Mushi Valentine-chan?" Miss Valentine leaned her head back on the arm of the couch and looked up owlishly at Naruto who was standing over her looking down with a curious look on his face.

A smile slowly broke out on Miss Valentine's face as they both heard the Den Den Mushi rant in the place of the person on the end of the line. Her bright green eyes shone with amusement as she handed the receiver over to Naruto, "Someone for you." She said cheekily. Naruto rolled his eyes and took it from her, "Hey what are you doing talking to the CP9 anyway?"

Naruto forced her to scoot over on the couch so that he could sit down and begin speaking, "This is Uzumaki Naruto. It took long enough for you guys to call. I didn't think you would ever try to get in contact with me… I was getting ready to chalk that one up as a loss."

Jyabura's voice on the other end noticeably calmed down as it began to speak to Naruto, _"Yeah well we ran into a few misadventures. We had to leave St. Poplar because we wound up annihilating a stupid group of pirates that went there to start trouble, then we went home."_

"You guys have a home?" Naruto asked incredulously. Well it made sense. Everyone had to come from somewhere so why would CP9 be any different, "Nevermind, what's going on now? Keep me in the loop here."

"_Well we've got a ship."_ Jyabura said, seeming like he didn't know what to say from there, _"And… that's pretty much it. Lucci's all healed up, and he wants to go after Spandam. He's not dead but your boy with the acid pretty much melted tons of his skin off. That's what we heard anyway."_

Naruto leaned back in the couch as Miss Valentine put her head on his shoulder and yawned, "You're not going to find Spandam anytime soon. And is Lucci there with you right now?" He asked not really waiting for a response, "I don't care, I hope he is, because he's an idiot for telling Spandam that you guys were still alive." Miss Valentine couldn't help but laugh at Naruto calling out CP9's strongest member, "Now he's going to send someone after you to cover his own tracks and keep himself clean of everything that happened at Enies Lobby. I thought you guys were assassins, you don't tell your target you're coming."

Silence reigned over the line for a moment before Jyabura spoke up again, _"Yeah, Lucci wants to kill you now for that crack you made about him."_

"Tell him to get in line." Naruto quipped dryly, putting an arm around Miss Valentine, "Just keep in touch, remember that you can call me anytime, and don't abuse the Hiraishin kunai or summon me for something stupid. I'll call you guys sooner than later for more."

"_Got it Uzumaki."_ And with that the phone call ended.

Miss Valentine turned her eyes towards Naruto's blue ones and decided to ask the question that her gaze was already doing for her, "So why are you in contact with CP9? Why are you even helping them? They tried to kill the Straw Hats remember?"

"You tried to kill me, remember?" Naruto replied before giving her a kiss on the forehead, "And Spandam was the one of them that I had the most problem with. We have the same guy as a target only they're actively seeking him. They're doing my job for me so that I don't go off looking for a ghost. If I find Spandam I'll just tell them and they can handle him. Then they'll owe me."

Understanding what he was trying to do, give the CP9 a purpose and get himself some form of allies, Miss Valentine nodded, "You've got friends in low places Naruto. You've got a group of assassins almost at your beck and call."

A nod came from her fellow blonde, "You say that like it's a bad thing Valentine-chan."

XxX

(Sometime Later)

"Are you sure you want to fight me?" Soren asked Nojiko as he stood across from her on the portion of the deck cleared for training outside, "I won't go easy on you the way Uzumaki does. I can lower my acid level enough to keep it from being fatal, but might end up ruining the fabric of the pretty little designer clothes you prance around in." A smirk then came over his face, "I might get a free show out of this if I'm feeling mean you know."

Nojiko merely stepped into her Waver Skates and smacked her heels together to kickstart them, levitating her right off of the ground, "First of all, I don't _prance_." She said with a dangerous lift in her voice as she drew her pistols from her holsters, "Second of all, I never asked you to go easy on me. And third of all…" She twirled her pistols around on her fingers before grabbing a tight hold of them, "You have to hit me first to worry about doing anything to my clothes."

"I don't know where your getting all of your-." Soren then stopped what would have been a smart-ass remark as he could see how confident she was and could only draw one real conclusion as to why she would be about fighting him, even in a spar, "Crap, you can use those things the right way now can't you?"

"Uh huh." Nojiko said cheerfully, "I called Nami for advice because she has an actual Waver… It turns out all I needed was a delicate touch."

So what? Mobility was only half of the battle. She still had to be able to do him damage to beat him, "Just so I know, how many special element shots can you do now." Soren asked her aloud out of curiosity.

"More." Nojiko said with a grin forming on her face, "_Way_ more. But don't worry, I can't use the earth, lightning, or water elements yet. Just wind and fire." She finished with a wink, "You're lucky."

"I don't feel lucky." Soren muttered, slapping himself across the face to psyche himself up, "You inherited Uzumaki's mean streak didn't you?" Prior to a fight he just had to get in one jab, no matter how bad the outcome might be, "I guess all that sex with him had to benefit you in some other way huh?" And as he saw Nojiko give him an emotionless look as she put up her pistols and pulled her shotgun from her back he felt that he would wind up paying for that sometime before they called an end to the spar… because it wouldn't be his choice when they stopped.

Meanwhile, Naruto stood at the helm as he could hear Nojiko's shotgun ring out with a shot that made Soren shriek like a girl, "I hope he dodged that." He said to himself. If Nojiko was really that much stronger with her new skills then maybe he didn't have to get Soren back himself, maybe Nojiko would do it for him.

He turned around and looked up in the air to see Vivi fighting in the branches of the tree-like masts against Paulie, using his ropes against her sharp jewel weapons. Vivi was definitely coming along, and he knew that Paulie wasn't necessarily weak in his own right after the short fight they had at Water 7. As fast as it looked that Vivi would cut through his ropes he would seemingly come up with even more to keep himself in the air and counterattack with. Naruto had to wonder where he kept all of the rope.

Things were moving along smoothly. They were right on track to not only get back on their route on the Grand Line towards Constellation Island, but to jump further ahead than their original route would have set them on. So with getting knocked off course combined with cutting their original route in half they were right back on schedule. They were able to totally bypass the Florian Triangle on the way as well to boot.

Who cared that they were cutting through the Calm Belt to get there? That was why the bottom of the ship was lined with Seastone and why it was so valuable, so that they could do things like that. Naruto didn't know that the ship he commandeered from Commi Island would be so valuable when he took it. He was glad he seemed to have such an eye for useful things.

"Soren!"

"What? You're fucking firing away with the shotgun, scaring the hell out of me! How am I supposed to keep control over the acid level like that when I think I'm going to die?"

Naruto turned around to find Nojiko floating on her Waver Skates glaring at Soren because apparently he had gotten a hit in on Nojiko with one of his attacks and had managed to disintegrate her top, leaving her in a black bra.

The acid spitting man crossed his arms and turned away indignantly with a scoff, "I'm a grown man. You act like I've never seen boobs before. You've still got the bra so shut up and fight." He then started dancing as small fireballs were fired at his feet.

Nojiko was steadily firing at Soren, having switched weapons to her faster default guns, her pistols, using regular ammunition to save her chakra for the moment, "Stop moving damn it!"

"How's that not being crazy thing working for you Noji-chan?" Naruto asked her loudly in amusement.

"Being mad isn't the same thing as being crazy Naruto-kun!" Nojiko snapped back at him as she reloaded her guns before returning her attention to fighting Soren. Yes he certainly did have an eye for useful things… and crazy things… and pretty things too. Sometimes all of them rolled up into one.

At that moment he felt a familiar pull in the back of his mind over a long distance. Someone had thrown his Hiraishin kunai… and no one bothered trying to call first either so it was an emergency.

Setting the wheel in place, Naruto jumped between Soren and Nojiko's duel and stopped their fighting with his presence, "I've got to go. You guys know the drill for how to run things while I'm gone right?" Both of them nodded, seeing how serious he was, "Good. I'll be back soon okay?" He gave Nojiko a kiss and disappeared in a yellow flash.

"I wonder what's wrong." Nojiko wondered, touching her lips where Naruto had just kissed her, "I've never seen him look that serious before leaving before."

Soren just grunted, "We'll find out when he gets back. Just don't worry about it." He said putting a hand on the despondent young woman's shoulder, "You want to shoot at me again? It might make you feel better." He offered, getting a slow nod from Nojiko, "Okay, let's get back to shooting me. Hit me if you can."

XxX

(Moments Prior – With Straw Hat Crew)

One large trap for their ship and crew led to the Straw Hat Crew being stuck in the middle of the largest ship in the entire world. A rather eerie ship that had set up shop in the Florian Triangle, a place notorious for losing entire ships and crews. Well they soon found out that much of this was because of the efforts of Gekko Moriah, a man using the reputation of the area to trap victims for his own purposes… to build an army of zombies. It also didn't help that the man was supposed to be a Shichibukai.

The entire ship Thriller Bark was an island converted into a ship and thus had things like dead forests, a graveyard, a morbid mansion and all sorts of things as well as around 1000 inhabitants, mostly zombies under Gekko Moriah's control.

And the strongest one had currently taken the full measure of most of the Straw Hats and had left them defeated.

He was four times the size of a regular giant and had long blonde hair that flowed from his head to his back with two large horns on the top of his head. He had a massive underbite with large fangs and even tusks as well as only one eye. His body had stitches all over, especially around his stomach where a blue cloth was placed. He wore a large black loincloth with three giant skulls strapped to a rope to hold it up.

On the ground, beaten up right at his feet lay Franky, Usopp, Chopper, Sanji, Zoro, Robin, and a strange skeleton with an afro wearing a formal suit, "Ugh…" The massive creature groaned as it looked at wanted posters of the Straw Hats taped to his arm, "Let's see who's left. The Straw Hat guy from earlier, some orange-haired girl, and the superhero. Why are those three missing?" The giant wondered as he scratched his head. He then shrugged carelessly and began tearing apart the mansion right by him with his fists trying to find Nami, Luffy, and Usopp, who he had already defeated without really knowing.

Meanwhile Robin weakly lifted her head to see the giant destroying everything to find the remaining two members he had yet to defeat. She fished through her clothes and managed to pull out Naruto's Hiraishin kunai, staring at it intensely, "As much as I don't want to bother you to ask you for help… I think we could use it right about now." She looked over the downed and wounded crewmates that were there with her, "Yeah we could probably use it." She then took aim at the giant and threw it as hard as she could.

The kunai stuck itself in the giant's fist just as it was throwing another punch to destroy another wall of the massive mansion. Robin only let her head lay back down so that she could take some time to rest so that she and the others could get up to fight again soon, "I really hope you can help us Naruto."

XxX

(With the Hiraishin Kunai)

In a flash of yellow, Naruto appeared in a pile of rubble, picking his kunai up out of the wreckage, "Man who threw this thing hard enough to take out a wall?" He then saw a few figures running down the hall he found himself in, "Oi! What's going on around here? Who summoned me?"

A group of animal hybrid zombies stopped just as a younger girl wearing red lipstick and gothic eyeliner with pink hair in two high pigtails did. She had a red crown on the top of her head, wore black and white stockings that went all the way up her legs. She also wore red buckled boots, a red mini-skirt with white stars, a white long-sleeved shirt, and a red fabric covering her shoulders. She turned her big round eyes towards Naruto and stomped on the ground in a small fit, "What are you doing you idiot? The giant Oars is going to squish us all if we don't get out of here!"

"Giant what?" Naruto asked her with a tilted head, "Look, have you seen a guy with a Straw Hat or anyone with him? They're friends of mine, they should have been the ones that called me. I need to know why I'm here and what I'm supposed to do to help out."

Distracted from her impending doom from the rampaging giant momentarily by how she thought the way Naruto looked when he was confused was cute, the girl snapped out of it once she heard that the crew that was causing Thriller Bark so much trouble and had defeated her were friends with this guy, "I wasn't going to steal the Straw Hats ship to get off of this island! What gave you that crazy idea?" She said before laughing nervously.

"You did." Naruto said with a deadpan look, "Can you help me find them or not?" He didn't have time to sit here with this girl, he couldn't see any of his friends around and he knew that they wouldn't have called him for nothing to a place like this.

"Get me off of Thriller Bark and we'll see!" The girl persisted, really wanting to run away from the ship, "You don't get it! Oars is taking this whole place out looking for a girl! _I'm _a girl!" She started bawling uncontrollably as the zombies around her tried to console her, "I'm too cute to die!"

"What's an Oars?" Naruto asked, not really getting the gist of what they were talking about, "I think I'm missing a huge chunk of what your point is supposed to be…" He said, trailing off to get her name.

"My name is Perona!" She yelled, stomping over to Naruto, "And Oars is the giant looking for a girl! Now get me out of here Mister Straw Hat Friend!" All of those Straw Hats were really strong. They had to have strong friends too didn't they? Especially if this guy was insisting that they called him here to help them out.

Naruto looked around the empty, but ruined hallway and shrugged, "What giant?" At that point a giant face appeared looking upside down through the hole in the wall, staring at Naruto and Perona with one good eye, having been attracted by the racket Perona had been making, "Oh… that giant." He then looked back at the shaking Perona who was crying anime tears at this point, "Do you care where I take you as long as it's out of Thriller Bark?"

"Just get me out of here… this is way too much." Perona whimpered, staring directly into the one eye of Oars, "I really don't care. I was planning on getting out of here anyway. This place is done for."

Naruto nodded, "Good to know." He then dropped his Hiraishin kunai on the ground and grabbed Perona, disappearing in a flash of yellow just as a massive hand reached inside to grab a hold of them both.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Naruto and Perona landed on his bed with Naruto jumping up immediately and setting himself to work, "Where are we?" She asked, looking around frantically, "How did we get here so fast?" She tried to get Naruto to explain to her as she saw him throw his headband onto the ground.

"Don't worry about that." Naruto said as he started pacing around the room, pulling out a scroll and unraveling it before making a Kage Bunshin to sit on it and begin meditating. The original then started stretching his arms out to get ready for a fight, "I'll take you back there after it's all over."

"No!" Perona yelled, jumping off of the bed and latching herself around his legs, "Don't take me back there! Oars is going to kill everybody!"

Naruto rolled his eyes and pried the younger girl off of his legs, "Calm down, go outside, say I got you out of wherever we just were. You can stay here until I handle that Oars thing. Just be good and don't bother my clone alright? Now let go unless you want to go back with me." That got Perona off of him in a flash, she didn't want anything to do with going back there. Naruto then let out a desperate sigh, "I can already tell that I'm going to hate fighting this fight." He said before waving goodbye to Perona and vanishing with the Hiraishin no Jutsu.

Perona just stared at where Naruto had once been and blinked, "Wow that was pretty cool." She then frowned at the clone that was steadily meditating, "Too bad he's going to die though. Nobody can beat Oars." Perona decided to go outside and see just where in the world she was, "Oh well, let's see where this is."

XxX

(Thriller Bark)

Naruto reappeared right back in the same spot he had vanished from moments before only there was no Oars staring dead at him. Naruto picked up his Hiraishin kunai and ran towards the hole in the wall, looking out to see most of the Straw Hat Pirates down below, minus Nami and Luffy, bringing a satisfied grin to his face, "Oi! What's up you guys? I'm here!"

He only saw them staring up at him as if they had seen a ghost. Naruto jumped out of the upper story of the mansion to the courtyard below and walked over the rubble to greet them since the giant didn't seem to be anywhere in sight. The first thing he noticed was that they all looked pretty beaten up, "You all look beat the hell up. What ran you guys over?" It was at that moment that he noticed that no one had any snappy comeback or remark to his appearance, but they were still looking up behind him from the spot he had jumped down from, "What the hell are you guys looking at?"

At that moment, Oars crashed down on the ground behind Naruto on his stomach, facing his back and the front of all the present Straw Hat Pirates. Robin merely pointed at the ugly visage of the giant that was breathing directly down Naruto's back, "That's what we're looking at."

Naruto didn't even bother turning around as he could already feel the giant's hot breath on the back of his person, "So is anyone going to tell me what's going on here?" He asked as he flexed his fingers into and out of tensed fists.

"Yeah." Sanji said, smoking a cigarette just as calmly as Naruto seemed to be at the moment, something that Zoro and Robin shared, "We're fighting that thing." All of the others nodded in agreement.

"Thanks." Naruto said sarcastically, "I couldn't have figured that one out on my own."

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Perona walked outside and marveled at the appearance of the ship that the blonde guy brought her to, "Wow, this is a really nice ship. I think I'll take it. There aren't even that many people here." She said as she then came upon the rest of the crew that had been outside, "Alright, if you would all just hand over this ship everything will be fine."

Soren and Nojiko stopped fighting, and even Vivi and Paulie dropped down from their midair battle to stare at the strange girl. Soren and Nojiko looked at each other before Soren spoke up, "Um, exactly who the hell are you? What's with people just showing up on our ship?" He mused quietly.

Nojiko had a frown marring her pretty face as she could only assume there was one reason that this girl was here, "Yeah, I think Naruto-kun is going to have a serious story to tell when he gets back."

Perona was beginning to get impatient with the crew talking amongst themselves, "Are you going to give me the ship or not?"

Nojiko, Soren, Paulie, and Vivi all gave her a deadpan look as they got into their respective fighting stances against Perona; Nojiko pointing her pistols at her while levitating off of the ground with her Waver Skates, Soren with his acid nails set and a steaming haze rising off of his body, Vivi holding her sharp ranged weapons, and Paulie ready to produce his ropes from his clothing, "How about not?" They all said simultaneously.

Perona balked at seeing all of them ready for a fight. Now that she was able to get a closer look she had to say that none of them looked weak. Maybe she should have behaved like that other guy told her to in the first place?

"Who the hell is this?" She heard voices as from behind her as Johnny and Yosaku came walking out as well to surround her on both sides.

She was probably better off at Thriller Bark.

* * *

**Meh, chapter done. Nothing to say that's witty or worth mentioning since the last thing I updated was yesterday. Man I'm making decent use of my much needed week off from work and real life in general though I'll say that much. I'll catch you all on the flipside same as always.**

**Kenchi out.**


	34. Splitting Your Chances

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Good things just do not happen to good people… thus I must become the personification of evil. And I will never receive another parking ticket again, in eternalness… speak now or forever rest in pieces, with liberty and justice for all! The end!

**Chapter 34: Splitting Your Chances**

* * *

Naruto turned around to face Oars' massive face, lowered down to get a ground view of him and all of the Straw Hat Pirates present. Sick of having Oars' fetid breath heaving on him repeatedly, he looked at the grotesque giant zombie and cracked his knuckles before cocking a fist back, set on trying to knock his block off. At least he was before a set of hands grew on his body and held him in place, "What the hell? Robin-chan why?"

"I didn't call you to fight the giant for us Naruto." Robin said, using her powers to keep him from stepping in for them.

"Then why am I even here?" Naruto asked, still frozen in the pose of loading up a punch meant for Oars.

"Gomu Gomu no Shirimochi (Gum Gum Butt Stomp)!" Oars jumped his massive body into the air and aimed his backside to slam down on Naruto and all of the present Straw Hats. Robin let go of Naruto thus allowing him to escape the affected area of Oars' attempt.

"What kind of bullshit attack was that?" Naruto yelled, pointing at Oars who was getting up from his seated position on the ground, "And why did it call it out the way Luffy does? That was useless, he didn't even stretch anything!" And Naruto had to say it was probably for the best that a _giant_ bigger than any giant he had already seen couldn't also stretch or else they might not have been able to dodge that so easily. Man that was a scary thought.

Franky growled at Oars and ran towards Zoro and Sanji, "Alright, let's see how this guy likes our new team move! Guys! We're using Tactics Fifteen!"

Chopper looked shocked at that news, "Wait, we're going to do that here?" He sounded almost excited about it as he started running towards Zoro and Sanji with Franky.

Franky started barking orders to Zoro and Sanji, "Zoro! Swirly-brows! Standby! Now grab onto my feet!" He yelled as he jumped into the air with a small Chopper on top of his head.

Both Zoro and Sanji looked perturbed as he did this, catching him and placing him on one shoulder each. Even Usopp had a place, staying attached and keeping his arms above his head in a pincer-like manner and wrapping his legs around Franky's forearm as Franky grabbed around his body with his large right hand.

So now it was Franky as the center, elevated off of the ground by his legs by Zoro and Sanji acting as extensions of them, with Usopp as an extension of a right arm and Chopper sitting on top of his head, "Pirate Docking Six! Giant Robot Warrior! Big Emperor!"

Chopper then noticed something wrong, "Wait up Franky! The left arm still hasn't docked yet!" And it was true because the left arm of this combination was not there, it was still just Franky's arm.

Franky looked over at Robin and Naruto, both of whom were looking at what was transpiring with differing expressions, "Oi! What are you doing Nico Robin? Hurry up and dock onto my left arm! Quick! Just like Usopp is doing!"

"I just can't do it." Robin said calmly, hiding her own annoyance at the scene, "…It's just too embarrassing." She finished, much to the shock of her comrades stuck in the upper portions of the 'robot'.

"Ooh!" Naruto started waving his hands around, "Let me do it! I want to do it! Can I do it?" It was now Robin's turn to give Naruto a shocked look as he was legitimately psyched to be there at the moment, "I like what I see and I want to be a part of it!"

"Super!" Franky said, holding his left arm out for Naruto to link up with, which he gleefully did in the same manner as Usopp, "Substitute left arm; docking complete!"

Robin palmed her face before looking over at Oars who was looking at the 'robot' with rapt attention being paid, "He actually wanted to see it happen?" Well at least it explained why none of them were squashed just now as long as that took.

Franky held his left arm and Naruto out to point at Oars, "Alright you giant bastard, are you ready to face the super might of the Big Emperor?" And Oars seemed stoked as he nodded rapidly, "Left arm: fire!"

Naruto looked back at Franky with a dry look, "Fire what?"

Franky blinked, "You know… just… fire." He said, shaking his arm as if that would make something happen.

This time Naruto tilted his head in confusion, "I don't even know what I'm supposed to be firing. Be more specific, your command list sucks."

"Fire!"

"Fire what? I thought you had a plan or something!"

"THE PLAN WAS FOR YOU TO FIRE!"

"FIRE WHAT?"

Franky was seething by this point due to his belligerent 'left arm', "Naruto I swear if you don't-."

"-Oh, wait! Nevermind, I know what to do." Naruto said, cutting Franky off as he formed a reverse ram seal, "Mugiwaraboushi Konbi Henge: Koukai no Kaiyou Kage (Straw Hat Combination Transformation: Ocean Shadow of the High Seas)!" A large puff of smoke shrouded the massive construct humans, a cyborg, and a reindeer.

The smoke cleared to reveal a large, humanoid robot over fifteen feet tall with a red core decorated with yellow flowers, a head that looked as if it was covered with a ninja facemask and had a pink samurai helmet on its head with a pair of reindeer horns on the top, a right arm that looked like a brown pincered cannon, a red left arm with a bright yellow hand that had a swirl pattern in the palm, a sleek jet black left leg, and a green right leg that looked to be covered in sharp armor.

Robin just stared blankly in abject surprise as the robot seemed to wiggle all of its body parts and look itself over. It eventually snapped into a pose giving the thumbs up with its left arm as Naruto's voice came out in a slightly warped, metallic way, "There. I got your 'Big Emperor' for you right here."

Zoro's voice filtered through, sounding similarly metallic, "I have to admit… this isn't as stupid as I thought it was going to be when we started this." He said in a mildly impressed manner.

"Stupid?" Usopp's metallic voice chimed in, "How about totally awesome? This is great!"

Franky let out a triumphant laugh, his voice warped like all of the others as Big Emperor turned towards Robin and began flexing, "Hah, I bet you wish you docked up now, huh Nico Robin?" Meanwhile Robin refrained from stating the obvious; that if she had linked up with the others they still would have looked stupid. Big Emperor then turned towards Oars and aimed the left arm, "Now left arm: fire!"

"…Fire what?"

Sanji's voice yelled in a perturbed manner, "Damn it Franky if you want something to fire then use Usopp not Naruto!"

"Oh. I knew that." Franky said, sounding quite embarrassed before switching his aiming arm from the left to the right, "_Right_ arm: fire!" And this time a large multicolored flaming bird flew from the cannon right arm, "Niji Houou-Boshi (Rainbow Phoenix Star)!"

The huge flaming bird crashed into the gawking Oars' face and sent him stumbling back with the flames dissipating after the explosion, "Gah! I wasn't ready, you cheaters!" Oars yelled as he patted out the flames on his face.

"Wow." Usopp said in surprise, "That was new. It was just supposed to be a Hi no Tori Boshi (Firebird Star)."

Naruto's voice explained as best he could, "It's a combination Henge. I'm drawing on everyone's chakra in addition to mine to keep this transformation going. That means that chakra is circulating freely just to keep this body, so everything is enhanced!"

"Super!" Franky shouted before breaking Big Emperor into another pose, "Now let's take this big freak down and get Straw Hat's shadow back!" With Sanji and Zoro for legs, the entire construct rushed towards Oars who angrily attempted to flatten everyone with a palm strike that was hastily dodged by Big Emperor jumping up onto the arm and running up the length of it towards Oars' head.

They only got to the forearm before Oars picked up a chunk of debris with his other arm and attempted to smash Big Emperor like an ant crawling on someone's arm, but the right leg (Zoro) lashed out and cut right through the debris before Big Emperor jumped and delivered a spin kick with the left leg (Sanji) that snapped the arm away and swung Oars' body to spin around facing away from the still midair combination transformation, leaving him off balance, "Kayaku no Arashi (Gunpowder Storm)!"

As the left arm of Big Emperor started firing rapid-fire exploding pellets at the back of Oars' head, the right hand of Big Emperor swung outward and opened wide as it formed a massive blue ball the entire size of Big Emperor himself, "Teikoku Odama Rasengan (Imperial Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!"

"Super!" As Franky yelled, Big Emperor seemed to be propelled forward at a faster rate than before by some kind of gaseous exhaust as the gargantuan Rasengan was driven right into Oars' back, driving him into the ground.

As Oars was brutally plowed into the ground and dust rose up from the impact of the attack Robin blinked, the only indication that she had been completely stunned by what she had just seen, "That stupid combination thing actually worked?" She then ran over to where Big Emperor jumped out of the cloud.

Big Emperor landed on its left leg and started hopping to the left, ending in a stomp that left him posed kabuki-style with the left arm palm out pointing at Robin and the right arm pointing directly back, "That's right!" Naruto's distorted voice shouted, "Because when you deal with weird undead giants and similar otherworldy freaks you need to be able to get just as freaky! And there's nobody freakier on the face of the planet than Uzumaki Naruto!"

At that moment, Big Emperor was engulfed in a puff of smoke and once it cleared it revealed that everyone was separated and back to normal. Franky exclaimed in a displeased manner once he realized this, "Hey! Why'd you break the formation? We were kicking that guy's ass!"

Naruto shrugged, "I can feel everyone's chakra when using Konbi Henge because I'm using your chakra too and you guys were running out fast. If I used too much of your chakra I could have killed you." He made the right decision too because Usopp was on his hands and knees panting heavily, Chopper was panting with his tongue lolling out, and the others didn't exude exhaustion nearly as much, but Naruto wasn't a fool, he knew what he was feeling. Sanji and Zoro were running low quickly, and from the sight of Franky taking in more cola there was no way he couldn't say that his energy wasn't getting drained while they were in the henge.

Sanji looked up and felt a wave of anxiety roll through him as something occurred that hadn't happened since they had entered Thriller Bark. He could see the sky. That was bad because it was almost dawn. Dawn was bad, very bad. They all had their shadows stolen, and long story short, if the sun of the new morning touched them then everyone missing a shadow was screwed because they would be vaporized, "Shit… this is so not good."

Naruto did not know this, "Why? I can actually see now. This is way better."

Chopper and Zoro opened their mouths to yell at Naruto about why it was bad, one in a scared fashion and the other in an angry manner, but Robin created arms on their bodies to cover their mouths. He didn't know the situation and if he did there would have been a good chance of him panicking, "We just have to hope that Luffy can defeat Gekko Moriah soon and get our shadows back." She said calmly.

"In the meantime." Zoro said, taking up a stance as he glared at the smoke still rising from where Oars was felled, "If we can beat this guy then Luffy gets his shadow back. At least we can do that before dawn, even if we don't get our own shadows back."

"Kishishishishi!" An arrogant voice cackled as the sounds of Oars moving to stand back up started ringing out, his feet smashing the rubble beneath him into the ground. All that Naruto knew was that the voice was not Oars', "The sun's coming out in a short while and you all are so determined to beat Oars' just so Straw Hat Luffy has a chance to beat me? Too bad he's not here!" On Oars' back was a massive groove where the last powerful Rasengan hit him.

As Oars stood up and turned back towards them, Usopp's eyes widened, "It's Moriah! He's there in Oars' tummy!" He pointed frantically.

"Tummy?" Every male that fancied themselves manly said to themselves humorously until they looked up and indeed saw a man inside of Oars' stomach.

Naruto had to remark that the man was gargantuan, standing at least two entire bodies over him and rather chubby to boot. He had a very long head and neck with two small horns on his forehead, and red hair that stuck straight up. His ears and teeth were pointed and he had pale-blue skin with a darker shade of blue for his lips. He wore a ruffled shirt and a black coat with the collar upturned in addition to a pair of black gloves. Naruto tilted his head to the side in pondering, "So this is Gekko Moriah? Yeah, I don't know who that is."

Sanji palmed his forehead, "Crap… Luffy got ditched somewhere…"

"Holy shit!" Oars exclaimed excitedly as he looked down to try and see into his own stomach, "There's a fucking command unit in my stomach? That's so cool! I'm like a fucking robot!"

"Straw Hat won't be coming." Moriah said confidently, "Come on, I'll give you guys a chance to beat me and take your shadows back. But to get to me first… you've got to beat Oars!" He shouted as he began to cackle.

Naruto stared up at Oars and Moriah, grinding his teeth, "So does this thing have a weakness or something?"

"What?" Zoro asked, noticing the change in Naruto's demeanor.

"Weakness!" Naruto shouted, "What is it going to take to beat this thing quicker?"

"Salt!" Chopper said abruptly, "Oars is a zombie and the zombies are weak against salt! It helps to purify them!" He then looked over at Oars and the little reindeer faltered somewhat, "There's no way we have enough salt for _that_ though."

"Ugh." Naruto grunted in exasperation before he realized that he could still smell the ocean through everything, and could feel the ground beneath him move. Apparently this was a ship no matter how much of an inland it appeared to be, "I need time. I need a lot of time." Naruto said as he sat down on the ground where he stood and began to take on a meditative pose.

Sanji looked at Naruto just sitting down in the middle of the battlefield, "What the hell is he doing?" He then saw Naruto begin to make slow, drawn out hand-seals and remembered the first time he had seen Naruto fight back in Nami's hometown. The very first thing he had done to take out most of Arlong's men. But there was no water anywhere near them, 'That's why he needs time! He's going to do whatever he does to call the water! Can he do it?'

It didn't matter if he could or not. He was trying it, and regardless they still had to fight Oars, so they would be holding off the giant zombie anyway. With that in mind he turned back towards Oars and Moriah in his stomach. Moriah was looking past the contingent of Straw Hat Pirates at Naruto, actually he was looking behind Naruto, "Ah, Kuma. Have you come to watch me destroy the Straw Hats the way I told you I would firsthand?"

The Straw Hats all turned around and saw the massive form of Bartholomew Kuma standing behind the meditating Naruto with a stony expression on his face, "No. I've come to make sure your fight is with the Straw Hats only. He is not one of the Straw Hats, and with him they would destroy you." Kuma left no time for any arguments from Moriah as he lifted one of his hands to reveal pink paw pads on his palm, "Where would you like to go Uzumaki Naruto?" He asked.

Naruto opened his eyes and stopped making hand-seals in time to roll forward out of the way of Kuma's attempt to slap down on him with his palm. Naruto flipped and sprung back to his feet to face off with Kuma, "You look like one of those things that me and my crew fought a while back. Those cyborgs… but you talk."

"So you did manage to destroy the other Pacifista prototypes." Kuma said, as calm as ever, "Vegapunk said that they weren't ready yet, but Fleet Admiral Sengoku would have no arguments. The upgraded versions are now far stronger."

"They were based on you?" Naruto asked him, getting one stiff nod, "And you're here for me?" Kuma shook his head no, "Then why are you here?"

"To inform my Shichibukai comrade of something." Kuma informed Naruto, "But defeating you and capturing you would assist him, because like I said, you aren't a Straw Hat Pirate. I don't know how you got here, but you shouldn't have come." He then disappeared from Naruto's sight, getting Naruto's eyes to widen before he himself did the same in a similar burst of speed in an attempt to keep up

Moriah began to laugh once Naruto and Kuma vanished from sight, "Kishishishishi! That guy is a dead man walking! Kuma was one of the most brutal pirates ever even before he became a Shichibukai. Since then he's only grown stronger! Whatever he came for, it won't matter now after Kuma finishes him off!" He then willed Oars' body to move, "But you shouldn't worry about that, you've got me to deal with! Get them Oars!" He shouted as he sent the giant at them to attack.

XxX

Naruto missed a swinging mid-air kick meant for Kuma and growled as he attempted to give chase again. With a guy that big, Naruto didn't want to risk reacting and setting himself on the defensive to see how strong his attacks were. He wanted to finish this as quickly as he could, but there was one thing that was for certain.

Kuma was far faster than the cyborgs he, Soren, and Miss Valentine had fought a few months back. One second he was there, the next he wasn't. It was annoying, but he wasn't as fast as that light guy Kizaru. His movements were more sudden, and it didn't even seem like he was running.

Thus far the two had engaged in a quick paced dance through a dark forest of many dead trees. Right from the start as they started whipping across the landscape, possibly the large man's attempt to lead Naruto away from the others, Kuma would swing at Naruto with his massive arms as he attempted to slap him with an open palm, and Naruto would try to unleash a kick or an occasional Rasengan, but neither of them could make contact with the other.

'No time to mess around.' Naruto thought as he had been in Sage Mode since right after dodging Kuma's first attack against him. He wasn't allowed the needed time to summon enough water towards the center of Thriller Bark, but he was given more than enough time to gather enough natural energy to enter Sage Mode. For some reason he felt that he needed to be in a hurry, because dawn was bad. _He_ didn't know why dawn was supposed to be bad, since no one told him and he didn't really have time to ask, but for some reason Sanji thought it was bad, an Sanji was an astute enough fighter to not be concerned with something like that it if it was something trivial.

Which meant to Naruto that he had to get his ass back there as soon as he could in case there was something he could do.

Easier said than done.

The Hiraishin kunai that Robin used to summon him in the first place was now with him, seeing as how he had never given it back to the crew. He couldn't just bolt over to them. He would have to run.

As he tried once again to break off from Kuma and head back to where Gekko Moriah and Oars were to attempt to assist his friends he was reminded once more why just trying to beat a hasty retreat was a horrible idea when he was forced to Kawarimi with a log to avoid a looping palm swipe from Kuma.

That was why, because Kuma was absurdly fast. It was incredible. The Pacifista he fought before were far slower than him. It was almost like fighting someone that could run as fast as Aokiji all over again, but his hands weren't as fast apparently because he could see Kuma's hands when he attempted to swat him with his wide open palms.

He didn't know what would happen if he got hit with one of Kuma's open hands, but he wasn't keen on finding out, because when Kuma hit the log he used for Kawarimi the thing vanished. It wasn't smashed or obliterated, it just vanished. He would rather not find out what happened to it by meeting the same fate.

At least there was one good thing about not being near the others. He didn't have to worry about them getting possibly swept up in his attacks, and Kuma was a Shichibukai, Naruto was sure he could take it. Naruto began to rapidly spin in a circle and exude mass amounts of wind natured chakra, "Hakaiarashi Shougeki (Destructive Storm Bombardment)!" A whirlwind of dust and debris formed around Naruto's body taking up the size and width of two Kumas as it began to quickly spin towards him and engulf him.

As the whirlwind created by Naruto moved to cover Kuma to disguise Naruto for his high-speed taijutsu assault on Kuma, the aforementioned man simply stomped and set himself firmly entrenched into the ground as he lifted his hands and the moment he touched the outside of the whirlwind it disappeared without any trace to its previous presence, leaving Naruto's body visible as it flew towards Kuma with a kick that socked him right in the center of his chest.

'What just happened?' Naruto wondered as the massive whirlwind meant to keep him hidden while he attacked Kuma directly simply disappeared, but at least he got one solid kick off onto the man beforehand. He then registered the fact that Kuma was not sent hurtling through the forest after his kick. He only slid back with his feet buried in the ground up to twenty feet, 'I kicked him so hard my foot should have shattered his ribs!'

But then he registered the fact that no one he fought could be expected to follow the norms of what he expected out of normal people. It was getting harder and harder to bludgeon his enemies into submission.

So there was another route he could take to end a battle quicker, especially since they were in a forest.

Naruto jumped back off of Kuma's chest and flipped backwards, placing his palm against a tree and making a half-tiger seal to help him build his chakra, "Mokuton: Houshi Ba-suto (Wood Release: Spore Burst)!" A series of sickly discolored mushrooms formed on the trunk of the tree before it exploded, engulfing the entire area in purple powder.

Naruto jumped out of the cloud of spores and looked back at the area covered in the poison material. If he left it he would be a sucker for a counterattack, and he would have to leave because he would be inhaling pure poison. Thus Naruto charged up a Rasengan and waited to spring into action once Kuma left the poison cloud.

Contrary to what he thought though, Kuma's gait from the poison cloud was slow and steady. He walked right out of the cloud in front of Naruto's eyes, no effects of being inside of the poison for that long evident on his person. Kuma just put one hand back into the cloud and it instantly dispersed effortlessly, leaving nothing in the air it once inhabited.

"What kind of technique is that?" Naruto felt the need to ask. Kuma could do the same to a log, to the poison on the battlefield, and probably to Naruto himself. Yeah there was definitely no way he was going to let Kuma touch him after seeing that. That wasn't really good. Naruto wasn't much for ranged fighting, and even his attacks that did have range as he was took a moment to load up, a moment that Kuma wouldn't let him have.

"I ate the Nikyu Nikyu no Mi (Paw Paw Fruit). I don't feel that it would be important to tell you what that means though as you seem to get the general idea." Kuma said with confidence in this fact.

'I guess his power is to push stuff.' Naruto figured in his head, 'He got rid of my poison cloud so easily, and my log didn't just vanish since he didn't destroy it either.'

Kuma could see the shimmer of realization in Naruto's eyes, "Yes, you seem as though you know enough about it without me saying a word." He then stomped and set his feet firmly back into the ground akin to a sumo wrestler as he seemed to be waiting to react to Naruto's more speedy attack.

An attack that Naruto wasn't that eager to provide him with. Even in Sage Mode, when Naruto hit something it moved. He could smack anyone around, even an admiral like Aokiji if he could make contact and hit them. Not with this one however. He actually hit Kuma, and he barely budged, and even if he hadn't budged his sternum should have been cracked or shattered from the single hit, but he was still moving around freely as if he hadn't taken the kick at all.

'I can break through stone without even trying in this mode.' He could even injure Blueno of CP9's Tekkai without even using Sage Mode… though admittedly Blueno was far from the strongest member of that group, 'He doesn't feel like a human though… oh crap.' Naruto pointed at Kuma with a dry look on his face, "You're just like those cyborg Pacifista things aren't you?" It wasn't a question so much as a tentative statement. If he was a normal human then he would have succumbed to the poison by now.

"Very astute of you." Kuma said as he set his hands back as if he were preparing for palm thrusts, "Now what will you do?"

"Since you're way tougher than a person…" Naruto said, still holding up his Rasengan, "I'll just have to fight you without worrying about hurting you. You can take it, right?"

"Are you finally coming to attack?" Kuma questioned, his voice never differentiating from its usual stoic tone, "I'm afraid it's too late for that, Pad Ho (Pressure Cannon)!" The air around Kuma shimmered, catching Naruto's eye as his optical orbs changed to that of the Rinnegan and he let the Rasengan dissipate so that he could shoot his hands directly forward.

"Shinra Tensei (Heavenly Subjugation of the Omnipresent God)!"

Two invisible forces from both combatants clashed between them and caused a loud banging clap between them that sounded like the loudest gunshot possible by the law of physics. A deep trench was ripped into the ground where the two forces clashed as the entirety of Thriller Bark shook from the force.

Naruto and Kuma just stared at each other. The blonde with the abnormal eyes glared the calm and collected Kuma down as the ringing in his ears ran rampant due to the loud sound that had just blasted through his skull.

In the distance there was a resounding crash as the body of Oars flew from the inside of the castle courtyard, having broken through the wall, and landed hard in the outskirts of the forest lining the island/ship, 'That's right you guys. Kick the crap out of that giant zombie.' Naruto's lips quirked upwards slightly before the expression faded as he formed a cross seal and five Kage Bunshin sprang into existence.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Surrounded on both sides by the remainder of the Foxhound Pirates, sans Naruto, Perona let out a scoff at the way they were all prepared to fight. What was the big deal? All she wanted was to take their ship. That strong guy that took her there wasn't coming back, he was going to die on Thriller Bark, and someone like that had to be the captain. As long as that guy wasn't there she could beat the rest of those guys.

"So you all want to fight huh?" Perona said confidently as everyone around her tensed in anticipation, "Horororo… That's just fine with me, let's just see how you like my Negative Hollows!" She said as she formed a quartet of small ghosts in her hands and sent them all out after the entire crew.

As she saw the more physical fighters on the crew prepare to defend themselves by blocking whatever the ghosts could do, Nojiko saw a vision in her head of the entire crew, seemingly drained of their energy to fight, "Don't touch the ghosts, they'll take away your energy or something!" She was vague on what exactly would happen if a ghost was touched, but either way it wouldn't have been good.

"You can't touch a ghost Nojiko-aneue!" Johnny shouted, his hand on his sheathed sword, ready for action.

"Then why do you think you can cut one with your sword stupid?" Nojiko responded loudly before kicking off with her Waver Skates to avoid the ghosts sent after her.

Johnny blinked behind his sunglasses before turning tail to run from the ghosts sent after him, Nojiko's point made. Yosaku meanwhile, was running towards Perona with Kubikiribouchou ready to swing, "Johnny! Get let's get her now!" Johnny quickly dodged the ghosts after him, making an about-face and charging directly at the girl directly with Yosaku.

Johnny ducked and aimed low from one side while Johnny aimed high from another and cut at Perona mercilessly with one slash meant to take her down with no way to defend, "Kyokutan'na Jokyo (Extreme Elimination)!" Both swords merely passed through Perona's body harmlessly as if they never touched anything at all.

"Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Knife)!" Soren's use of Soru allowed him to give the ghosts pursuing him the slip long enough to launch himself at Perona, "Maybe a special attack will put you down? A Devil Fruit to match a Devil Fruit!" He yelled before running directly through Perona as if he never touched her at all, 'Damn. That won't work either. Why can't we hit this bitch?'

Perona merely laughed as she flew into the air tauntingly, letting her ghosts flew all about the ship as they stuck out their tongues to mock the Foxhound Pirates, "My Devil Fruit is the Horo Horo no Mi (Hollow Hollow Fruit). I control ghosts, so you can all give up on trying to hit me losers." She pulled down an eyelid and stuck out her tongue, "Too bad I can still hit the lot of you!"

Johnny, Yosaku, and Soren all had one of Perona's ghosts pass through them, immediately forcing them to their knees with dull looks on their faces.

Paulie ceased in his attempts to evade Perona's ghosts to look at the trio that suddenly stopped moving, "What are you idiots doing? Get up and keep fighting, we've got to subdue this chick!" Stopping was his downfall as he took one of the ghosts flying through him from a blind spot.

"Oh please…" Perona said as she floated around the deck nonchalantly, "Those three can't even find the inspiration to go on living anymore, let alone get up to keep on fighting a losing battle. I'll have this ship as mine by the time the sun rises!" She then noticed Vivi dodging all four of her ghosts without even moving that far from where she initially started from, "What's this? Hey! Hold still and just give up already! You can't beat me, and you'll just get hit eventually!"

The four ghosts after Vivi were more or less making a dome of activity as Vivi seemed to dodge them with flips, handsprings, rolls, spins, and flexible movements of her body, "As if." Vivi said calmly, speaking as casually as if she were discussing the weather, "If this is the best you've got then I can just do this until you get bored and go away ghost girl."

"What?" Perona shrieked indignantly at Vivi making her ghosts look useless, "But you aren't even that fast! How are you dodging my Negative Hollows so easily?" Soren and Johnny were so fast she couldn't even see them and even they were caught off-guard and hit with her ghosts.

High up on one of the branches of the mast, seemingly forgotten by their attacker, Nojiko and Miss Valentine looked down at Vivi dodging attacks, "Huh…" Miss Valentine said thoughtfully, "You know, now that I see her using it like this, and now that I remember how she was using it on that island in the Calm Belt, I can really see her training paying off." Nojiko nodded in agreement with Miss Valentine's point, "Who would have thought? Kyahahaha!" She finished with her usual good natured laugh.

All of a sudden Perona's form grew to an intimidating size as she yelled angrily, "Stop mocking me!" She shouted as her ghosts suddenly vanished from sight, "You think you're so smooth, let's see how you like the Mini Hollows!" She opened her hands to reveal multiple ghosts, smaller than the originals before sending them out at Vivi once more.

Once again, Vivi got caught up in a game of dodging these troublesome ghosts, getting caught in the pattern of them being unable to touch her despite the greater numbers this time around. Perona's face looked rather angry until it gave way to a victorious smirk. She lifted her hand and snapped her fingers, causing the ghosts that Vivi had been dodging to detonate, catching the princess in a series of explosions that threw her to the ground, singed and wounded.

"No fair…" Vivi said, gritting her teeth through the pain as she tried to stand back up, albeit slowly. Despite all of the training she had undertaken she was still less than used to taking exorbitant amounts of punishment. She was proud of herself though; all the things she had done, as far as she had come, and there was no way some weird girl with ghost powers was going to keep her down after just one good shot, "But… this isn't like Alabasta. I'm not as weak as I was back then." She then looked up to the looming form of Perona, "And I don't really care that you don't fight fair… because I've been fighting someone that _never_ does things cleanly. Compared to him, you're just annoying… so just go haunt someone else."

"Annoying?" Perona cried out with a tick mark forming on her head, "We'll see how annoying I am when you and your friends are bowing at my feet!"

Vivi took a deep breath before getting in a ready stance, prepared to begin moving again, "You won't even touch me again, so how are you going to make anyone bow?"

Perona's body shrank back to normal size before she formed another ghost, only this time it was larger than her entire body, "So you're good at dodging. Well let's see how well you dodge this." However before anything could even happen Perona's body just disappeared out of the air.

Vivi fell down on her backside and blinked. She had been prepared for some kind of intense conflict and then her opponent just up and disappeared without a trace, "Wh-What?" She then pouted, "Wait, I was all set for a big clash or something! Where'd that ghost girl go?" She looked up at the branches sticking out of the mast at Nojiko and Miss Valentine who simply shrugged in confusion until the door to the common room of the ship was kicked open and Carue pointed a wing inside.

XxX

(Moments Earlier – Inside the Natural Disaster)

Muret was crouched and looking outside of the window of the common room at the conflict transpiring outside. Part of her wanted to go out there since it was an overwhelming numbers advantage, but then when she saw the weird powers Perona had she figured that she would be more of a hindrance than a help, even with Funkfreed, "They can't even hit that girl… what good would I be if I went out there. Even if I tried a sneak attack I wouldn't do anything to her."

"Quack."

Muret turned around to see Carue standing behind her with the exact same girl outside raising hell right there on his back. The large duck walked over and set Perona down on one of the couches and stared at her, tapping her lightly a few times with his beak before turning to look at Muret.

Muret just looked between the Perona inside unconscious on the couch and the Perona outside currently fighting with Vivi about several times with a deadpan look on her face before standing and motioning for Carue to pick Perona back up. The duck did so dutifully and followed Muret as she went to the bathtub provided in common women's bathroom on the ship and began to fill it with water. After it filled, Carue had to let out a few snickers in his own way as he did not hesitate to toss Perona into the water.

Perona immediately surfaced, sputtering although she could not even move, and found Funkfreed in sword form at her throat. She looked up and saw the irritated face of Muret as the one holding the sword to her neck as Carue left to inform the others on what was happening. As she spoke, Muret's tone was one of contempt, "So could you go ahead and explain to me how you got here and why you thought it would be a good idea to attack my friends?"

XxX

(Thriller Bark – Naruto vs. Kuma)

Naruto and his five clones stared Kuma down, "So why does a Shichibukai come to a place where another one is? I've never seen two of you together."

Kuma ignored Naruto's question and asked one of his own, "There are many pirates that would jump at the chance to join the ranks of Shichibukai. You were offered a position by Donquixote Doflamingo and yet you turned the offer down. You had no reason not to. You're marking yourself as a target; a bounty like yours that refuses to join…"

One of the Narutos shook his head, "I was never the best at taking orders from anyone, and the more I hear about the World Government the less I like about it. I wouldn't ever enjoy any of the missions they sent me on, and I don't like just exterminating people for no reason." He let out a laugh, "I'd be more trouble to you guys if I joined actually."

"It's too late for that. The position has been filled." Kuma stated firmly, with no room for any argument, "You're now just like any other pirate, you're actually worse off since you are very famous… and my mission is to kill all of the witnesses on Thriller Bark should the Straw Hat Pirates defeat Gekko Moriah. The defeat of another Shichibukai cannot be made public knowledge the way Crocodile's defeat was. I am fighting you now instead of waiting since if you were to assist the Straw Hats the result of the battle would be a foregone conclusion."

"So you're going to kill them? Or should I say us?" Another of the Narutos asked with a tilt of his head, getting a nod from Kuma, "Well, in that case-." And the six Narutos scattered and began to dart all over the increasingly wrecked forest as the battle proceeded to escalate.

Kuma hunkered himself down firmly and began shooting rapid-fire palm thrusts, "Tsuppari Pad Ho (Slapping Thrust Pressure Cannon)!" An absurd number of pressurized shots flew from his hands at the clones. Three of the clones were destroyed as they were directly in front of Kuma, however two clones and the original Naruto still remained.

Two of Naruto's clones got Kuma's backside, both holding Odama Rasengans, however Kuma whipped around and held his hands out just as the attacks got close. The moment they made contact they merely seemed to veer to the side and fly directly away from Kuma, smashing into trees in the forest and dispelling.

However his back was open, and Naruto certainly wasn't one of his clones to be defeated so easily, "Senpou: Rasenkara (Sage Art: Spiraling Shell)!" Naruto's arms were out in front of him as his body was completely covered in a Rasengan. He more or less body tackled Kuma with his body-enshrouding Rasengan that resulted in a massive explosion that rocked the forest once more, tearing trees apart.

At the edges of the carnage, Naruto, covered in a few scuffs, stood back up only to see Kuma doing the same, though when he looked across the crater and the damage done to the landscape by his attack he saw the metal underneath Kuma's tattered clothing, 'Well that proves that theory. He's definitely like those Pacifista things.' Naruto crossed his arms and frowned, "That was one of my better Rasengan moves. Sage Mode helps me keep the form stable around my body instead of just in my hands. It's a good defense and offense, but it takes a ton of power to make the shell and when I ram it into stuff it's unstable and explodes. Doesn't hurt me that bad though." And apparently since Kuma was still up and moving it didn't harm him that badly either.

Kuma turned to face Naruto but once he turned around his hands were spread wide open, and a massive paw-shaped bubble of air many times greater than his own huge body was being compressed into a smaller and smaller form, "Well the sun is up, and Monkey D. Luffy's crew is still intact." Kuma remarked, "It's time to destroy any trace of Moriah's humiliating defeat." He said as he kept pressing the bubble in his hands to condense its size.

Naruto let out a gasp. Just a regular blast from Kuma's hands could match a normal Shinra Tensei when it was Naruto's intention to attack with it. If he was condensing that much air pressure then Naruto didn't want to know how much chakra he would have to pump into another to keep this from even touching him. The backlash from a clash between a super-charged Shinra Tensei and whatever Kuma was about to do would this time tear Thriller Bark directly into two pieces and sink it.

But his hands were both preoccupied.

'How fast does he think I am?' Naruto wondered as he took a quarter of a second to judge the distance between himself and Kuma. Naruto pulled out a Hiraishin Kunai and licked his lips before throwing it across the crater at Kuma. Instead of trying to punch through the bubble and blow up the massive bomb-like attack prematurely, it bounced off of Kuma's leg just as he ignored the small weapon and was able to compress the paw-shaped bubble to the size of his own hands.

As soon as the ping of the metal weapon bouncing off of Kuma's metal leg rang out, Naruto appeared before the weapon could fly too far away from the Shichibukai and wrapped both arms tightly around his leg, gritting his teeth as he willed another sudden teleportation that took them both away, leaving the battlefield silent.

XxX

(One-Finger Island)

At the very top of the mountain for which the island was 'named' Naruto and Kuma appeared in a yellow flash, with the latter being swung around violently by the former. Naruto let out a massive yell of exertion and threw Kuma high into the air and formed a Rasengan in his hand that he gripped in his fist, turning his fist blue as he cocked his fist back and took aim at the absurdly airborne Kuma who righted himself in the air, his own attack down to its prepared size.

"Only one shot or this island is toast." Naruto growled to himself with sweat beading down his face, "I won't miss! This is my fastest attack jutsu! Senpou: Rasentaihou (Sage Art: Spiraling Cannon)!" With the sound echoing out like the crack of a rifle, a fist-sized flash of blue chakra flew from Naruto's punch up to Kuma faster than any naked eye could ever see, and Naruto's Rinnegan eyes could see how unstable the attack in Kuma's hands happened to be, hence why it was his target.

If Rasenkara was a blunt, eyesore of a jutsu meant for rudimentary defense/offense capabilities when it was absolutely needed then Rasentaihou was his only precise technique of his Sage Mode techniques. Nature chakra helped it keep its shape as it flew. It took fantastic aim since it only went in a straight line and was the size of his closed hand, smaller than a Rasengan. He designed it to fly far faster than even a Rasenshuriken by design, beginning after his fight with Kizaru in Alabasta since that bastard was extremely fast and troublesome to say the least.

As the attack hit home and nailed Kuma's bubble it released a massive explosion in the air in the shape of a paw print the size of the entirety of the island. It managed to clear out all of the clouds in the sky at the time once the energy was released. Naruto's Rinnegan and Sage Mode faded as he looked up at what would have been Kuma's crippling attack, breathing heavily at using Sage Mode in a battle like that, "…And my crew complained that I don't train… feh. Didn't have a reason to until we got on the Grand Line…"

His self-mumblings were cut short when the backlash from the explosion in the air reached the lower altitudes in the form of a violent wind that blew him off the top of the mountain and sent Naruto flying into the lake that sat at the foot of the mountain.

The giant splash that was created by how hard Naruto's body hit the water attracted the attention of the island's mellow wildlife that came to see what had caused such a thing. They all saw Naruto's body floating towards the shore of the lake, seemingly using his flak jacket as a flotation device so that he didn't have to swim. He spit water into the air as he stared up at the sky, "Ow…" He said before disappearing in a flash.

If he had waited for a few more seconds he would have heard a resounding crash in the forest nearby that destroyed a lot of the area. After a minute or two, the sounds of calm thudding footsteps echoed through the wilderness.

XxX

(Thriller Bark)

"Stupid Kuma…" Naruto grumbled to himself as he walked back to the castle he had been forced to leave due to his battle with the man-… well, cyborg he was cursing. He lifted his hand and mumbled out a headcount of how many of the seven Shichibukai he had run into thus far, "I've met five of them…" His friends had fought three and he had fought two.

He had to admit that the sunrise felt good as he came upon the completely ruined courtyard that used to be the main castle and main mast of the ship and wondered what the hell had happened there until he thought about what it might have taken to put Oars down, not even taking into account whatever tricks a Shichibukai like Gekko Moriah would have up his sleeve once that battle was complete.

As he came close enough to see better, he saw that Luffy and the other Straw Hat Pirates were surrounded by all sorts of other pirates thanking them for returning their shadows to them. Deciding to head on down to see if his friends were okay and to return the Hiraishin kunai to them, Naruto had only one thought after everything that had happened since he had first been called, "What does anyone's shadow have to do with any of this?"

* * *

**Chapter complete. It's been like a month. The time having not updated this was a combination of trying to wait out a few more chapters of the manga so that I don't overtake the actual One Piece manga with assumptions and wrong ideas about things, and a combination of me mentally working out how future conflicts and certain other things would work out. A composition notebook is now halfway full of these ponderings from yours truly.**

**Hopefully the new ninjutsu displayed here were self-explanatory. Rasenkara is a Rasengan that surrounds his entire body, but is fairly unstable. Rasentaihou is a condensed Rasengan that fires as fast as an actual bullet from a gun. It is weaker than a regular Rasengan despite the fact that Sage Mode is needed to use it, but it is a ranged attack and has distance since it will keep flying in the direction it is shot at the same speed until it hits something.**

**Anyway, I must go to work for the next several hours so I hope you enjoyed, and I will catch you all next time... **_**way**_** sooner than I did this time.**

**Kenchi out.**


	35. Dead End Friends

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I need to do something important with my life or I'm going to be very upset with myself when I die. I can't draw so making a manga series is out of the question even though I have pilots for three different series in my head all set and ready to roll (I think about random things A LOT), so I'd better either become a world-class MMA fighter (yeah, because I'm that lucky), or I'd better end up running a TV station after I graduate and work my way up the ladder (also unlikely because the job market is going to be even more of a fickle bitch by the time I graduate).

Well, when I graduate I guess I'm moving to Canada… or Australia.

…None of this had anything to do with me not owning Naruto or One Piece…

Enjoy the chapter.

**Chapter 35: Dead End Friends**

* * *

Luffy had managed to bring down not only the giant Oars, but Gekko Moriah himself. The guy was seriously a tough bastard. Luffy was seventeen and was beating on pirates that had been deemed by others to be unbeatable forces in the ocean. It reminded him of himself and Akatsuki back in the day in a twisted sort of way, although instead of being hunted by the Shichibukai the way Naruto had been Luffy just kept running into them and fighting them out of necessary circumstance.

After the battle everyone was quite beaten up, especially Luffy who remained sleeping even when everyone else had managed to get a few winks in after they were treated medically. Naruto himself had some wear and tear from fighting Kuma, but it wasn't anything that he couldn't walk off in a short while.

Ever the forager, Naruto let the crew rest and decided to pick through what was left of Moriah's mansion to find something useful to loot before going to see them, "There isn't a damn thing anywhere in this place worth taking." Naruto muttered to himself as he walked outside of the remnants of the building to the ruined courtyard where much of the fight with Oars took place.

"That's because Nami had it cleared out the second she was able to, back when she was with you."

Naruto looked off to the side to see Robin sitting serenely at the top of a rubble heap, on a fallen pillar in particular. She was just sitting, seemingly waiting with a small smile on her face. Upon getting Naruto's attention, Robin kept speaking, "All of the people that wound up with their shadows returned after Luffy defeated Moriah loaded our ship up with treasure… I don't think there's a scrap left behind."

A deadpan look came from Naruto in response, "Of course she did." So Nami pulling him aside for a quickie actually had alternative reasoning behind it, to distract him while she had others clean the place out. And there was no way he was going to even be able to lay a hand on any of the treasure if Nami had it. Now he'd never get anything out of showing up there and fighting a Shichibukai. Oh well, he didn't need money. At least his friends were okay. And Nami was more than enough of a prize, "Are you alright? You guys looked exhausted when I showed back up."

"We're all fine. Zoro was pretty badly hurt, but Luffy's the worst off of us and he'll be fine with some rest. That's what Chopper says anyway." Robin informed him of the current situation since Naruto had been gone for a while wandering around Thriller Bark on his own, "But you, how are you doing?" Naruto raised an eyebrow in confusion, "The fight you had against Kuma, we could feel the force from whatever you were doing from where we were fighting and then you just amble out of the woods looking like you were rolled down a hill. What happened to him anyway?"

"I stranded him on an island in the Calm Belt." Naruto said with a grin, proud of the method he used to rid himself of Kuma, "I don't think he's dead, because what I did wouldn't have killed me, but he definitely isn't getting out of there anytime soon." Thinking about something in hindsight he rubbed his chin, "I hope he isn't the kind of guy that gets mad and destroys stuff. I like that island. Sorry I wasn't any real help though." He finished apologetically.

"It all worked out in the end anyway did it not?" Robin said, her small and calming smile pulling one back onto his face as well, "It was good to see you. Did you 'see' Nami yet?" She asked, hinting at something to him.

Naruto blinked at her owlishly wondering why she would ask that. Still though… she seemed to be actually waiting on a legitimate answer. Damn it.

"Yes…" He said, red staining his cheeks. Talking about hooking up with one of his girls with Robin was weird. He still wasn't used to the fact that he was going to try and make that work, "You already knew that though, didn't you Robin-chan?" She didn't answer. Robin never really talked anymore than she needed to in order to get her point across and she was always so calm. It was better than being a motor-mouth like him in any case, "Did you need something?"

"Your kunai." Robin said, holding her hand out in an expectant manner, "I'd like it back if you wouldn't mind." With a shrug, Naruto fished one of his Hiraishin kunai from a pocket on his vest connected to his storage space and tossed it over to her so that she could catch it handle-first, "Thank you."

"Maybe the next time you call me it won't be for something that's so much trouble?" Naruto said with a grin on his face before suddenly yelping and holding his backside. He turned around and glared at the ground where an arm had sprouted and quickly disappeared. Turning back to Robin, he gave her a glare because there was no one else that could make random body parts appear to pinch his butt, "Damn it, I hate when you do that…"

Robin let out a small chuckle, "You know, you've actually held up quite well for being an antique." She laughed again when she felt the ire in Naruto's stare at more or less being called old again, "If only you were several hundred years older I'd probably never let you out of my sight."

Naruto simply blinked at her before responding, "I don't know whether it's awesome or creepy that you're turned on by old stuff, being that I technically _am_ the old stuff you're talking about. Wait… I just called myself old didn't I?" Robin nodded, "Damn it, I'm too old for this crap. Traveling around getting into fights is a young man's thing." He said as he stretched and cracked his back.

"You seem to do just fine to me." Robin said, as she hopped down from her spot on the rubble heap and walked up to him before using a finger to trace his whisker-marks, "But it has to be tough to get up for such battles in your advanced age. I suppose you deserve a reward." She teased.

"It's not a problem Robin-chan." Naruto said brightly, and not for the first time since she had met him Robin had to fight the urge to facepalm. Seeing Robin's smile drop was akin to seeing her do just that though, and Naruto laughed at the fact that he had been able to do such to the stoic woman.

Eventually Robin just let out a sigh and wrapped her arms around him in a hug, "Well you've been gone for almost 18 hours from your crew and they have no idea where you went. I'm sure you'll enjoy telling them that you ran off to fight a massive giant and a Shichibukai without them."

He was not looking forward to going back to face that music. Forget meditating to block out the ranting from Nojiko and possibly Vivi, he'd never get the chance to focus with Johnny and Yosaku bothering him for leaving them behind. And Soren wouldn't help, he'd just laugh. So would Miss Valentine, "I forgot that I would have to do that…" Naruto said dryly before sighing, "The longer I wait the worse it's going to be."

A nod of understanding came from Robin before she held up the kunai that she had taken back from Naruto to summon him if need be, "You still owe me some of your spare time. The next time you come running because of your kunai it won't be to play the hero, I promise."

Naruto put his hand over hers on the weapon and gave her a stern look, "I'd really rather you called on the Den-Den Mushi if you use it again. Random jolts in the back of my head telling me to use Hiraishin aren't really fun."

"I'll keep that in mind." Robin said, giving him a small kiss before patting his cheek, "Now go back to your crew like a good captain and we'll deal with ours."

Naruto nodded before thinking of something, "So you didn't come out here just so we could-?"

"There is a time and a place for everything." As she plucked the Hiraishin kunai right out of Naruto's grasp, Robin backed away a few steps, "We're about to leave ourselves. Now go." She said, leaving no chance for any dispute. In response Naruto gave her a salute and vanished in a flash right in front of her eyes.

XxX

(Natural Disaster)

Naruto suddenly appeared in front of his bed and looked around suspiciously before he began to noiselessly skulk towards his own door, 'Wait a minute? This is my damn ship. Why am I sneaking around my own property?'

Because he had randomly vanished for almost an entire day and hadn't said anything to any of his crew about it, that was why. Hopefully that Perona girl he yanked from Thriller Bark conveyed the message in his stead. Maybe that could have smoothed things over.

Managing to sneak out into the common area and outside onto the deck to see what was going on, Naruto sighed in relief as he could see that the grass-surfaced deck was clear with the exception of Vivi navigating at the helm seemingly without a care. For some reason the whole scene felt like a trap, but the only way to be sure would be to spring said trap.

Something told him that he should have just stayed in his room and gotten some sleep before trying to come outside and see how everyone else had faired while he had been gone. But he shoved this to the back of his mind as he walked past Carue and gave the duck a pat on the head as he remained quiet when he walked past.

"You're in so much trouble." Naruto heard Vivi say in a sing-song voice without her even turning around to face him. So she was used enough to his presence to feel him now was she?

Naruto bit back a groan, he had figured as much about being in trouble before he had even shown up back on the ship, "On a scale of one to ten how bad would you say it is Vivi-hime?"

"Well…" Vivi said in a manner that expressed that she was thinking, "Judging by the fact that you brought a person onto our ship that tried to take it over, and because of the fact that _I'm_ actually pretty heated at you right now since I had to fight her I'd say you shouldn't try roaming the halls for a while."

Looking at Vivi, Naruto raised an eyebrow, especially since she hadn't even bothered turning around to face him since she knew of his presence, "You're mad? Wait a minute… you fought? Did you win?" He then focused on the most important thing that Vivi had said, "Perona tried to take over the ship? What happened to her?"

Vivi finally turned around with a rather displeased look on her face and her hands on her hips, "The girl, Perona, well we wound up giving her the Soren treatment." She finished with a small smile.

Naruto's eyes widened and he ran to the front of the ship, looking far over the edge to see Perona submerged halfway in the water and tied to the ship, just like he had done to Soren months ago, "Maybe I should snag some Seastone cuffs or something in case this happens again?"

Hearing his voice, Perona turned her head up and saw Naruto walking down the side of the ship with chakra, "Hey, let me out of here!"

"No way." Naruto said, crossing his arms over his chest sternly as he looked down at her, "You tried to hurt my crew and take over my ship. Give me one good reason why I should let you go."

Perona had been down there for around twelve hours at this point and had been thinking of how to get herself out of this predicament. Sadly her brainstorming had turned up no possible solutions. She thought she could trick someone into somehow letting her go when they fed her (they would have had to feed her right?), but no one really got close enough to sweet talk into doing so. Paulie wound up feeding her by way of his ropes… something that made her glad that she was actually tied up in the water so she could get all of the food that wound up smashing into her washed off quickly enough.

But now there was someone there that was close enough to charm into letting her go. And luckily it was the same guy that had taken her away from Thriller Bark in the first place so maybe he would have some sort of emotional incentive to free her, "I was just scared and confused, I'm calm now!"

"If you let her go Naruto I'm going to beat her up!" Vivi yelled down from the deck in warning as she had still yet to prove that she could defeat Perona. Now that she knew the secret to one of her powers as well, that she had to leave her body to project her spirit elsewhere, she knew she could beat her, "You'd better keep her down there!"

"I wasn't going to anyway!" Naruto yelled back up to the Alabastan princess, "When I did this to Soren, back before you started staying on this ship, I left him down here for five days before I let him back up, and the only reason I even did it then was because we were going to Whiskey Peak and didn't want to float into a town with some guy tied up in the water. Has she even been down here for a day yet?"

Vivi shook her head, "We tied her down there at dawn."

Hearing that, Naruto turned back to Perona, "Yeah, we're not letting you up yet."

"Take me back to Thriller Bark and Moriah-sama you idiot!" Perona more or less ordered despite the fact that she couldn't do anything to enforce it, "If you take me back then how could I mess with your crew again? I don't even know where this ship is!"

That put a grin on Naruto's face, "Luffy kicked Moriah's ass after he got through beating the crap out of that giant Oars and we couldn't find Moriah after the battle was over, the Straw Hats think that he left. I couldn't take you back anyway."

"You can teleport! How can't you take me back?" Perona asked, anger creeping more into her voice, "You brought me here in the first place didn't you?"

Naruto scratched his scalp and frowned, "I wasn't even supposed to be there. And I took you away because you were scared of Oars. I can only teleport to certain beacons and that beacon that I'm talking about probably isn't at Thriller Bark anymore. Besides…" His stern look returned, "I didn't help you just so you could try to attack my crew. So you're staying down here."

"You can't do that to me!" Perona shouted before a wave crashed high enough to fill her mouth with seawater, forcing her to sputter and spit, "I'm a girl!"

Naruto pointed up at Vivi who was waving down, "So? She's a girl too, and I beat her up all of the time to teach her how to fight better." He then made an about-face and started walking back up the side of the ship, "I'm going to leave you here until you chill out and you realize just how bad you messed up by trying to take out my crew."

Perona tried to wriggle out of the tight ropes holding her there. Paulie could tie a mean knot with those damn ropes of his, "Who are you people anyway?" She asked. He apparently teleported back to Thriller Bark to fight Oars and he came back in one piece. So how strong was this person?

"You don't even know who we are and you attacked us?" Naruto questioned as Vivi giggled up on the deck at the girl's information or lack thereof , "Fine. I'm Uzumaki Naruto and you just lost to the Foxhound Pirates. Someone will feed you later."

'That's the guy that almost joined the Shichibukai? That means he's around Moriah-sama's level of strength!' Perona thought before Naruto disappeared over the railing back to the deck, "Wait! You can't leave me here! I'll drown!"

Vivi chimed in instead of Naruto in this instance, "No you won't! You're high enough so that you'll be fine! The only way you'll drown is if the ship randomly starts to sink!" For some reason hearing the girl say that didn't make Perona feel any better as another wave hit her in the face.

XxX

(A Few Hours Later – That Evening)

A very good way to avoid any negative repercussions from just disappearing on the girls that like you is to tell them that you left to help out the crew that was comprised partially of one of said girls' sister. Another way was to play the sympathy card and try to get some credit for going out and going up against a Shichibukai in the process.

"Oh my big heroic captain!" Miss Valentine said proudly with a huge smile on her face, sitting in Naruto's lap in the common area along with the rest of the crew, "Taking on all of the big, bad pirates in the world without flinching." She playfully ran her fingers through his hair, and he was just fine with that.

Muret shrugged from a seat near Funkfreed, "At least I didn't have to patch anyone up this time." She said brightly. The workload on the Natural Disaster ranged from totally slow and boring to completely frantic and intense. At least no one brought anything stupid to her to fix like anyone on Bellamy's crew would. Yeah, everyone on this ship was tough enough to ride out their own hangovers without bugging her to fix them up.

"Get off of Naruto already! We're supposed to be mad at him Valentine!" Nojiko said before suddenly changing gears, "Oh, but thank you for helping Nami, I really appreciate it Naruto-kun." Her sweet tone then turned to another one of an admonishing nature, "But you can't just leave the ship to go off into a fight like that, what if you died? And you brought that girl back here without even knowing what she was like!" Once again Nojiko abruptly changed moods to one of an understanding and sweet nature, "But you didn't know she'd try to take over the ship… and you were just trying to help someone that needed it." She then turned somewhat angry again and let out an exasperated groan, "Damn you and your stupid hero complex!"

"Crazy~…" Soren muttered to himself lowly only for a gunshot to ring out and fly past his head, embedding itself into the wall, "You _were_ trying to miss on purpose weren't you?" He asked with some ire in his voice. The gunshot made him activate Tekkai out of instinct and the bullet wouldn't have killed him… maybe. But that wasn't the point.

"I am not crazy, I just care too much." Nojiko defended, her pistol still smoking from the shot she had just taken, "Someone has to."

Paulie had been leaning on the wall near the door and the open window out to the deck so that he could smoke a cigar inside while listening to what had called Naruto away so suddenly, "You ever think that you're going to get a little too famous Uzumaki?" He said as he exhaled smoke out of the window, "I know pirates get into fights all of the time and everything, but you're like a magnet for messed up stuff."

Naruto shook his head, "How? The only thing I'm really famous for that anyone even knows about is 'kidnapping' Vivi-hime, killing that Nezumi guy back in the East Blue, and ripping up a lot of the Buster Call back at Enies Lobby. A lot of people don't even know about the really tough people I've fought like Aokiji or any of the Shichibukai. No one talks about that." He didn't really care too much about that though. Making waves was good and everything so that when he started talking people would listen, but to just be known as the guy that causes anarchy everywhere he goes wasn't what he wanted, and it wouldn't help him if he was really serious about trying to change the world, "…By the way I'm still not a pirate."

From the kitchen, Johnny and Yosaku were raiding the fridge while Miss Valentine was busy fawning over Naruto, taking advantage of their opening to do so, "You said that last thing like it wasn't a big deal Naruto-aniki." Yosaku said in a grumble as he and Johnny both made a massive sandwich with the works that they were prepared to cut in half once it was done. Johnny cut the sandwich and Yosaku reached for one of the halves only to jump back when Johnny slashed at him with his sword, "What the hell?"

"Like hell you're getting the bigger half!" Johnny said, resheathing his sword and holding his hand on the hilt as if he would attack again, "The cutter gets the choice on which sandwich they get!"

Yosaku took Kibikiribouchou off of his back and held it, also ready to fight over the sandwich, "What kind of crappy reasoning is that? You're just going to take the bigger half!"

"I cut it evenly!" Johnny fired back in response, his fingertips drumming on the handle of the sword.

"Then what are we fighting about damn it?" Yosaku said as he moved for the sandwich only to use his sword to block Johnny's incoming attack.

Johnny pushed against his friend and current opponent's oversized sword in vain as he tried to reach for his choice of sandwich, "It's the principle of the matter!"

"Oi!" Naruto snapped, shifting the very happy Miss Valentine around in his lap, "Take that outside! You're not messing the interior up over something this stupid."

Both Johnny and Yosaku kept their swords in clashing position and slowly walked their way out of the kitchen, through the common area, and out through the front door, even though they had to sort of duck so that Yosaku could fit Kubikiribouchou out without destroying anything. Vivi was on her way back inside when they were doing this though, and looked at them curiously before shrugging it off and walking in.

Once there, Vivi looked around and saw the very large sandwich in the kitchen as her stomach let out a growl, "Does that belong to anyone?" She asked with a famished look on her face, not seeing anyone seemingly care about the rather delicious looking foodstuff. Everyone in the room looked at each other before unanimously shrugging and shaking their heads, "Can I have it? I haven't eaten all day." Manning the wheel in the captain's stead took precedence over being fed apparently.

Once again, everyone just shrugged before nodding altogether, putting a bright smile on the princess as she more or less skipped into the kitchen to grab the sandwich.

As the sounds of rather intense swordfighting commenced outside, everyone else inside just basked in the mostly tranquil silence. No one really seemed to mind as Vivi happily ate the sandwich that was more or less the source of the conflict. Muret wasn't too pleased though as she could see some of the flashes of sparks from the swords in the dark, "…I'll probably have to stitch them both back up after that's over…"

XxX

(Three Days Later)

Even though it was supposed to be daytime, the sun was not visible. Everyone thought it was very weird because they knew that enough time had passed for the sun to rise, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky so it wasn't that there was a storm in the vicinity. It was just merely dark outside as if it was nighttime. It had been like this for a few days at this point and everyone was having a bit of trouble coping with the unwelcome and sudden change

From the helm, Naruto rubbed his eyes while nearby Paulie let out a lazy yawn, "Man, this no sunlight thing is really messing with my internal clock. I can see why most of the people that stopped in at Water 7 would complain about the Grand Line because this is seriously messed up."

"I know what you mean." Naruto said, empathizing with Paulie's less than energetic outlook on the day, "I think it's this place. This whole area is just making me feel tired. _Me_! And I'm never tired. Is having no sun really that bad for you?"

"I don't know." Paulie said, "Why don't we ask someone that would know?" He turned his head up to the crow's nest and yelled, "Hey Soren! Does not having sunlight on you for a long time make you tired?"

"How the hell would I know? Ask Muret, I'm not a damn doctor!"

Paulie then realized that asking Muret probably would have been more productive, "Oh, well we just assumed that since you've been locked up you would know or not!" He yelled back up so that Soren could hear him.

"I've never been locked up in prison you idiot! What made you think I've ever been to prison?"

"Your tattoos that you've got over most of the left side of your face and body look legit!" Paulie said, "I thought that was prison ink!"

"Those are to cover up the scars that Doflamingo gave me!"

"I didn't know that! Stop yelling at me!"

"You yelled first dumbass! I'm not going to climb down so we can talk in even toned voices, so deal with it!"

The door to the inside of the ship then slammed open as Muret stepped out with signs of sleep in her eyes, "Will you all please shut the hell up? Everyone inside is trying to sleep! And I don't like getting woken up listening to something so stupid!" She yelled, actually getting the more powerful men to stare at her before nodding dumbly.

"Question." Paulie said weakly, getting a glare from Muret who wished she could just go inside and get back to bed, "Is it bad for you to not get any sun? Like does it take your energy away? Because we are all tired for some reason, and we don't know why."

Muret sighed and rubbed her temple before answering. It was a fair enough question and it was supposed to be her area of expertise so why not do what he job instructed her to do? Handle any and all medical matters, including information for preventative purposes, "Actually yeah, it's kind of really bad to not get any sunlight. Sunlight actually converts a form of cholesterol in your body to vitamin D, it also helps you fight off skin diseases and can help your immune system. Sunlight also helps you sleep better at night and it helps produce serotonin and endorphins that make you feel better and keep you in a better mood."

Naruto nodded sagely as he took all of this in, "Ah, so that's why everyone's been so pissy for half of the week. Vivi and Nojiko almost got to fighting yesterday… that was weird." Nojiko was usually very level-headed and responsible most of the time, and Vivi was such a complete and total sweetheart that she didn't fight unless someone forced her to. Not yesterday, it was a catfight of the highest order.

Paulie grinned to himself remembering the incident fondly in his own mind as he, along with Soren and Johnny, did nothing to break the two women up, opting to sit back and watch raptly instead, "I've never seen Vivi mouth back like that when someone told her to take the helm before. Then again, Nojiko did demand her to in a pretty bitchy way…Those two inappropriate women." He said, trying to act as if he didn't enjoy watching it.

"What I don't get is why they didn't break out the weapons until _after_ me and Johnny had separated them." Naruto said, remembering how when he had physically lifted up Vivi to carry her outside and away from Nojiko who was being carried further into the ship towards her room by Johnny, both girls had pulled out their respective tools of combat. Over two dozen clones met their end by Vivi's hand, and Johnny wound up getting lumps on his head from being hit with Nojiko's pistol when both men tried to calm the women down. Good thing he wore that headgear or it could have been worse.

"And on that note I'm going back to bed." Muret said, letting out a yawn as she walked back inside the ship, "Keep it down, and don't call me unless you're gut-shot."

"Will do." Paulie said evenly as he lit a cigar for leisurely purposes, "Hey Soren, have you ever been this far ahead on the Grand Line?" The only other person in the party that might have been that far before would possibly have been Miss Valentine back when she had been amassing funds and things of that like for Baroque Works, but she wasn't there at the moment.

Soren looked out on the horizon from his vantage point through binoculars as he heard the shipwright ask him his question, "Not this far, that's for sure. I never really went any further than Jaya back when I was wandering between the islands looking for bounties."

Naruto leaned against the steering wheel and set his chin against it as he stared out ahead of him on the darkened waters, "So none of us know what to expect when we head out further from here."

"Pretty much." Soren said before scouting something through his binoculars, "Yo, Uzumaki, we've got land coming up. You going to untie Perona from the front of the ship? She's been quieter than I was when you tied me to the front of the ship."

"That's because I bantered with you on purpose." Naruto said in response. Soren and he had a much better verbal back and forth than he and Perona did. All Perona did whenever he went down there was yell at him to let her go, "But I guess I should this time too. We can't just roll into port with a girl tied up to our ship." That would send the wrong message to anyone that saw them.

"Finally!"

Hearing Perona's voice, Naruto locked the wheel and jumped over the railing, planting his feet firmly in his usual gravity-defying show as he looked down at Perona, "If I let you up you'd better behave. No attacking any of my crew or anyone else, and if you run away I'll find you. Since you can't break Paulie's ropes he's going to be the main one watching you."

"Hey!" Paulie yelled over the side of the ship at Naruto, "Why do I have to watch her?"

Naruto turned towards him and gave him a deadpan look, "Because you're new, and all we make you do otherwise is make sure everything on the ship is up and running. Now you double as the ship warden in case we capture people."

Paulie's jaw dropped as Soren cackled in amusement from the crow's nest, "Ship warden? Since when?"

"Since I just thought of it." Naruto said, tapping his head as if he were brilliant, "Everyone else has a job title on this ship so why not you too?"

"I was already the shipwright you idiot! That was my job!" Paulie shouted, prepared to instigate a fight at this point. How can someone so stupid live for so long in the first place, let alone on the Grand Line? And he was planning on travelling even further still.

Naruto rolled his eyes as he started cutting Perona loose. He had to channel wind chakra to the blade of his kunai to get through the rope though. Why did Paulie have ropes that thick? It was ridiculous, "Both of those jobs are barely jobs. The only time the shipwright thing will come in handy is when something gets messed up. And how often do you think we're going to actually capture anyone?"

Soren grumbled upon hearing that, "You captured me…"

"You maniacs always mess things up on this ship!" Paulie argued again, "Do you think the place always looks so good because you're careful owners? No! You guys cause more damage to this thing than a little bit! I've had to repair the outside of one of the masts like five times since you recruited me! I'm not even going to go into detail on all of the stuff you destroy inside of the ship!" He still remembered when he had to fix the hole in the ceiling of Naruto's room after his short battle with Boa Hancock since she had kicked him through it.

Naruto jumped back over the edge of the railing, holding onto Perona before letting the rather thoroughly drenched girl try to stand on her own, "Paulie stop yelling!" Naruto hissed quietly, "There are four very tired girls inside that'll try to kick our asses if you wake them up. Now go do your job and take Perona inside to go get dry." He took some satisfaction in seeing Paulie gnash his teeth at the insistence of his 'new job'.

Perona looked back at Naruto, "I want to go back to Thriller Bark." She said, feeling some kind of form of homesickness surrounded by the strange people. If what she had learned about Uzumaki Naruto from what was reported on him was true then she was lucky he hadn't had her killed yet. He was reportedly very brutal. Yet he seemed like more of a reasonable person than what the bounty reports on him said.

If he really was as bad as he had been reported to be then he would have killed her or worse once he learned that she had attempted to take over his ship. His crew didn't seem to acquiesce to his every command either since Paulie was willing to engage in a total argument with him and the doctor girl Muret was willing to yell at him and the others quite brazenly. The Vivi girl was apparently willing to attack him because she was cranky if what she heard on the deck last night was any indication of the ship dynamic. It was something of a madhouse here.

"I can't take you back." Naruto said apologetically, "I don't know where it is, and even if I did there isn't anyone there anymore. I told you, Gekko Moriah somehow left under everyone's nose. I couldn't tell you how to find him now but his signature isn't anywhere near Thriller Bark."

Perona's face told the whole story of her complete and utter dislike of the current situation, "So I'm stuck as your prisoner forever?" She asked weakly, rather out of character to the way that she had been the other day, 'Oh damn it, now I'm their slave! This couldn't possibly get any worse!' She didn't know if it was the gravity of the situation setting in, or the fact that she hadn't stood up properly in over three days, but Perona's legs gave out on her at that moment as she fell to her knees on the deck.

Naruto squinted his eyes seeming to be wrestling with himself in heavy thought over something at the moment before he chose to speak again, "I wouldn't say that you're stuck with me forever. I mean, you and Moriah technically weren't my enemies and I didn't really fight either of you head-on."

"We did." Soren and Paulie said simultaneously with tick marks on their heads at seemingly being overlooked in the deliberation process.

"Either way…" Naruto continued as that also fell into his train of thought over how to handle this, "In the end that was my fault too that you wound up here in the first place so I'm responsible for that. I guess if you don't try to do anything stupid to us you can stay here until you find some way to find Gekko Moriah again."

Perona just stared up at Naruto who looked as if he had settled on taking the correct course of action, "You would do that? What kind of pirate are you?"

"He's not a pirate." Soren and Paulie said simultaneously, this time in deadpan voices as Naruto grinned and nodded due to his crew's compliance with not calling him a pirate.

Though Naruto soon let his grin fade so that he could speak to the extremely mistrusting Perona. He couldn't exactly blame her for not trusting him though, "If you don't want to then I can just drop you at Constellation Island once we get there. Soren says he can see land on the horizon, and that's where we were headed anyway."

Now no one was sure if it was the fact that she was in a bad mood due to the being stuck in the water for half of the week, or if her ire was raised at the thought of being just dropped aside once they reached another settlement, but Perona bristled at that option, "So you think you can just drop me because this whole thing isn't your problem huh?" She pointed at Naruto accusingly as she got her legs back under her and stood up, "Dream on! You're stuck with me until I find Moriah-sama again… and you owe me new clothes too!"

With that, she marched inside with Paulie on her heels to make sure nothing funny went down while she was inside. Naruto just blinked in confusion wondering what the hell had just happened, and Soren stood in abject shock before he voiced his thoughts, "Wait a minute, she can leave?" He said incredulously, "You didn't give me the chance to leave! You pretty much forced me to join!"

Hearing his first mate's complaints, Naruto turned up to the crow's nest to argue back, "Where else did you have to go other than prison or an early grave? And don't act like you hate being on this ship, you know you love it."

"That's not the point!"

XxX

(Hours Later – Constellation Island)

Upon getting in clear sight of the island, the crew members that were already up and about took it upon themselves to wake all of the others up prior to making port to wait for the Log Pose to reset. Thus the rather groggy Foxhound Pirate crew took in the sight of their destination.

Just like the entire area that they had apparently sailed into the island seemed to be always nighttime. The large island seemed to be based upon a rather large and shimmering meteor sticking up out of a crater like a massive hill formed in the actual landmass of the island that was miles in size, as if it was supposed to be there, the only difference being the black mineral of the meteor not matching the regular looking earth of the real part of the island. The outskirts of the island close to the ocean had trees and homes where there weren't areas for ships to dock, but there weren't very many homes that far out from the center of the island on the large meteor, the place where the actual hustle and bustle of the island took place.

On the meteor itself, there were many more homes built into the side of it and there were very large holes set into it where people could apparently enter the space rock itself. In addition to that, there were also a row of very large telescopes that could be seen from seaside.

As they looked into the air above the island they could all see where the island took its namesake from. Directly above the island the heavenly bodies that most people would have to focus to see on only the clearest of nights elsewhere in the world were clearly visible and easily distinguishable. It seemed like there were more stars than black sky to look at. Planets were even visible… hell, they swore they could see every little ripple of gases that floated through the universe from their position.

As they managed to dock their ship and walk around, Naruto left a multitude of clones to keep watch over it in their absence along with Carue who just wanted to keep sleeping. This left everyone free to see the island firsthand instead of having someone left behind to keep guard.

"It's so pretty here." Nojiko said with a smile on her face as the crew wandered through a beaten and paved path through the forests that surrounded the outsides of the island. Chirping crickets, hooting owls, and all sorts of nocturnal creatures were abound, "I don't think I mind staying here until the Log Pose resets at all."

Johnny cracked his neck and rolled his shoulders out as a manner of stretching, "I don't know about you guys but I'm still kind of sluggish. I could head on back to the ship to catch some more z's right now." Multicolored fireflies were all over the place, seemingly lighting their way more easily than any human built lamps could.

As they kept walking they eventually came along a rather large lake with tall reeds around it, and one man hanging out by the side of it just sleeping. Naruto jogged up to the man and stopped nearby him, "Hey excuse me, can you tell us anything about this island? We're not really from around here." His question was not met with an answer, just a snore that put frowns on everyone's faces, "Hello."

Still no answer.

"Let me try." Miss Valentine said as she walked over to the sleeping man and kneeled down by his prone form, "It would be really helpful if you could help us out sweetie." She said pleasantly with her usual lovely smile on her face, only to get a snore in response that caused the smile to fade, "Really?"

Soren let out an impatient growl and walked over as Miss Valentine stood back up, "Wake the fuck up!" Soren yelled as he kicked the man on the ground hard enough to jar him from his sleep. As the man sat up and glared at him, Soren turned back to the others, "There you go. That's what you call taking command of the situation."

Perona looked at Soren and leaned over to the person closest in age to her, Vivi, ironically also the person that she had something of a bone to pick with. But she couldn't really fight Vivi due to the entire crew being there and knowing how to defeat her now, "He's really kind of… violent, isn't he?"

"Well, only to the people that he doesn't know." Vivi said matter-of-factly before turning her eyes to Perona, "I still don't like you, just so you know."

"The feeling is mutual princess." Perona jabbed back. That almost caused Vivi to blurt out the question of how Perona knew she was a princess, but Nojiko's gaze when she was about to told her to keep it quiet. It was just a general and rather spiteful nickname, not an address of her official title.

The sleeping man rubbed his eyes and looked up at the Foxhound Pirates with half-lidded eyes, "What do you all want? Can't you see that I'm trying to get my daily 18 hours of sleep in?" He seemed more upset that he was awake instead of the fact that he had been kicked, "Troublesome foreigners… no one else on Constellation Island is getting kicked awake right now."

At that moment, Naruto had the ultimate flashback to his old friend with a pineapple-styled ponytail that acted a lot like this man did, "What's the pastime around here on the island? It's a really big place. What do you guys do for fun?"

"This." The man said in a flat tone of voice, "We sleep, and we just spend time looking at the stars and planets that pass overhead." Hearing that, Naruto muttered something akin to 'an island full of Shikamarus' in an incredulous manner, though no one got the reference other than him, "If you guys woke me up just to ask a stupid question like that then I'm going to be pissed."

"We just wanted to know something about the island." Muret asked from her spot riding atop Funkfreed in his elephant form, "We've never been here before and we don't know anyone that's ever been this far on the Grand Line." A smirk crossed her face, "My last captain was kind of a coward that played it up like he was a big shot. He never really went very far at all."

The man looked at the crew and sighed as he guessed the fastest way to get rid of them would be to tell them what they wanted, "Constellation Island gets a sunrise only once a year, and this isn't anywhere near that time. We get the name of the island from the clear view of space we can get from here. The meteor in the island landed here hundreds of years ago, apparently it punched a hole right through the sky that never really went back to normal for some reason, that's why we can even see the stars so clearly in the first place." He lay himself back down and tried to go back to sleep after he was done talking.

"What does this island have?" Yosaku asked, getting a tick mark out of the lazy man for keeping him from going back to sleep, "It's huge."

The man cracked an eye with a slight glare, "My friends, you are looking at the ass end of Paradise. You could see the Red Line out on the horizon from here if there was any sunlight… it's actually a beautiful sight when the sun comes up, there's a big festival for it and everything." He shifted in place to get comfortable before continuing, "But… because we're so close to the Red Line that means we're close to the Sabaody Archipelago… luckily we have a pretty bad rep with the slavers since we have low energy and are pretty useless with any real work."

"Slavers?" Naruto said with surprise in his eyes upon hearing of them. He then remembered how Boa Hancock had shouted at him with great conviction about how she would not allow herself to be taken as a slave by him, despite the fact that he had been confused at the time, 'So they really do still have slaves…' He could feel his blood boiling at the thought of it. If it was that well-known that such a thing happened in this region of the Grand Line then why didn't anyone stop it directly?

Not knowing of Naruto's growing anger over the last thing he spoke of, the informative man continued speaking on, "They don't come around here trying to pull us away for that crap. World Nobles don't come here very often either thank God, but we do get some very well to do tourists here. They hang out inside of the meteor mostly though. That's the place with all of the casinos, nightclubs, shops, hotels, all of that stuff." Hey, the place had to make that tourist money somehow, right?

"Then that's where we're going I guess." Nojiko said with a shrug as she smiled gratefully at the island local, "Thanks for the help."

"Yeah whatever." The man said as he fully shut his eyes once more and turned over to face away from the group of travelers, "Now leave me alone so I can catch back up with my sleep… My shift is in twelve hours."

'Lazy…' Everyone thought all together as they headed off towards the direction of the meteor that apparently housed all of the interesting things that Constellation Island had to offer.

XxX

(Constellation Island – Meteor Interior)

Surrounding the meteor itself in the space between the edge of the crater and the meteor there was running water, making an active moat surrounding the space rock. The water ran in and out of holes carved into the meteor that people used boats to travel with. A large drawbridge allowed the crew entrance to the interior where they took in the sights there as well.

It was the size of a regular city. A mostly wide open cave setting with stores built into the walls of the meteor and also built traditionally with standard building materials. There was natural light in the cave by way of crystals built into the meteor that allowed people to easily see. There were multiple paths and spirals where buildings and recreational areas were elevated for a better view. In the center of the meteor was a large lake and directly above it there was an opening to the outside where people could see through to the sky as if they were outside.

Waterways ran through the interior with citizens using boats to traverse the waters instead of using the paths and bridges built to walk. It seemed to go along with the running theme of the people on the island of not having energy as most would just let the waterways carry them since they would inevitably get to their destination, just not on time. It was weird that such a lazy group of people would have their shops open 24/7.

Nojiko and Miss Valentine pretty much dragged Perona off to get her the clothes that she said Naruto owed her, both women understanding why she felt that way what with being stuck in the water for three days… despite the fact that they had been the ones to put her there in the first place.

With his responsibility in Perona being temporarily taken off of his hands, Paulie decided to go and hit the casinos to see if he could double his income he had obtained since joining the crew. Johnny and Soren decided to follow behind in the hopes that the casino had an open bar so that they could laugh at Paulie losing all of his money and be inebriated at the same time. Muret went off to see if she could get anymore medical supplies, simple stuff like bandages since the crew burned through them. Yosaku then chose to follow his beloved wherever she chose to go… this made Muret want to go find something heavy to make him lug around for continuing to fawn over her.

Naruto and Vivi simply chose to walk around the place because the princess wanted to take in the sights of such an exotic place, and because Naruto wanted some thinking time as he was still pretty heated over hearing about Sabaody Archipelago and the slave trade circulating from there.

Eventually this led to Naruto leaning against a wall of the meteor, thinking to himself as Vivi used one of the telescopes provided for public use to get an even better look at the stars and other things, "This island is so beautiful. You hear about places like this existing on the Grand Line, but hearing about them and actually visiting these places is something else altogether."

Taking a second to stop thinking so seriously, Naruto looked over at Vivi and how excited she was to just be in a new place like Constellation Island. She was usually like that most places she went since she had started travelling with them. While everyone seemed to find something to like about the locations they traveled to, it wasn't very hard for Vivi to do so at all, she was always so enthusiastic.

'She's going to be a really great leader when she winds up taking over in Alabasta.' Naruto thought to himself with a smile, 'Vivi's a good girl and she's smart. She also cares a little too much… but that's not really a bad thing if she's going to rule a nation.' She definitely had the empathy part of being a benevolent ruler down. The first princess he met had to have that more or less beaten into her head.

Vivi took her eyes away from the telescope to look curiously at the blonde shinobi that ran her ship of current residence. She returned the smile he was giving her with a very warm one of her own, "Are you feeling better now Naruto?" She asked him.

"What made you think I was feeling bad?" Naruto replied, trying to keep up his smile as a front. The leader could never be seen stressing out or it would trickle down to his subordinates.

"I saw your face when that man talked about the slavers." Vivi frowned as she explained, "I've been to Mariejois before with my father… I've seen what the World Nobles do with those people. They aren't even humans as far as the nobles are concerned. Father couldn't rationalize it for me and he didn't even try. You're a good person, so I can only imagine how you feel about it."

Naruto let out a grunt of aggravation as he leaned out the opening and stared out at the great view presented from their location, "Why the hell would anyone ever let something like that happen? What's the point? Is it too much to ask that people know how to act on what's right and wrong?"

"It's the way things are I'm afraid." Vivi said distastefully, leaning the same way Naruto was as she looked out next to him, "The World Government values the status quo over what you and I see as common decency. World Nobles can do anything they want… anything at all. Just because their ancestors formed the World Government 800 years ago. They don't even do anything to run the government at all."

Naruto could hear the venom in her voice as she spoke of them, he had never heard Vivi speak of anyone like that before, "Do you hate them Vivi-hime?"

"No…" Vivi said, shaking her head, "I hate the fact that they have all of that power and influence for nothing. They can do anything, and yet they use their status to bully others and assert how great they think they are." She let out a sigh, "…Leaders aren't supposed to be like that. They should be something to look up to. But the World Nobles are just terrible people. Hating them won't do any good though. It wouldn't change anything."

A nod came from Naruto before he asked her another question, "Do you ever just want to turn back around and go home to Alabasta?" He asked, getting Vivi to turn her head towards him in shock, "I love having you on the crew, everyone does actually. It's really going to suck when you can finally go home safely, we're really going to miss you."

Vivi's look of shock morphed back into a smile, "You're saying that like it's going to happen anytime soon. I don't think I'm going home for a while." She let out a wistful sigh as she continued, "Sometimes I do wish I could go home, but I love this crew, it's actually really fun to be here. You've made me so much stronger too so I can really defend my people the next time they need me. I really appreciate it all."

"You soak up everything I've taught you like a sponge." Naruto said with a laugh, "You're really easy to teach. Besides, we love having you with us. Even when you do wind up going home you're still one of us, and if you ever need us we'll be there in a heartbeat princess."

Vivi took that moment to let out a laugh as well, "So you'll be my honorary knight?"

"If that's what you want to call it, yeah." A grin crossed Naruto's face as he replied, "I'm your knight Vivi-hime, and if there's anything you can't handle I'll always have your back." He bowed to her with a flourish, getting a playful knock on his head from Vivi who was stuck in full-on laughter at this point, "That's a promise though. I already made the promise that I won't ever disappear from your lives. I meant it."

"We'd all just find you anyway." Vivi said slyly, though she was turned away slightly so he couldn't see the blush on her face at his insistence of being her knight, 'Ha. Igaram, Pell, and Chaka would have heart attacks if I somehow convinced Naruto to be a knight or something.'

"I'm starting to think that's true because I keep hearing people say it." Naruto said with a sheepish look on his face as he rubbed the back of his neck.

XxX

(Constellation Island – Exterior of the Meteor)

"Sir! Ma'am!" A Marine said as he ran up to Hina and Smoker, "Witnesses have recounted seeing people fitting the description of Uzumaki Naruto's crewmembers within the meteor structure of the island."

Hina chuckled and leaned against Smoker's nearby motorbike, "Hina told you that coming around the backside of the island was a better idea. You see? When you attack head-on you get your ships destroyed. A little misdirection works wonders."

"I thought I told you to shut up about that." Smoker replied rather tersely. He didn't need to be reminded of how the Natural Disaster literally smashed through his blockade with very little effort needed to do so.

"How rude Smoker-kun!" Hina said with a smirk as she pulled her dark brown gloves tightly on her hands, "Hina comes all the way to help reinforce you, Hina helps you track down Uzumaki Naruto's trail, and this is how you treat a friend? Promotions really must go to one's head, correct commodore?"

Smoker let out a scoff before a small smile broke out on the normally gruff man's face, "Hina came here to help herself too." Hina puffed out her cheeks indignantly at Smoker poking fun at her way of speaking, "Taking down all of these bounty heads would be major for both your and my careers. The only way to be allowed to go to New World is to get promoted, and the only way that's going to happen for someone like _me_ is if I can prove that there's no reason to hold me back by beating strong pirates."

"Uzumaki beat you up twice Smoker-kun." Hina chimed in as if that were a helpful fact that he had somehow forgotten.

"He didn't beat me up, he just blew me away both times and ran before I could drift back." Smoker argued back as he sat on the seat of his bike, "I know how to fight someone like him now. It won't happen like that again this time-."

"-Because this time Hina will fight him with you." The Marine captain with long pink hair said confidently as she pretty much shoved Smoker forward and took a seat behind him on the bike, "No matter who he is, he can't even touch Hina or else he'll regret it because of Hina's powers."

"Let's just go already…" Smoker said with a grumble, "Our subordinates are already inside, that means we pretty much have them cornered." With that, he kick-started his bike, powered by his own smoke powers, and drove inside the meteor to attempt to locate the Foxhound Pirates.

* * *

Omake: The Gauntlet is Thrown

(A Few Days after Leaving Water 7 – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

The ringing of the Den-Den Mushi in the common area quickly beckoned the person that was usually the closest to it when it went off as Naruto jumped basically from the doorway of his own room all the way to the communications animal in one leap, "Hello?" He greeted pleasantly upon picking up the receiver, "You've got the Foxhound Pirates, what do you need?"

"_I'm gonna kick your ass you shitty bastard!"_

Naruto immediately took offense to the quite vulgar greeting. Who spoke to someone like that on the phone? How rude, "Oh I'd love to see you try prick! You're real tough over the phone so why don't you come find me and say that to my face, dattebayo!" He then blinked when he realized that he had gotten overexcited and that he had fallen back into an old habit, "…And you didn't hear me say that last part so shut the hell up about it!"

"_As soon as Robin-chan gives me your stupid teleport weapon I will! And then I'll take it and shove it up your ass, so you can _teleport_ there when I'm done with you!"_

Naruto was about to shout back, fully ready to get into an insult/shouting war with this person until he started piecing things together, "Wait a minute… is this Sanji?"

"_You're damn right it is!"_

"What the hell is your problem?" Naruto asked him, confused at why the Straw Hat crew's chef would have a problem with him, "Just because I said that you were a crappy cook because you couldn't make ramen isn't a good reason to be all pissed off. I said that days ago, I thought we were past it."

"_First of all, I can make ramen, I just choose not to do anything with that shitty food, I'm a gourmet chef! And second of all I'm not pissed because of that, I'm pissed because I've heard of your deflowering our lovely navigator!"_

"Wait, you actually _can_ make ramen?" Naruto said questioningly before blinking, completely missing what the gist of the conversation was supposed to be about, "You son of a bitch! Give Miss Valentine your recipe or I _will_ cut you!"

"_Get back on topic!"_

"Oh, right." Naruto said, dropping his anger at the whole ramen thing… but he would be revisiting that part of the discussion at a later time, "Oh!" He finally said in realization, "That's why you're mad at me. Because me and Nami-."

"_Don't you dare say it! I'll never forgive you for taking something so precious away from Nami-san you bastard!"_

At that moment sounds of a minor scuffle took place as it sounded like the receiver was wrestled away from Sanji, _"Naruto you jerk! Whatever you took from Nami you'd better give it back right now or I'll kick your ass!"_ Apparently it was the captain's turn to interject.

"Luffy?" Naruto said, having at this point settled down enough to take a seat on a couch as he continued to talk, "What are you talking about? Give what back?"

"_Sanji said you took something precious from Nami, like a flower or something… I don't know, I wasn't really listening. All I know is that friends don't take things from friends, so whatever you took give it back!"_

'I can't really give back what I took Luffy.' Naruto thought to himself with a deadpan look on his face, "Listen to me Luffy-."

Whatever he was going to say was cut off as more sounds of fighting over the Den-Den Mushi took place before Sanji's voice came back over the line, _"Luffy shut up! I've got this handled! This is a matter of honor both for myself and my dear Nami-san. So get ready, as soon as I can get Robin-chan to hand over your kunai with my charm I'm going to call you again, and then I'm going to kick your ass to the moon!"_

"_I thought I just told you not to call him about something so stupid!"_ Nami's angry voice came through the background before sounds of pain reverberated through the Den-Den Mushi. Sanji was probably paying for his rather brazen statement on quite personal matters at the moment, _"Everyone on the ship heard you and knows what you're talking about!"_

One more person picked up the line and spoke to the blonde captain as the sounds of a rather brisk beating echoed in the background, _"Uh Naruto, we're going to have to call you back later. Sanji's kind of busy getting… well you can hear it can't you?"_ Usopp said, sounding like a voice of reason before seemingly holding up his receiver in the intended direction so that Naruto could clearly hear what was taking place.

"_Nami-san I was just defending your honor from that villain Naruto!"_

_*CRASH*_

"_Who the hell said I needed my honor defended? And next time 'defend me' quieter than that! This is embarrasing!"_

Naruto let out a sigh, "Normally I'd tell Sanji to bring it on, but for now I think I'll just say good luck to him. Noji-chan's going to call so she can talk to Nami later. Make sure you tell her after she calms down."

"_Got it. Later."_

_*Click*_

Jumping back up to hang up the Den-Den Mushi, Naruto then walked back towards his room as if nothing happened, "I love my weird friends."

* * *

**Hello world. I'm back once more after longer than I would have personally liked, but hey, the past is the past. Anyway, I've got nothing important or insane to ramble about today. I can only hope you enjoyed my body of work and will continue to do such in the future.**

**Now if you'll excuse me it's time for me to get ready for work at noon. I hate summer.**

**Until the next time I'm free enough to update something you all take the time to read, Kenchi out.**


	36. At Your Heels

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. How about a contract for probationary ownership for a year? Come on you guys, take a vacation and let someone else handle it for a while. Everyone needs a break right?

**Chapter 36: At Your Heels**

* * *

Almost a full day after the arrival of the Foxhound Pirates, the doors to a casino set in the titanic meteor of Constellation Island flew open with Paulie getting hurled out by bouncers, "An I.O.U.? What the hell kind of place do you think this is? Come back when you actually have money to gamble with!" The burly men said before walking back into the establishment.

Paulie picked himself up off of the ground and dusted his clothes off as he grabbed the cigar that had fallen from his mouth off of the ground, "Okay! Fine! I didn't want to stay in your shitty casino anyway! The dice are loaded! There's no way I could lose that much for real!"

Soren and Johnny walked out of the doors behind him with grins on their faces and multiple six-packs of bottles in their possession, "I told you, don't gamble unless Naruto-aniki is around. You'd never lose that way." Johnny said as he handed a bottle to Paulie only to grab it right back once he saw the shipwright prepared to chuck it at the casino he had just been thrown from, "No."

Soren shook his head in complete amusement at what he had just borne witness to for the last several hours, "You fucking suck dude… that was just a joy to watch."

Before possibly further raising a stink about his monetary situation, Paulie decided to be proactive over the whole situation, "Hey, can I borrow some money from you guys?" Instead of answering verbally, Johnny and Soren looked at each other and simply began walking away, "Oh come on! We're crewmates aren't we? Doesn't that mean something?"

"My pay goes here." Soren said, holding up a bottle before downing it swiftly and wiping his mouth, "It'll come back out later if you still want it though." He finished before getting caught in Paulie's ropes wrapping tightly around his body, "Ha! Oh come on, that was a good joke. No need to be so sore about it."

The less inebriated of the pair that included himself and the acid-spitting first mate, Johnny made sure to take the other six-packs from the tied up Soren to make sure that he didn't drop them or melt them by accident when he decided to break out of Paulie's strong ropes, "If you really want money you should go find Nojiko-aneue. She's the one that hands it out no matter what Naruto-aniki says about him being the boss."

Soren rolled his eyes, still allowing himself to be tied up by Paulie's ropes instead of just generating acid and getting through them, "If you ask for money from Nojiko you'd better do it behind some cover. Actually nevermind, because she can fire behind cover."

"She wouldn't shoot anybody just for asking for money. Now you're getting ridiculous." Johnny said before looking around the part of town they were in, "Hey, where did everyone go? The streets were kind of buzzing when we went in there and now this place is dead." As far as they had seen this town never really stopped operating because of the lack of daylight, making it so that light was not really a factor in the activity of the island.

Paulie took a puff of his cigar and joined Johnny in looking around the deserted streets, "Maybe this place's lazy clock just had everybody synch up at the same time and they're all taking one big power nap?"

"Fire!"

"Or..." Soren said, trailing off once he heard the firm call for something to fire, "This could be happening."

BOOM

The sound of a cannon blast got all three of the Foxhound Pirates to scatter before a cannonball smashed into the ground right where they had been standing. They looked in the trajectory of the blast to see a cannon set up on a hill in the meteor that had a good vantage point on them.

"Johnny-boy if you would." Soren requested plainly from a perch on an awning of a building as he saw a mass of Marines charging down the streets at them with sabers drawn.

Johnny nodded and flicked his guard from his sheathe with his thumb before taking off directly at them faster than they could see, cutting down the lesser sword users with nothing visible other than flashes of silver and the blood flying off of the wounded Marines, "Suberu J (Sliding J)!" With the dozens of Marines dealt with he proceeded to charge through the streets towards the hill where the cannon was set.

The cannon operating team on the hill could see Johnny moving towards them at a blisteringly inhuman pace, with any Marine group trying to halt his rush getting cut down without his sword looking like it was never even drawn to strike them down with. A second cannon blast missed him miserably and before the desperate team could load another shot he was upon them, easily defeating them.

After taking out the cannon, Johnny took a seat on top of it and waved down at Paulie and Soren before hopping off and racing back to them. In a few seconds he stood in front of them with his hand on his sheathed sword, "Time!"

"Twenty six seconds and I think you got over a hundred guys at the fifteen mark. One hundred seventeen in all." Paulie said as he placed a stopwatch back into his pocket.

"Fuck! I'm slow!" Johnny yelled loudly, kicking a nearby wall, "Zoro-aniki would have finished that in fifteen!"

"What did you do to my men?"

At the end of the street all three of the pirates could see Tashigi standing there among her gravely injured underlings with an angry look on her face while she clutched her sword tightly.

Johnny and Paulie took one gigantic step away from Soren as he continued to stare at her. Both of them pointed at Soren to shift blame while Soren was unable to point the finger at anyone due to the fact that he was still tied up, "Uh… hi." He eventually said, trying to smooth things over with a sheepish grin, "I bet you're wondering why so many Marines are laying here and bleeding out all over, and that's actually a funny story. Well, not so much 'ha-ha' funny as 'painful' funny… because I can tell you that they're definitely in pain."

"You again!" Tashigi said fitfully, drawing her sword and pointing it at Soren. As she did this hundreds more reinforcements came up to back her up, but she held up a hand stopping them from advancing, "Don't get any closer to him, he's too dangerous for you all to fight."

"Baby I'm too dangerous for _you_ to fight." Soren said with a wolfish grin though any charming effect it would have possibly had for him was stunted by the tattoo going down the side of his face and the sharp canines, "So did the lesson from the last time I kicked your ass sink in yet? I can do it without my hands if that'll help." He wiggled his fingers tied to his sides earlier by Paulie for emphasis.

Tashigi immediately set herself in a ready stance, prepared to take him on, "You're all trapped! There's no way for you to even get out of the meteor, let alone all the way back to your ship. Just surrender now!"

Soren just gave her a deadpan stare before opening his mouth to speak. Whatever smart remark he was about to make never came to fruition as he bent his body back almost inhumanly to avoid a slash of Tashigi's sword meant for probably his neck, "What the hell!" Soren yelled as he jumped and landed on another awning out of her striking distance, "You don't ask someone to surrender and then attack them before getting their answer!"

"It was clear that you weren't going to surrender. You didn't even present your hands." Tashigi said, defending her actions.

Hearing that response, Soren got a tick mark on his head and growled at her, "That's because I'm tied up already! What do you want from me woman? Ibi Ibi no Danmaku (Rot Rot Barrage)!" He spat rapid acid bullets at Tashigi that she immediately began dodging as the Marines with her saw why they didn't have a chance once the bullets began to sizzle into the pavement. Eventually Tashigi got through them to reach Soren's awning and slashed it apart in her attempt to get him, missing once he jumped off again and seemingly skipped on the air to get to the roof.

As Tashigi attempted to find her own way to take off after Soren, Johnny and Paulie stood watching off to the side, "Should we, I don't know, get involved and help him out?" Paulie asked as the female swordsman eventually made her way up to the roof to try and give chase to Soren.

Johnny watched as Tashigi made it to the rooftop and again tried to fight Soren only for him to jump from building to building to avoid her, "Nah… he's fine. I think he'd be pretty upset if we just crashed his first date like that. Let's leave those crazy kids alone."

Paulie could see Soren continuing to dodge close-range sword strikes, still tied up by the way, as Tashigi continued trying to dice him up, "…You're kidding right?" It sounded bizarre, but with the people that he currently associated with it wasn't that much so in the grand scheme of things.

"Only a little bit though. That's the weird thing about it." Johnny said, adjusting his sunglasses on his face before paying attention to the Marines ahead of them barring their path, "So now what?" That was enough to get the Marines to pay attention to them again, the numbers now having increased in the meantime, "Get back to the ship?"

"Back to the ship…" Paulie said, disappointed that he wouldn't get more time to gamble and get his money back.

"Hey, you can't just leave! Get them!" A Marine shouted, getting the lot of them to charge at Johnny and Paulie to attack the two men.

Paulie sighed, breathing out smoke due to his cigar before he sent out several ropes from his clothes in order to grab multiple Marines, "Roupu Akushon: Raundo Taun (Rope Action: Round Turn)!" After grabbing the chosen Marines, Paulie spun around and used the men at the end of his lines as makeshift weapons to wipe out the attacking force by the droves.

Johnny ran forward once Paulie finished his attack and held out an arm. A rope from Paulie latched onto him and the shipwright spun around in another circle, using Johnny in the same manner that he did the Marines from just a moment ago as a weapon. A human weapon with a blade. One rotation from him and Johnny managed to cut down dozens of enemies. A second turn led to Johnny cutting himself loose, flying down the street at the other Marines as he bounced off of walls like a pinball, landing in the streets as well to cause havoc, "Hanekaeru Eikyou (Rebound Impact)!"

"Well that's one way to clear a path." Paulie said as he started to follow behind through the trail of bodies that Johnny happened to be leaving.

XxX

(With Soren)

"Okay…" Soren said, jumping away from another slash by Tashigi, landing on another rooftop, "I'm really tired of this. If you haven't noticed so far, I'm really drunk. I'm surprised I haven't fallen yet." He said, swaying slightly on his feet before standing back straight up, "What is Smoker's problem? How many times do we have to kick his and your asses for him to get the point?"

"You sure do whine a lot for being a part of one of the crews that destroyed Enies Lobby." Tashigi commented before jumping across to Soren's roof, only for him to move again, "Why won't you fight me?"

"Like I said." Soren said, still allowing himself to remain tied up, more or less ignoring his bindings, "I'm very drunk. And we had a really good reason to go to Enies Lobby. We didn't even destroy it. You guys did that to yourselves." He dodged a swing before letting his body go stiff to block Tashigi's sword with his Tekkai.

Tashigi was stunned by her sword just bouncing off of Soren's body as if he were a rock, however she didn't give up, "You pirates can't just do as you like! The law exists for a reason. The world is bad enough without outlaws like you disturbing what little order there is on the seas!"

"I agree." Soren said, throwing a lazy kick that Tashigi dodged before pulling his leg back, lest he lose it messing around with the woman, "And if it wasn't for the fact that tons of Marines don't abide by their own laws I probably wouldn't be living like this. If Marines don't follow their own rules then why should I?" A series of backflips got him back out of Tashigi's range again before he threw a kick that fired a blade of compressed air, "Rankyaku (Storm Leg)!"

The swordswoman didn't feel like testing her luck with seeing if she could block the attack and let it pass her by, "Whatever happened to you doesn't make the most of the Marines wicked." Tashigi said, not bothering to charge Soren again since she could tell he would have beaten her by now if he had been serious. He wasn't even using his abilities like the last time they fought, thus he didn't see her as a significant threat, "A minority of the population shouldn't influence your opinion of the vast majority. You can't even say the same about pirates, even if you were good that would make you the minority in that instance."

"I wouldn't ever talk about myself like that." Soren said, scratching his leg vacantly with his other leg, "I'm a horrible bastard that has a spot reserved for me in hell when I die, like most pirates. But the rest of the crew are good people. Things aren't black and white. Marines aren't as wholesome as you want them to be… sometimes the only thing separating them from the pirates they fight are the colors they fly."

Tashigi just narrowed her eyes at Soren from the distance they were standing apart, "That may be, but until I'm given the opportunity to clean things up my job is to defeat people like you. You all chose your side. I will beat you one day, and I will bring you in for the things that you've done. I swear it."

Soren nodded and turned his back, finally burning his way through the ropes around his body, "If you want to beat me you'd better get faster… and stronger to boot. But feel free to try because I'm never going to kill a Marine like you. The more of you in the world the better the place is. Maybe you _can_ clean it up. If you can beat me and bring me in they'll shoot you right to the top." He turned his head to spare Tashigi a glance before giving a wave, "Until the next time then. Later." And with that he suddenly left her sight in a burst of speed.

Tashigi let out a low growl and sheathed her sword before turning to walk away and find a team to link back up with. There was still an operation going on.

XxX

Miss Valentine and Nojiko walked out of a clothing store with Perona in tow, and the ghost-generating girl looked far happier now that she apparently had clothes purchased off of the Foxhound Pirate beli, "You see, we're not so bad." Miss Valentine said with a small laugh, "Once you get past the 'we-tied-you-to-the-front-of-the-ship' thing of course."

Nojiko lightly elbowed the bubbly blonde woman, "Stop bringing that up. I think she knows that we tied her to the front of the ship by now. She was there."

"I'm just saying… that probably left a bad impression." Miss Valentine defended for the fact that she had been constantly bringing it up since they had started shopping. She was about to continue talking when she noticed Nojiko freeze midstep, looking up in the air at seemingly nothing, "What's the matter?" She asked, knowing that the young woman didn't just zone out for no reason.

Nojiko's thousand-yard stare gave way to a pursing of her lips and a suspicious look at her surroundings before she mumbled lowly, "…At least they didn't just storm the shop while we were in there." She quickly grabbed her Waver Skates from her supply belt and slung them onto her feet in one motion.

Seeing Nojiko grab her practiced method of speedy transportation, Miss Valentine quit holding her umbrella by the middle, holding it by the end to prepare to use it properly as a weapon. She set the parasol/weapon over her shoulder and looked around trying to spot anything suspicious.

Perona noticed the two of them go on alert and got defensive herself. They were two of the ones that she had been unable to hit before her scuffle with Vivi on the ship so that had to mean that if they thought something was wrong it was worth paying attention to, "What's wrong?"

"You'll help us fight back to the ship won't you?" Nojiko asked, subtly moving her hands towards the pair of pistols on both sides of her hips, "It's okay if you don't, it just might go faster if you do."

Perona blinked, "But I'm part of a Shichibukai's crew. That kind of makes me off limits doesn't it?"

"I was too honey." Miss Valentine said matter-of-factly, "It doesn't matter. Shichibukai or not the Marines don't really like pirates at all. They'll toss you into Impel Down just because, especially since you're with us and Moriah isn't around either."

"I think I'll hang back anyway…" Perona said, willing to hedge her bets as an observer for now. If her 'captives' wound up losing to the Marines she could at least take a chance with the Marines having refrained from fighting them.

"Suit yourself but keep up." Nojiko said, "It's time to go. Now." With that, the Marines appeared standing on the rooftops with rifles in their grasp. Miss Valentine opened her umbrella and took off into the air, drawing the attention and fire of the Marines while Nojiko took off on her Waver Skates, blasting off onto the rooftops to blaze around the Marines trying to ambush them from there.

Hearing Nojiko tell her to keep up made Perona want to fight just to show her exactly what was what. Then she actually watched Nojiko fight and realized that the reason she didn't try attacking her astral projection freely during the ship fight was because she would have destroyed the deck in doing so.

Nojiko dropped a bunch of grenades around the hapless Marines on the rooftops as she sped past them. They attempted to bail out off of the rooftops prior to the explosives going off, but they detonated regardless and sent an absurd amount of the poor men flying from the blasts they tried to avoid.

Anyone still able to get up and continue saw Miss Valentine land lightly on the ground from her diversionary flight and twirl her umbrella as she calmly walked forward through the group of them, batting her eyelashes at them, "All of you against little old me? How unfair."

The Marines that got back up drew their sabers and went to attack Miss Valentine all at once. She just calmly lifted her leg high in the air and dropped an axe kick with all of her weight added to the leg of the heel that smashed the ground and caused a small tremor.

"Sheru o Houkai-fuu (Wind Collapsing Shell)!" From the air, Nojiko pulled out her shotgun and let off a massive wind blast that took the form of a large jagged arrow three times the size of a normal person that ripped through the masses of Marines stopped by Miss Valentine's tremor, easily sending them flying down the street, picking up more Marines in its wake until it faded.

Meanwhile Miss Valentine was humming a content tune to herself as she used her umbrella as something of a riot baton, skillfully cracking skulls and smashing hapless foes aside with barely any wasted motion from the process, "You can follow along whenever you'd like." She said to Perona as she turned to face the ghost-using girl before using her Haneho (Feather Step) to speed through the Marines, beating them so that they couldn't even see her tearing through them.

"I know you're having fun and everything, but stop playing Valentine." Nojiko said, hovering by her side after she was done with her arms crossed, "We need to get back to the ship in case I run out of ammo or chakra… or both."

"Okay, fine." The dejected sound of Miss Valentine's voice was defeated by the smile that she was still wearing firmly on her face, showing that she didn't particularly care one way or the other, "Did the Log Pose even reset yet? We've been here for a bit over a day, was that enough time?"

Nojiko looked at the directional device on her wrist and saw that it was firmly pointing in a direction instead of looking like it was going haywire the way it had been when they had arrived, "Yes, it's got a new location somewhere that I guess we'll find later so we need to run."

Miss Valentine dodged an attempted armed sneak attack of another Marine and kicked him with crushing force into the side of a building for his insolence before running with her speed technique to keep up with Nojiko on her Waver Skates, "We don't _have_ to run. I kind of want to stay and fight. I haven't had a good one in a while." She said before weighing herself down to come to a stop. Not only did they have to wait on Perona, they saw a strange sight directly in front of them, "What in the world?"

In front of them blocking the street stood a few hundred Marines with two men at the front of the pack in particular. One of them was a man wearing a blue shirt, orange checkered pants, and a Marine cap. Under an eye he had a scar and on both of his fists there seemed to be bolts attached. The other man was more bizarre in appearance, as he wore a Marine bucket hat, heart-pattered glasses, a loud yellow and purple button-up shirt and a blue tie with blue pants.

At the moment the second man seemed to be swinging a pendulum in front of the mass of Marines with him and his comrade. He held his hat down over his eyes as he did so, "Okay guys, when I say 'one, two, Jango' you will feel ten times stronger than you've ever felt before. Ready? One, two, Jango!"

The look in the eyes of the Marines seemed to turn berserk and they looked at the two women with an aggressive gaze. The hypnotist turned to the man with bolts on his knuckles, "Okay, now they're ready to attack. These ones won't be so easy to beat Fullbody."

The man with the bolts on his knuckles, Fullbody, knocked his fists together and cracked his neck, "That hypnotism crap of yours is pretty useful isn't it Jango?"

Perona eventually caught up with Miss Valentine and Nojiko as they stared at the Marines barring their way, "You two…" She said, placing her hands on her knees and panting, "I'm not that fast… and I'm carrying stuff." She looked up and saw the multitude of Marines standing in front of them, "… And I have really bad timing." She said to herself.

Before any real fighting could begin, from the back of the pack of the Marines they started to be thrown all about as a trail was blazed straight through the line right to the three women that had been prepared to face them. Eventually the sight of what was doing it came into sight, Muret riding on Funkfreed with his trunk turned into the straight blade of a sword, swinging his head around as he cleared a path through the enemy forces.

"You guys!" Muret stopped right in front of them after Funkfreed broke straight through the thick line of Marines that been about to confront the others, "Man, you don't know how long it took to find you from where I was." She said with a relieved smile on her face after running into people that she knew again. Looking down at the weapon-turned elephant she was riding upon, she gave Funkfreed a pat on the head, "He got me all the way here didn't you?" In response the sword/elephant trumpeted happily.

Nojiko raised an eyebrow, "Where'd Yosaku go? He was with you wasn't he?"

XxX

"Oufuku (Round Trip)!" Yosaku spun around in one big circle before throwing Kubikiribouchou directly at the Marines that had been warily approaching him in an attempt to corner him. The weapon flew through the crowd of them cutting them down with the force behind the throw and the pure weight that the weapon held, tearing them asunder.

"He's a monster!" One of the wounded Marines said. He was one of the lucky ones able to survive a cut from the massive sword, "How can he swing that thing?"

The sword came back around flying down from the sky and returning to Yosaku's hands, allowing him to catch the heavy weapon and spin around once to steady himself after doing so, "Shut up!" The angry power swordsman shouted as he raised Kubikiribouchou over his head, "You tried to hurt my beloved and you ruined my date! Prepare yourself for an oblivion of which there is no preparation! Keruberosu no Hitsuuna Koe (Yowl of Cerberus)!" He then slammed the sword down hard on the ground, sending off three blades of energy in different directions that continued to do damage.

XxX

"I don't know." Muret said dryly, still sitting on Funkfreed, "I'm sure he's doing just fine somewhere." Paying attention to the doctor of the crew, Nojiko quickly drew a pistol and fired, seemingly right at Muret, only to hit a flying circular blade out of the air that was thrown right at her. Once she knew what had occurred, Muret let out a sigh of relief, "Uwaa… Thank you Nojiko."

Nojiko nodded before aiming her pistols at Jango who held a pair of chakrams at the ready, the same weapons that had just been thrown at Muret, "I'm sorry." Nojiko said, speaking in a sickly sweet voice, "I'm just stunned that you attacked a woman from behind that can't really fight. I'd love to see you try that with me though." Before any response could be given or made, Fullbody attempted a surprise attack on Nojiko that she managed to avoid with her quick movements on her Waver Skates.

Fullbody tried attacking Miss Valentine with his bolt-plated knuckles but only struck her umbrella as she repeatedly blocked him as if she were fencing, "Captain Hina and Commodore Smoker have got you all now! You're never getting out of the meteor, let alone off of the island! Just surrender!"

"I'm not going to Impel Down with bells on just for you sweetie." Miss Valentine said as the umbrella easily kept Fullbody's punches away from her. She eventually smacked him on both knees with the item, dropping him down to them before she used her pointer finger and poked him on the forehead with a bright smile on her face, "Kilo Kilo Henkan (Kilogram Conversion)." And with that, Fullbody felt like he was weighed down with crushing force, unable to rise from his place on the ground on his knees. Even staying on his knees looked like it was a strain for him.

Muret sat with Funkfreed at full attention as he seemed ready to charge back through what was left of the Marines blocking the women, "So do we just break on through and find a way out or what?"

Nojiko still had a glare locked on Jango, "One second… you all can try to get out. I'll catch up."

Muret shrugged and pat a spot behind her on Funkfreed that Perona didn't need to be told to hop onto as she immediately did so. Miss Valentine let out a laugh as she opened her umbrella and took off into the air over the Marines trying to block them in, "That little vengeful streak of yours. Are you sure Naruto hasn't rubbed off on you?" Willing to possibly remain behind and trap herself to prove a point didn't seem like a very Nojiko thing to do.

A small smirk appeared on Nojiko's face at the comparison, "I don't think it's that bad. I think I unlocked a new element anyway… I'm not sure how it'll work though." She pointed one pistol at Jango and pulled the hammer back with a click. He tried to move out of the way of the bullet when Nojiko fired. Behind the bullet a thin trail of electricity ripped from the barrel as well, giving a shock to the men that wound up in the aftertrail of the gunshot.

Jango even felt a small shock from the metal chakrams he held for fighting, "Whoa. You carry some pretty funky weapons little miss."

"They work for me." Nojiko said with a smile on her face at unlocking a third element, 'I guess feeling confrontational about him trying to hurt my friends unlocked the electricity element for me. Let's see what else works.' She pulled her shotgun from her back and holstered her pistols as light charged from the barrel of the gun, "I don't really know what this one will do, so I'm sorry in advance." She said right before pulling the trigger, "Um… Raihakpa (Lightning Blast)?"

XxX

(Observation Area of the Meteor Interior)

A massive blast of electricity arced up from some point in the town before a series of loud crackling explosions that sounded similar to gunshots rang out.

"What's going on down there Naruto?" Vivi asked, having just heard cannon fire beforehand and then the strange explosions currently echoing through the meteor. They had just been hanging out while she looked through the telescopes provided as a means of leisure.

"I don't know, give me a second." He said as he sat down on the ground and shut his eyes, beginning to build nature chakra to easily sense his surroundings. After a few seconds of waiting, his eyes snapped open with the orange pigment around the edges and the toad appearance of his irises and he stood back up, dusting his pants off, "Oh hell. Okay, time to go." He said hurriedly reaching out to grab Vivi's hand so that he could keep her with him for a Hiraishin back to the ship.

Before he could get to the princess to grab a hold of her, a cloud of smoke separated them, trying to wrap around Naruto and cut him off from reaching Vivi, "Not a chance Uzumaki! Howaito Supauku (White Spark)!" In the massive cloud of smoke surrounding Naruto, the upper body of Smoker could be seen, "You're not cutting and running from this one!"

"Naruto!" Vivi shouted seeing him dodging the top half of Smoker's body while simultaneously trying to avoid getting caught in the solid cloud trail of his smoke.

"Yeah right!" Naruto shouted, avoiding the swings of Smoker's jutte, "As if I'll let a ransom like Nefertari Vivi get away! Who do you think you're dealing with?" He shouted before delivering a punch to Smoker's torso that actually hit him with his Sage Mode active.

'He can hit me without that sword of his!' Smoker's sneak attack was mostly rooted in the fact that he didn't want Naruto to draw Samehada. This was mostly due to his last few conflicts with Naruto shaping his opinion of the rather destructive fighting style of the blonde shinobi.

Had the actual events of Enies Lobby become mandatory for other Marines to know he might have learned of the battle with Aokiji, but much like his previous encounter with Kizaru no one outside of eye witnesses or the top of the top bore any knowledge of the Buster Call, the involvement of an Admiral, none of it aside from the story of the two crews attacking and destroying Enies Lobby even though the ships really did so.

The punch sent Smoker spiraling into the air, leaving a trail of smoke underneath him that eventually evened him out in the air. The lower half of his body being smoke, Smoker held his stomach with spittle lining his mouth. He had not expected Naruto to actually punch him, he usually just blew him away miles from the site of the battle. He was not going to be able to do that in the meteor of Constellation Island. The walls would keep Smoker's smoke body from being blown far away by any of Naruto's wind attacks.

Holding his body from the force of the punch, Smoker glared down at Naruto who was glaring back up with his abnormal eyes, "I wonder if this'll hurt smoke." He said as he formed a Rasengan in his right hand before closing the fist and coating it in the technique, "Senpou: Rasentaihou (Sage Art: Spiraling Cannon)!" With a punch he shot off the rapid Rasengan projectile.

Smoker grit his teeth over his cigar at the sight of the blue blur flying at him at blinding speed, narrowly moving his upper body out of the way to let the Rasentaihou smash into the top of the meteor. His smoky trail lower body was inconsequential. If Naruto managed to actually hit _him_ with that it would do him damage though.

"Wow." Naruto said, as the Rasentaihou didn't even chip a piece of the meteor off, "This place is sturdy." The Rasentaihou was weaker than a regular Rasengan, but there was still more than enough force behind it to do quite a bit of damage on contact. In Naruto's opinion it should have at least left a spiral mark on the roof. It would have on a person.

A scoff came from Smoker, "This hunk of rock fell from space and didn't burn up on entry into the atmosphere. Do you really think _you_ can produce a more damaging force than that?"

"Is that a challenge?" Naruto quipped with his arms crossed. As the two bantered to one another a fence-like cage tried to bar him in, but Naruto was able to avoid it prior to being caught and captured within, turning to glare at the new arrival that had attempted to attack him, "You getting help just to fight me now Smoker? That's usually a sign that you should leave well enough alone."

Smoker growled at the attempted assistance, "Hina I told you that Uzumaki was mine. Coordinate the forces to keep the rest of his crew in the meteor!"

"Hina is sorry Smoker-kun." The pink-haired woman said as she walked onto the scene with a smirk on her face showing that she really wasn't too sorry. She had a cigarette in her hands as she casually spoke, "But Uzumaki Naruto is a dangerous man. The entrances to the meteor are covered extensively. A murderous fire of cannon and rifle are there if any of the Foxhound crew tries to leave. They are trapped within."

'I'm so useless.' Vivi thought to herself, fists shaking by her side as she watched what was most definitely about to become a two-on-one assault. All she could do was sit aside and be the princess in peril as long as Marines were watching her. All of her training, everything she had done to keep from being a burden and she was still the albatross around her friend's neck. If word got back to the World Government that she had attacked a Marine of any sort things would not end well for Alabasta.

Almost as if Naruto could sense her frustration at her own limitation he looked towards her and made eye-contact, getting her full attention as he gave her a reassuring smile. Why was he smiling?

Suddenly his face turned grave serious and he made a half-ram seal as he used a free arm to point at Vivi, "Nefertari Vivi, my entranced slave, you're such a good girl to remain where you are for your Uzumaki-sama! Keep doing that!"

Hina and Smoker just stared at him with slack-jawed expressions at his declaration while Vivi just stood in puzzlement of what was occurring, "What the hell are you on kid?" Smoker said to him from above.

Ignoring the 'kid' jibe, Naruto broke into a grandiose pose of superiority, "Do you think I would freely carry around my hostage without taking precautions? No the princess is a crafty girl, she's tried to escape me several times before." His grin then turned positively evil at admitting what he was about to say, "So I just brainwashed her to make keeping her around easier. Why else do you think she looks so docile at my side?" He pointed over at the extremely confused looking Vivi again for emphasis, "I mean look at her! Does she look like she knows what's going on right now in the slightest?"

She most certainly did not, but that wasn't because she was brainwashed… she just didn't know what the hell Naruto was talking about or trying to do.

"It could be possible…" Hina said, looking as if she were trying to process the faculties of Naruto's statement, "My subordinate Jango can hypnotize others… and Uzumaki could possibly do something similar since he isn't a bumbling idiot as far as I've seen." Yeah, as far as she'd seen. She clearly hadn't been around him for a long enough period of time to have a doubt of his mental processes, "The princess does look like a dullard right now." The intended or not intended insult put a tick mark on Vivi's head.

"Vivi will do anything I ask of her the way she is right now." Naruto said with a villainous confidence befitting of a man deemed to be a monster the way he had been labeled in the papers, motioning towards said princess again, "If I told her to she'd attack you both like you were trying to kill someone close to her."

At that moment Vivi realized what Naruto was trying to do. He was trying to give her an out for running away or (she hoped) to fight. Maybe with any luck if they pulled off a convincing act then that could be the excuse that could be used whenever a Marine tried to engage them. It was going to add on to the 'bad guy' label, but it was Naruto's idea and he didn't seem to have a problem with it.

"Vivi-hime!" Naruto said with authority in his voice, enough to actually make the young princess shake a bit until she settled down, knowing that he wouldn't ever hurt her, "Please show them what you do to Marines that try to take you away from your Uzumaki-sama." In the back of his mind he was pleading with her to somehow sell this like her life depended on it. They needed to be able to work together because if Vivi was only able to stand there and watch one of the two fighting him could take advantage and try to 'rescue' her, making things way harder. Now at least she could fight back, and if he was able to reach her side and grab her they were as good as gone.

Vivi let out an angry growl and pulled her sharp jewel belts off before linking them together in a very long chain and swinging them at Hina, "Anything for you Uzumaki-sama… Kujakki ga Shinreideatta (Peacock Ranged Slasher)!" She amazingly thrust the weapon out in a straight line like a spear at Hina who was amazed at being attacked by Vivi.

The standout Marine captain dodged the attack with quite a bit of effort due to it actually being very fast, "Princess don't listen to him! You are not to be harmed in your retrieval, but Hina does not need to harm you to restrain you! Awase Baori (Lined Kimono Feather Cage)!" From Hina's sleeve a fence-like cage of bars came out of them, but before it could shut on Vivi she dodged the motion and rushed towards Hina, "Did he hypnotize her to make her faster and stronger?" She couldn't believe that the previously meek Vivi could move so well.

"There's my girl!" Naruto shouted as Vivi continued to battle with Hina. Hina was not going to be able to trap Vivi with her intensely developed evasive skills. It was as if Hina was tailor-made to adhere to Vivi's strength of dodging since her Devil Fruit was basically meant to trap others. Well, good luck with trying to trap Vivi.

While paying attention to Vivi to ensure his plan was working, he was wide open for an attack that Smoker took full advantage of, barreling into Naruto as he was propelled by his smoke and lifting him off of the ground, "Got you!" Smoker said as he proceeded to keep Naruto wrapped in his smoke, periodically pummeling him harshly before using the smoke Naruto was caught in to slam him into the ceiling of the hollowed out meteor, "There's more than enough room for you and yours in Impel Down!"

"…Someone got tougher…" Naruto said as he freed his arms from Smoker's smoke and pried his entire body free. He then proceeded to run up Smoker's solidified smoke trail, surprising the man at his balance. Before anything could be done, Naruto drilled Smoker in the face with a hard kick that sent him spiraling back towards the ground. Upon hitting the ground, Smoker's body completely turned into smoke before reforming to his normal appearance.

He looked up and his face turned to one of horror as he saw Naruto falling towards him from the sky with a massive Rasengan in his hand two-thirds his own size, "Senpou: Odama Rasengan (Sage Art: Great Ball Spiraling Sphere)!"

XxX

(With Soren, Johnny, and Paulie)

A massive shaking of the ground went through the entire meteor that rattled windows and knocked things over. Johnny almost lost his footing mid-run, "What was that an earthquake?" They had been fighting their way through town in an effort to reach the main exit from the meteor. The drawbridge path that led to the outside of the night-island was their destination since it had been the way in that they had taken.

"Who cares? Just another reason to get the hell out of here!" Paulie said as they turned a corner and wound up on the main street, "Oh crap." He said as he shoved both Johnny and Soren back behind the corner as a blast of cannon fire went off, aimed directly at them. More accurately, several cannons… and there were still more that hadn't fired still there.

Soren peeked out from behind the corner and quickly ducked back behind when a series of rapid bullets struck nearby, "Was that a machine gun? What the hell?"

"There's another one! Fire!"

All of the pinned down pirates looked towards the other end of the main street and saw Yosaku running down it just in time for the cannons to take aim at him. The cannon balls flew at him and he let out an unmanly scream before stabbing Kubikiribouchou into the ground and hiding behind it, letting the most accurate cannonball smash into the weapon, breaking it nearly through the middle and sending him flying backwards a few dozen yards, "Ugh… what the hell?" He said to himself with a slur in his voice as he got back up with the busted weapon in his hand.

This was the opportunity for the Marines pursuing him to pounce on him, "Now what are you going to do now that your stupid gorilla of a sword is broken!"

"Sanhyakurokujuudo Funkei (Three-Hundred Sixty Degrees Decapitation)!" Getting his bearings back as he was surrounded, Yosaku spun in a full circle and brutally slashed the Marines that attempted to take advantage of him with his segmented blade, "MY sword can't ever break for real!" He said as the blood from the fallen enemies began to reform Kubikiribouchou.

Johnny's eye twitched at Yosaku's use of his very powerful sword, "He never did try to take care of his weapons in battle… now at least he has a decent excuse as to why he doesn't." He then saw Yosaku run like a scared chicken once the machine gun opened fire on him again, "Oh yeah. We still have to deal with that."

"Yuudou no Handou (Induction Backlash)!"

The sound of a shotgun blast sent out a hard wave of electricity that flew directly at the entrenched positions of the Marines before suddenly expanding in a burst. This burst encompassed the cannons, the machine gun, even the ordinary firearms that the marines held, somehow causing them to explode.

Soren, Johnny, and Paulie stood with wide-eyes as they had been planning a half-assed three-pronged attack plan to get past the Marine defenses… and yet somehow someone had just annihilated their weaponry in one move, "Well I certainly feel inadequate…" Soren said plainly.

"I am not doing that again." Nojiko made her appearance, dropping from her former place on the roof in front of the three men looking a little winded, "Lightning takes more chakra than wind for sure."

Paulie just stared at her as Muret, Perona, and Miss Valentine caught up with them as well, "What the hell just happened?"

Nojiko tapped her finger off of her shotgun before slinging it over her back, "That attack sends out electricity that can ignite gunpowder through the metal of a firearm… not mine since I guess my own guns can handle it if they can fire electricity. The Marines can't seem to take it though."

"That's totally cheating by the way…" Johnny commented, getting Nojiko to stick her tongue out at him before he pointed at the now clear path, "Well we're wide open now. So let's get out of here before more guys show up to block us off!"

XxX

(Constellation Island – Meteor Interior – Observation Area)

"Princess!" Hina yelled as she faced off against the deceptively talented Alabastan princess, "Hina and Smoker-kun are trying to help you! Fight Uzumaki's mind control!"

"I am Uzumaki-sama's princess…" Vivi had to hold back a laugh at this point and keep the angry yet strained look on her face. All she had done through the battle was shout in effort and act entranced. So far it had been bought hook, line, and sinker. So she made a show of trying to stop fighting so that Hina would lower her guard, but as the woman's guard seemed to drop, Vivi's hands quickly showed that they were holding the sharp smaller Peacock Slasher jewel weapons on strings attached to her fingers.

Her hands quickly had them all spinning on her fingers before sending all ten of them flying at Hina as small projectiles, difficult to see with the naked eye due to the speed they were released at, "Kujakki Sutingau (Peacock Stinger)!"

All of them were on target, stabbing into Hina's body and knocking her to the ground. A weaker attack than with her now usual powerful cutting weapons that cut her opponents deeper and dealt more damage, the regular string-attached jewels were still incredibly sharp and Vivi found an even more ranged use for them instead of attacking with them up close which made little sense. She was a mid-range fighter, able to stay out of an enemy's range with her fleet footed movements. A few projectiles would only help do more of the same.

Before Hina could get back up, Vivi was already over her and delivered a powerful heel drop to the pink-haired Marine captain's chest, driving the air out of her and rendering her unconscious. A series of handsprings allowed Vivi to get her distance back and observe that Hina was not going to be getting back up to keep fighting, putting a smile on her face as she sighed in relief before looking over to Smoker and Naruto fighting a distance away.

XxX

Naruto's Odama Rasengan probably would have killed him if it had hit, thus Smoker collapsed his entire body into a plume of smoke that fell apart outwards and allowed the attack and the outpouring energy from it to disperse his smoke outward where he quickly pulled himself back together, something he had been working on doing since the last two times he lost due to being unable to reform from smoke fast enough to continue pursuing or battling Naruto because of his wind keeping his smoke body separated.

It took a few seconds for his body to reform, but it was better than the few minutes it had taken in Loguetown and Nanohana when they had fought before and his body had been dispersed all around the entire town, "You are a real pain in the ass, you know that?"

"More like you're a pain in mine." Naruto said as more smoke began to billow from Smoker's body. Great, more smoke. Naruto had to punch his way through the gobs of smoke to pound away at Smoker which was absurdly easy in Sage Mode. He was even able to better anticipate Smoker's attacks to respond accordingly, "You can't beat me, and just chasing me and trying to corner me isn't going to do it."

"What are you on about now Uzumaki?" Smoker growled out, almost biting through the cigar in his mouth, "You've never put me down, you just keep finding ways to get away."

"This is the third time we've fought." Naruto said, "You're using the same moves that I could have beaten back then without even fighting the way I am now. The first two times I didn't know that Sage Mode would let me _literally_ kick your Logia ass. If I did I wouldn't have been wasting all of that time just blowing you away. It didn't even hurt you." And pain of course is the best way to get any point across. With that realization, Naruto's eyes widened, "You've never really been beaten up before have you?"

It made all kinds of sense. With Smoker's Logia fruit it would have been hard for anyone to hurt him even on the Grand Line, and until leaving Loguetown he had been stationed in the East Blue for his entire career, widely perceived as the weakest of the four seas. Smoker had risen to prominence due to his chasing of Luffy leading to him getting mixed up in the Alabasta situation where they gave him credit for Crocodile's defeat instead of Luffy. Even then he didn't get hurt, he just got wet and had to be saved from drowning. That was it.

Nobody in the East Blue could hurt a Logia user, so sea water was the only thing he really had to look out for at the time. Had anyone even defeated him outside of his Marine training? And that was a weakness of Logia users… well, not Aokiji or Kizaru, but definitely Smoker; their powers were so great immediately after the activation of their powers that growth was difficult, especially in a place like the East Blue.

Fighting on the Grand Line was most definitely working for him as Naruto could notice the difference from the last battle, but it wasn't enough. Smoker had never been pushed before fighting him because no one could hit him… no one that he had actually fought at least. When was the last time Smoker had been given a good thrashing?

"You don't just keep coming after someone that you can't defeat. Fights don't work like that unless you held out on me the last few times." Naruto said, setting himself in the fighting stance picked up by his long past training with the toads, "What do you think you changed? Did you figure out some big secret to beating me? No, you haven't done anything that you didn't already try on me. I've never fought you the same way twice have I? You're just using the same old tricks and relying on your Logia to beat pirates that aren't me!"

"I'll show you the same old tricks! Howaito Ranchau (White Launcher)!" Smoker launched himself at Naruto in full-on smoking attack form, set to smash into Naruto with his jutte and overpower him with the force of his Logia.

"Same old trick…" Naruto mumbled to himself. He should have long since left, and he probably should have long since Rasenshurikened Smoker back when he realized that the interior of the meteor was very sturdy and put an end to it, but he had a point to prove now as he held both of his arms out in front of his body, "Senpou: Rasenkara (Sage Art: Spiraling Shell)!" The Rasengan shell engulfed his entire body just as Smoker crashed into it and caused a massive explosion.

The smoke from the clash cleared to find Naruto's body standing over Smoker. Smoke was lightly wafting off of his frame, but Smoker didn't generate the force from his charge needed to disrupt the defense and deal Naruto the backlash damage that had occurred in his battle with Kuma.

Out cold from running full force into the defensive variation of the Rasengan technique, Smoker's eyes were rolled in the back of his head as he lay flat on his back, "You need to never stop improving. You don't have to run your head into the brick wall to get through it, you can go around it or over it. Logia users aren't untouchable or unbeatable… but you're probably not going to listen to me anyway."

Vivi ran up to Naruto, seeing him standing over Smoker, "Naruto, you won!"

"Yep." Naruto said dusting his hands off as he walked towards the young princess, "You did too didn't you?" The beaming smile on her face told him all he needed to know. She seemed ecstatic at finally getting the chance to fight, and with her new built-in excuse to do so chances were she'd be doing a lot more of it.

Her smile dropped when she realized that they weren't the only ones that could have been attacked, "Ah! What about everyone else? They were in town while we were up here! Do you think they're alright?" She asked worriedly.

"They're fine." Naruto said, still able to sense signatures due to being in Sage Mode, "They're on their way back to the ship now, they got out of the meteor. That means it's our turn to go too. You ready?" Vivi nodded and wrapped both of her arms around Naruto's neck, "Alright, hold on." Both of them then disappeared in a flash, leaving the two unconscious officer Marines behind.

XxX

"So this kind of thing happens to you guys all the time huh?" Perona asked as they were sailing away from Constellation Island. Having attacked from the backside of the island, the Marines were unable to move fast enough to the front side of the island to corner the far faster Natural Disaster, allowing the Foxhound crew to get away without any real issue, "Must be a real pain." Still, the fact that they had fought their way out of the rat's nest of Constellation Island was something she had to admit was impressive.

Nojiko shrugged as they sat in the common area. She was taking the time to clean her guns after the extensive use they had just seen, "It's more annoying than anything else now though. This is the fourth time Smoker tried to mess with us. I think he chased after us all the way from San Salvacion Island."

Muret popped in from down the hall where her office/room was, "Does that mean he chased us through the Calm Belt or just waited for us to get back onto the Grand Line?" A series of unknowing shrugs happened to be the response. Probably the latter since they hadn't been attacked during one of their unplanned detours.

"Naruto-aniki's going to have us making tracks to get some distance this time though. I think he's really sick of running into Smoker." Yosaku chimed in from the kitchen where Miss Valentine was overseeing the grazing that he and Johnny were trying to do while she was making dinner, "Soren's going to be pissed though." At that, both swordsmen grinned mischievously and had to believe that Soren was lucky to not be in the room at the moment, otherwise he'd be getting razzed about his run-in with Smoker's swordswoman subordinate.

"Speaking of Naruto, someone go and get him." Miss Valentine said, leaning against a counter in the kitchen, "The food is almost ready and I don't want him not eating on time again… he'll just sneak stuff out of the pantry and the fridge later after everyone else is done and he doesn't know how to snack with moderation."

"Yeah okay, I'm on it." Nojiko said, getting herself up to head outside to the helm to inform Naruto to come inside to eat.

As she went outdoors and walked up the stairs to the steering area she stopped at the top of the stairs and shook her head with a smile on her face at what she saw. Naruto sitting against the steering column with Vivi leaning against his shoulder, both of them asleep with Carue nearby doing the same.

The lack of sunlight had been messing with Naruto's internal clock for days and she didn't think he had slept eight hours in around a week since they had gotten in the area with that and the fact that he had to stay up to make sure the ship didn't crash into anything in the dark. Everybody on the ship knew that Vivi was hard of sleeping and didn't get very much of it ever. It was amazing that she was as energetic as she was when even Muret couldn't tell where she got it all from with as little rest as she got.

Needless to say, the two of them were the ones that needed a few hours of shuteye more so than anyone else on the ship. And it looked so cute with Vivi leaning against Naruto's shoulder comfortably that she couldn't wake them up right then. They could eat later, food could be saved for them if Miss Valentine was asked to do so.

"Goodnight you guys… or morning…" Nojiko said quietly as she turned and decided to head back inside, "…I don't really know what time of day it is right now." She finished with a yawn.

* * *

Omake: 21

(Constellation Island – Meteor Interior – Starlight Casino)

As Paulie sat at the blackjack table in the casino of his choice, Soren and Johnny just stood back watching over his shoulders and drinking at the same time. The entire time there had been a how-to of what to do in a casino to lose all of your money in the most ass way possible. It had been really entertaining for them.

"You've got 20." The card dealer said to the shipwright who was steadily smoking away on a cigar while playing.

"Hit me." Paulie said with a nonchalant kind of confidence that can only come from years of experience… or idiocy.

Soren put a hand on Paulie's shoulder before he could make the hand motion for a hit, "I don't think that's such a good idea dude." It was funny at first, but seeing Paulie lose repeatedly was starting to get old, and the question of his mental state while gambling was beginning to come into question. No one could be that bad at games like this. It was just impossible. It was like he was trying to suck on purpose.

Paulie shrugged him off and tapped his finger on his cards, "Hit me." Soren and Johnny both palmed their faces at being so casually ignored.

"21."

The look of shock that then appeared on the two observers' faces would have made for a fantastic photo, "Did he just win?" Johnny asked in disbelief. What were the chances of being dealt an ace? It was absolutely absurd, but it looked like Paulie had proven them wrong.

"Hit me." Paulie said again nearly robotically as if he wasn't aware of the fact that he had just won, and technically he really hadn't since the dealer hadn't had the chance to declare him as winner since there were others that still had turns to take.

"Dude…" Soren said, trying to inform him that there was no better deal to receive than 21. He was going to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory if that were even possible.

"Hit me." Paulie said again for emphasis, and of course the willing dealer did just that. It wasn't his money.

"That's 30."

Paulie looked down at his cards blankly before looking around at Soren and Johnny who were just in awe, and not in the good way. Shrugging his shoulders, Paulie turned his attention back to the dealer, "…Hit me."

And he did get hit. By a pair of bottles over the back of his head by his own crewmates that decided to save him from himself. Johnny dragged Paulie away from the table by the collar of his jacket while Soren carried all of the booze with him, "Do you think he'd be better at roulette or should we just quarantine him at the penny slots?"

* * *

**Done. Sorry for the wait, I got on a roll with another story of mine and just kept updating it so that I didn't lose anything that I had in my head for how to proceed with it. I think things for it came out well and now I'm at a point where I can stop and get back to updating other things.**

**I don't believe that anyone expected there to be too much trouble from Smoker and Hina, even with an ambush. And now Vivi has an excuse to fight Marines without getting blamed for it which will dredge up some rather humorous scenes later. Now next chapter should be a bit of fun for the masses that seem to enjoy this story. I'll just have to wait and see in the end though… and so will you.**

**Later all, I have to get my ass ready for the commute from hell so I'll catch you around I guess.**

**Kenchi out.**


	37. Lovely Little Shade of Gray

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Whoa, whoa… the way you're asking me that question it's the wrong way, the wrong tone. You ask me like that again and I'll stab you in the face with a soldering iron.

…

Oh really? Well let me ask you something. Does your mother sew?

*pulls out gun and fires at your chest*

There! Get her to sew that!

**Chapter 37: Lovely Little Shade of Gray**

* * *

"Yes." Naruto said, sitting with his arms crossed on a couch in the common area, almost looking like he was pouting since he was looking to his left, away from the person he was actually speaking to.

"No." Nojiko replied, trying to bore a hole into Naruto's head with her gaze as she sat next to him on his right.

"Yes. I'm doing it. It's got to be faster." Naruto said, trying to insist upon his point. He jumped up out of his seat and walked to the window to point at the titanic landmass blocking the ship's way, "I can totally climb that! It might take a day… or more, but yeah, I can climb that!"

"You're the only one that can!" Nojiko yelled, flicking him in the nose to elicit a yelp from him, "We can't even see the top of it! No one we know ever has and unless you get permission to do it they'll just shoot us off anyway if you try! And what about the ship?"

"I've thought about that." Naruto said to the navigator of his crew, "I'll get Paulie to tie ropes around me and like a thousand clones. I think we could make it." That's if the clones could all stick to the wall with their chakra, take the strain of having to lug a ship up a 90 degree angle for miles before dragging it across however long the top of the landmass was before dropping it back into the ocean, "It can't be _that_ big of a climb."

Actually, forgetting about the clones and ignoring them for a moment, could the ship itself even take all of that abuse? It would be bouncing off of the wall again and again. The keel would probably snap like a twig before even half of that journey was done even if the Red Line wasn't that tall.

Almost in complete synch, the entire crew and Perona punched Naruto in the head, sending him to the floor, "You're not trying to drag the ship up the Red Line!" They all yelled at him as they stood over his fallen body.

"What the hell are you trying to do?" Soren yelled at him, acid generated by anger forming a steam rising from his body, "Why are you so freaking weird Uzumaki? There is normal way to do everything, including something like this… ways that are possible and not completely asinine! Do you know how fucking close we are to Marineford? They'd find you climbing that thing,_ with a ship attached to you and a ton of clones_, and shoot you right off the wall!"

"Fine!" Naruto yelled, nursing the ten lumps on his head with tears forming in his eyes, "Then how the hell do you suggest we get across this time? Jumping off of the Calm Belt isn't going to do anything this time like it did when we got to the Grand Line from the East Blue since this stupid Red Line wraps around the planet."

No Reverse Mountain attempt even if they had tried it the first time, which they hadn't at the logical breakdown of them owning a Marine ship at the beginning of the crew's inception. Any route to Reverse Mountain that they could find would just dump them back at the start of the Grand Line.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Perona cut in, waving her hands around from her seated position back in a chair, "What makes you think I'd actually go with you guys all the way to the New World? Moriah-sama took a crew there before he got me to join him and they got torn apart. No way I'm going there with you like it's some kind of day trip."

"Okay." Soren said, leaning against the door leading to the deck, "Feel free to jump ship and hope for the best all by yourself the very next time we make port. That should work out just swimmingly for you."

"I'm not some weakling!" Perona argued back at the acid-spitting man before turning her back with her arms crossed haughtily, "I don't need a crew, if I desire company or assistance I'll just procure some helpers… but none of you are cute enough for my tastes to work for me."

"Who's not cute?" Miss Valentine, Muret, and Nojiko all said with deceptively sweet voices that promised pain if the correct answer was not given by the tagalong Perona.

Vivi put a hand under her chin as she started pacing around and thinking to herself, "Well… we can go to Sabaody… we should be able to find a way over or around the Red Line from there. If we can't then there's nowhere we can go to do it." She nodded firmly, deciding that it was the best course of action, "Yes, we should go to the Sabaody Archipelago. It's where my father's ship stops from Alabasta whenever he had to go to Mariejois. They would always send representatives to accompany us from there. It's the best place to go."

Nojiko figured that was as good an idea as any. It was definitely better than trying to drag the Natural Disaster up the side of the Red Line by use of clone-power. She doubted that it was even possible, it was absolutely huge to climb and their ship was utterly massive. It had way too much space for all of them even with all of the added things done in Water 7, "Okay. The guy that talked to us on Constellation Island said it wasn't far from there. Let's move a ways away from the Red Line and venture further away from the Calm Belt. If it's really that close then it shouldn't be hard to find."

Still not convinced of the current plan of action, Naruto grumbled his disagreement, "I still think you should hitch a few ropes to me and my clones and have us try to scale the Red Line. I mean wouldn't that just be awesome?" There was no affirmative response from the crew as they all did their best to ignore him, "You guys really suck sometimes you know that?"

XxX

(Later That Day)

Sitting on the grass-covered deck to meditate was often how Naruto kept himself in touch with the power swimming within himself. For decades he had been randomly doing so just to keep a touch on the surroundings he found himself around as well as in order to gauge his own powers in comparison to others. As far as people on the ship went he could easily judge their combat capabilities in comparison to his.

Throughout the ship he could feel the very different energies of his crew. The easiest to sense was Soren's. It was a steadily growing power that one didn't need ability to sense to feel. His training with the Rokushiki styles at this point made it so that his physical presence was always radiating some kind of power. It was somewhat untamed, but that came with the unstable territory of his Devil Fruit powers. The scariest thing about it was that he learned from conversing with CP9 that he could channel his Devil Fruit abilities into the Rokushiki (Six Styles). That would be an intimidating concept once he got the practice down.

The next up on the power scale of his crew was surprisingly Miss Valentine. Her aura was always calm and even, something that went right along with her normal demeanor. At first believing that her powers restrained her to being a strictly support fighter, flying and crashing to the ground, her style had developed extensively since joining the crew with advice from others (mostly him) on how to use them in new ways that she hadn't thought up herself. Her speed with the specially developed Haneho (Feather Step) was absurd and her ability to weigh a foe down with a touch was a boon of an ability even when she chose not to swing around her umbrella to crack skulls.

Johnny and Yosaku were more or less even as far as he could sense. While they specialized and went into two completely different directions as swordsmen, the development was incredible. Johnny's foot and sword draw speed improved everyday due to his self-imposed training, to the point where he would rather resheathe his sword and try quickdraw attacks than engage in traditional swordfights. Yosaku's growing strength was scary. Getting Miss Valentine to weigh down Kubikiribouchou with her powers for him to train with was working aces for him. The weight seals placed on the sword to activate upon being unstrapped from the harness and his own strength gave him the ability to break steel with the amount of force he could generate.

Nojiko was a devilishly accurate shot and with what they now knew to be her Haki she had limited precognitive abilities in combat, and now that she was able to move freely with her Waver Skates her mobility could actually allow her to act on the Haki by moving around accordingly. With just normal firearms she would be scary for someone to fight, but he might have potentially given her more power than she knew what to do with when he fixed her guns with seals. The three elements available to her were wind, fire, and lightning, each with their own advantages in combat and their own particular drain on her chakra reserves that were being flexed with every elementally charged shot she fired.

Vivi could dodge almost anything sent at her without moving out of a five foot radius of her starting area, something that Carue had picked up as well, giving Vivi a mounted assault that was more than just a straight-on charge the way it was when they had first met. She was also finding new methods of which to utilize her very versatile jewel weapons. One had to wonder when she had gotten so many to use in combat.

Paulie had a pretty strong aura going for him as well. Still he hadn't been seen going all out before, but he hadn't seemed like he had been in over his head since the assault on Enies Lobby so it was only a matter of playing the waiting game to give a fair opinion on him. He was easily able to handle everything sent their way since he joined the crew though.

Muret didn't fight, instead opting to teach Funkfreed 'tricks'. Said tricks were often of the violent variety and mostly involved the sword/elephant using its given abilities to keep her out of trouble and keep her safe. She didn't seem as tentative about everything as she did upon joining, but she still knew she was most certainly not a fighter by any stretch of the imagination which was just fine. She was meant to be the healer, not another warrior.

His thoughts gave way to Carue pecking him in the side of the head, prompting him to grab the duck in a side headlock, "Oi. What's up with you?" Carue let out a quack that Naruto was able to understand, "I don't know if you can come with us off of the ship this time. I'm not your owner, ask Vivi-hime. I don't see why you're coming to me about this."

Another quack came from Carue as he tried to wrestle out of Naruto's weak, unserious grasp, "Quack."

Naruto let the desert dwelling duck go and raised an eyebrow, "She would not do anything I ask her to do. The stuff I made her do was training, that's why she listened to me back then." Carue pecked him in the head and let out a quack that sounded akin to a sigh saying that he was a fool, getting Naruto to shake the duck repeatedly, "What? Who's stupid? I'll chuck you overboard you damn duck! Say something again and I'll make Peking pigeon out of you!" In response, Carue pecked Naruto in the head repeatedly and turned the skirmish into a wrestling match on the deck, "Oh, you bastard!"

"What are you two doing?"

Both Naruto and Carue stopped fighting to see Vivi standing right there, looking at them suspiciously as her foot tapped the ground repeatedly waiting on an explanation. Carue took advantage of the lull in the action to continue pecking Naruto in the head with free shots as he tried to explain, "I'm just messing around with the duck Vivi-hime. It's cool. I love nature." He stopped Carue's beak from pecking him once he was finished, "Seriously, do that again and I'm tying you to the front of the ship."

"I really doubt that…" The Alabastan princess said, standing there with her hands on her hips, "But I can't bring myself to think of a reason why you two would be fighting or to really care since you're not serious."

"Quack, quack." Carue said, prompting Naruto to look at him and nod in understanding as the two got up off of the ground.

Naruto cleared his throat and prepared to speak to Vivi, prompted to do so by Carue who more or less quacked at Naruto to put his money where his mouth was towards the point they had been fighting over. So hence it was put up or shut up time over the main point of their miniature conflict, "Vivi-hime. I was just thinking, you should get a tattoo… right here." He said, grabbing her arm and pointing at her bicep, "It would be awesome."

No way she'd ever do that. Listening to his input was one thing because he was the captain and her trainer, but getting a tattoo-.

"Really?" She said, looking at the area on her arm that she was directed to pay attention to, "I mean I never thought of it, but if you think it would be a good idea I don't see why not." Vivi seemed to be seriously contemplating getting a tattoo, "I mean Nojiko has a tattoo and Nami does too. It wouldn't look bad on me would it?"

Well hell, maybe she would do anything he asked her to. That was almost cool. Naruto had the complete trust and faith of the princess of a powerful nation. Most guys probably would have found some underhanded way to take advantage of that, but even if he was that kind of guy Vivi was too sweet to take advantage of.

Naruto looked at Carue and the victorious look the duck had on his face before sighing, "Yeah, okay… when we disembark you can come with us this time." He said in defeat; to the victor went the spoils. Now he had to convince Vivi to _not_ get a tattoo because if she did then Igaram, Chaka, Pell, Kohza, and even Cobra himself would probably try to kill him for it, "No tattoo Vivi-hime… even though it wouldn't look bad on you, you're too cute to get one."

"But you just said-." Vivi tried to dispute, a blush on her cheeks from being called cute.

"I know." Naruto said, waving off his previous tattoo comment, "But your bird was pecking me in the head, so maybe it was the concussion talking. My mind is clear now. No tattoo." He saw her scrunch her nose in thought, putting a bit of alarm into his heart, "No tattoo. Say it with me; no tattoo."

"Fine." Vivi said, finally giving up the thought if he was really insisting against it, "I won't get a tattoo. But pirates have tattoos of their Jolly Roger a lot of times don't they? What's wrong with me getting one of our crew's?"

"The fact that we're not pirates… and I wish people would recognize that." Naruto said with an irritated growl. Their Jolly Roger didn't even look that much like anyone else's at all. Sometimes it didn't even look like one period, "And the fact that you're a princess of a country." He then smirked at her and put his hands on her shoulders, "Have you paid attention to the flag though? It's a skull version of my face. If you got that kind of tattoo it would probably say a lot more than you being a member of this crew."

Realizing that he was right and that the Jolly Roger was more or less a skull version of Naruto, Vivi realized what such a thing could be taken as by an outside observer. Not even that, there was no way such a thing would ever be allowed to die even among the crew as a joke of her being Naruto's 'property' due to the tattoo. Instead of just her cheeks, this time Vivi's entire face turned red as she started sputtering nonsensically in embarrassment.

'Should I go for the kill here?' Naruto thought to himself as he noticed Vivi's mortified appearance. There was something else tattoo-wise he could say that would probably stick with her for life due to its connotation… but then again she was only 16 and fairly naïve, and he didn't want to break her, 'Okay… so no joke about other possible places to put the tattoo in case she's embarrassed about getting it on her arm where everyone could see it, hinting that only I would see the other places because they're private. That's too far for Vivi-hime… she'd never talk to me again.'

Joke not being told and reaction not being given, the thing to take from the conversation was that Naruto had successfully diverted Vivi from getting a tattoo that he almost convinced her to get in the first place because of a point that had to be proven for an argument with a duck… that he lost.

XxX

(Some Time Later)

"Huh… Either that place is real or I'm still drunk from breakfast." Soren said to himself aloud from his position in the crow's nest as he looked at the landmark on the horizon, "Well I have a feeling that you're just going to love this next place nature boy!" He yelled down the mast so that he could be heard, "But I have no idea what it is!"

Hearing the commotion from the acid-spitting man up top, Naruto grabbed a pair of binoculars and looked out front at the landmark he was talking about, "Whoa. Is that a bunch of islands made of trees?" A grin crossed his face as he continued to look, "That's just cool." He could probably absorb enough nature chakra to go Sage Mode in a single second in that place, second only to the mountain he originally trained the technique on.

Able to hear the commotion from Soren about trees, Vivi walked over to Naruto and grabbed the binoculars from him, a small smile coming to her face as she saw the mass of sturdy and large trees that had the attention of the other two, "That's Sabaody Archipelago. It's not an actual bunch of islands, it's just a mass of trees big enough for people to live on. A mangrove forest. If there's a way to get past the Red Line we'll definitely find it here."

Johnny had a grin on his face as he heard that they were close to landing the ship somewhere once again, "That's great. I wonder if there's anyone strong here to fight?" He grabbed the binoculars from Naruto and got a good look at the archipelago, "It looks lively enough from here."

"No! Absolutely not!"

Hearing Vivi's sudden outburst got everyone on the deck's attention, and it almost gave Soren enough of a jolt to get him to fall out of the crow's nest. The princess in question had a very serious look on her face and seemed to be looking at all three men with some anger in her eyes.

"What's the matter Vivi-hime?" Naruto asked, wondering what had nearly set her off just now.

Vivi pointed at him sternly, getting him to take a step back before she switched to pointing at Johnny and then at Soren, "If we're going to go here then all three of you are going to have to be good for once. Seriously. No messing around this time and I'm not kidding one bit. No starting trouble, understood?"

"Why?" Soren asked. He rather liked starting trouble, or at least taking part in some kind of debauchery. It would be a rather hard habit to kick cold turkey, "We get into trouble pretty much everywhere else so what's the deal with this place?"

There was probably a good reason if Vivi of all people felt the need to speak up and tell them so. Usually Nojiko would be the one to tell them all to stay out of trouble, but she said it so much they barely listened to her anymore… she usually didn't even end up heeding her own advice anyway. But Vivi never raised her voice with any kind of authority, hence why they were paying close attention to her.

In order to answer his question, Vivi pointed at the island, "You can't just do as you like here. There's a Marine Base stationed on the southern side of Sabaody Archipelago, and we're so close to both Mariejois and Marineford that if you started a mess here it wouldn't take too much to turn a whole major incident out of it. So please just stay away from the southern end of the area altogether."

"You make it seem like we're going to go out of our way to look for trouble." Naruto said, almost pouting at being put on the spot. When he looked at Vivi he saw her glaring at him particularly hard in particular, "W-What's the matter?"

Vivi got up in Naruto's face, unnerving him at how completely grave she was being. This was clearly not something to take light of, at least as far as Vivi was concerned, "I want to hear you promise me that you are not going to fight anyone here. No one. I don't care if you see someone about to die in front of you, you don't fight." His face twisted into a frown at that thought, and Vivi's face softened considerably, but she stayed firm, "Promise me none of you are going to get into trouble here. It's too important."

So this would be like at Water 7, only here things were close enough to the enemy's gate so to speak that the usual sweetheart, easygoing Vivi felt the need to assert just how quickly things could degenerate.

They all could have said that they were going to do whatever they wanted, and honestly it was expected of Soren to do just that. Thus it was rather surprising when all three of the men in the presence of Vivi all simultaneously spoke at the same time, "Fine… I promise." Naruto, Soren, and Johnny all looked at each other and shrugged at the strange occurrence.

Vivi blinked at the whole speaking in unison thing before a relieved smile came over her face and she leaned against the steering wheel of the ship, "You mean it, right?" She asked, getting nods from all three as Soren climbed down from the crow's nest, "Good, and I really can't stress this enough, do not pick fights with anyone, you can't do as you like. And if you see a World Noble, do not do anything to them, just bow like everyone else. That's all."

'Bow?' Both Naruto and Soren thought, grimacing at the notion. Naruto hadn't bowed to anyone in over one hundred and twenty years of life with the exception of the time he had begged the Raikage to spare Uchiha Sasuke's life, and Soren was not about to bow down to anyone period, he was too much of an anarchist to give a damn about the useless figurehead nobles.

In the case of seeing a World Noble they would probably be better advised to simply vanish if they saw one because they were not going to bow, they both knew that right then and there. As a matter of fact, as far as Soren was concerned…

"Can't I just-?"

"No you cannot melt the World Nobles Soren! I will cut you!"

Soren recoiled at the jolt from Vivi yelling at him and fell off of the mast he had been climbing down. Luckily his neck broke his fall and he jumped right back up with a lump on his bald head, "You're getting a touch of the sociopathic tendencies from Uzumaki aren't you?"

Vivi blushed at being called out on her outburst and chose to just walk away, "I've been on a ship with all of you for months now. It had to happen eventually. But do not mess with the World Nobles! Seriously!" She said as she went back inside the ship to wait for them to reach Sabaody and inform all of the others.

Johnny just watched where Vivi had been previously standing and then turned to both Naruto and Soren, "You're not going to listen to her are you?" He said in a voice that more or less already expected the answer to be no.

He would be pleasantly or not so pleasantly surprised by his captain's answer though, "I have to…even if I did want to do something stupid." Naruto said in a disenchanted tone of voice, "She made me promise, damn it."

"You soft bastard." Soren jibed in return, not mentioning the fact that he had promised to be on good behavior as well.

"Oh shut up." Naruto snapped half-heartedly before sighing, "She has a point anyway. We need to figure out what to do to get past the Red Line first even if we did get an itch to cause some trouble." It wouldn't do to make a mess of things without even getting the reason that they'd be going to Sabaody Archipelago for in the first place, so he'd have to choke down his first instincts for the first time since Water 7 to raise havoc.

That meant no reacting to others either which probably wouldn't be as hard as it was on Jaya in Mock Town. They probably weren't the only crew there that would be put on very short leashes while there so at least there was the chance that others wouldn't be spoiling for fights either.

XxX

(Sabaody Archipelago – Grove 23 of 79 – Lawless Area)

"You seriously need to take it easy Naruto." Miss Valentine said as she took not of Naruto walking around with a scowl on his face, "What's the matter? You look all kinds of upset and we just got here." She asked as he walked around alongside her, ignoring the bubbles floating about and the people in the streets.

He didn't voice it aloud, but just being in that place was putting a damper on his usual mood. He had gone into Sage Mode before getting off of the ship to look around the island for information and wound up feeling a lot of negative feelings despite the abundance of nature in the form of the very powerful mangrove trees that could reach the ocean floor.

Naruto's ability to sense most lifeforms in the area due to Sage Mode and his latent skill to feel the emotions of said people due to another talent of his originally overwhelmed him. There were a lot of people that were happy or at the very least content, in fact the vast majority were, but on the other end of that he also felt a lot of distress from one particular area toward the middle of the archipelago.

They had landed around the 23rd grove and had docked there. Each tree was large enough to be designated as its own particular island for people to live, build places, and operate normally on, thus they were designated groves for each tree that comprised the place. The part that they had stationed the Natural Disaster in was the place where most pirates, bounty hunters, and other lawless individuals hung around.

From that point the crew had split up for their own means. Soren had gone into town to find somewhere to get a drink and wound up being followed by Johnny and Yosaku. Nojiko had gone with Vivi and Carue to buy supplies and just overall shop. Paulie stayed on the ship and stayed busy with a quick maintenance check while they were in a place to rest, willing to take Vivi's warning to heart and knowing full well that there was no way they'd be able to stay out of trouble. With him on the ship was Perona; his 'prisoner'. She was getting to be very annoying since she wanted to leave the ship and explore, but her 'warden' Paulie was not about to step one foot off of the ship to do so.

This left a very grumpy Naruto who originally intended to go off on his own. He did not get to do so however, because Miss Valentine quickly followed him. No one was really supposed to be left alone in a strange place so she was in the right and he couldn't fault her for following his own crew instructions, but that didn't mean he had to like the way it ended up.

"Valentine-chan you should really go find someone else." Naruto said, trying to keep the ire from the feeling he had felt while sensing this place out of his voice for her benefit. It wasn't her fault or her problem, it had just been a very long time since he had tried to tap into his energy that allowed him to feel people's emotions. There had simply been no need, "I'm not going to be a whole lot of fun here."

"Well we'll have to make it fun won't we?" Laughing as she did so, Miss Valentine jumped onto Naruto's back as light as a feather and held on tightly, "I propose a game. Whenever I ask you something and you don't give me a direct answer I'll put more and more weight on. You'd better consider the things you say carefully or you might end up in a crater."

Hearing the terms of the game got Naruto to feel some trepidation over his chances, one way or the other, "Can't I just take you to the amusement park this place has and be done with it?"

Miss Valentine let of a scoff with her ever-present smile still plastered on her face, "An amusement park? I can fly higher than any ride and move faster than any roller coaster can. What's the fun in that? And what am I, eight?" She gestured grandly to the masses of possible pirates, bounty hunters, and other lowlifes in the vicinity, "This is where I consider the fun to be. It's definitely better than hanging around a bunch of boring normal people all day."

Rolling his eyes but admitting that she was in the same vein of thinking that he had, Naruto felt the need to comment on something, "I don't get what's so lawless about this place. I mean pirates hang out here and everything, but other than that nothing cool or lawless-."

At that point a man was thrown out of a window in front of them on the street and jumped up with a few gashes on his face to get back inside of the building only to get hit with a wooden chair that splintered over his head and rendered him unconscious.

Both Naruto and Miss Valentine looked inside to see many patrons of a bar in a raucous fight while many others just cheered them on, some contributing by throwing empty bottles into the fray. Seeing this put a mischievous gleam in Miss Valentine's eye that Naruto was unable to see from her place on his back.

"Ooh, can I-?"

"No Valentine-chan. Vivi-hime told us to stay out of trouble."

"Yeah, and trouble qualifies as something we're not supposed to do to normal law abiding citizens. Pirates, bounty hunters, and other people like that don't count. As long as we're in this part of Sabaody Archipelago we can do whatever we want as long as we don't go overboard. She obviously didn't go anywhere near this part of town when she came here with her father. Who would take a princess to see this?"

At Valentine's query a man stripped of his all clothes ran out of the bar and down the street giving everyone on the street quite a show.

This was something that Naruto had to admit proved her point to an extent, "So you're saying that as long as we don't mess with anyone important enough like one of the World Nobles Vivi-hime seems so scared of, and as long as we stay here we can do anything we want?" Fate seemed to answer his question when a man inside of the bar pulled out a pistol and fired it in the air to end the fight and clear everyone out. It had the opposite effect though, as upon hearing a gunshot the combatants all started pulling out their own guns and began a shootout.

"It seems like it." Miss Valentine sounded quite pleased with that bit of information, as being all demure and keeping the peace didn't particularly appeal to her from the start.

XxX

(With Soren, Johnny, and Yosaku – Grove 13 – Shakky's Rip-Off Bar)

"Okay, first it was funny when you said 100,000, but seriously! 20,000 beli for a bottle?" Soren raged as he sat at a bar, almost foaming acid from the mouth in disbelief, "Are you out of your rabid-ass mind? I am_ not_ paying that much for a drink! For that much money that drink better give me a full head of hair and make women fall in love with me at first glance!"

The woman behind the bar stood with her cheek in her hand as she leaned against the counter, an amused look on her face. She had short black hair, a pink t-shirt with a black spider on it that revealed a bit of her cleavage, a black jacket over that with a grey stripe down the sleeves and black frills at the ends of the sleeves and the collar, a yellow-bead necklace, a pair of pants with an odd pattern, and white shoes.

She let out a plume of smoke from the cigarette in her hand she had been smoking before speaking to Soren, "Well for all you know those things could happen, so why don't you just buy the booze and find out?"

Soren gave the woman a dry look and pointed at Johnny and Yosaku who were both enjoying the exact same drink Soren himself was trying to purchase, "Because I'm not stupid like them. They're going to go back to Uzumaki and try to bum some money off of him and they're going to be in for a rude awakening. Now could you give me a more reasonable price here? I'm begging you."

The grin that came to the woman's face got Soren's eye to twitch in annoyance, "It doesn't sound like you're begging at all. You don't sound like you really want that drink if you ask me."

"_Please_ lower the price so I can get drunk… please." Soren growled out lowly. Steam from his own acid began rising off of his body at having to jump through hoops just to get a touch of alcohol. He would have just left, but Johnny and Yosaku didn't seem to want to leave anytime soon and he didn't want to blow anymore time looking for another bar while sober. He had to be good and drunk if he wanted to wander around some new place aimlessly otherwise it wouldn't work out so well.

"Well since you asked so nicely." The bartender said, pulling up a bottle of Soren's desired drink and putting a smile on his face before she uttered the price again, "5000 beli."

Muttering to himself about how that was still five times more than normal, Soren reached into his wallet and fished out a 5000 beli mark, handing it over for his bottle, "So how in the world do you actually get business with fucked up prices like these?" He asked curiously as he spit on the top of the bottle and melted the cork off.

"We're kind of famous because of it." The woman said, watching Soren drink with interest, "Or did the name 'Shakky's Rip-Off Bar' mean nothing to you when you walked in here?"

In fact it hadn't meant anything when they had all walked in, "We just thought that was some kind of catchy name to net some customers…" Soren admitted in a deadpan tone of voice, "And I'm guessing that you would be Shakky then."

"Shakuyaku at your service, but if you actually call me that I'll kick you out." Shakky said with a smile, "And I know you as well Soren 'The Plague'. Quite a high bounty you sport; 251 million." She nodded her head over towards Johnny and Yosaku as they were unaware of anything currently happening, "Those two aren't bad, but meh."

Soren took a deep swig before setting his bottle down and wiping his mouth, looking at Shakky with some suspicion, "You know who we are that easily?"

"I keep an eye out on the new blood." Shakky said, taking a drag from her cigarette, "And you and yours are rather interesting. You and your captain have absurdly high bounties, even for rookies."

"I'm not a rookie." Soren defended with a frown. He'd been running up and down the beginning part of the Grand Line for years. He had been born on the Grand Line. But then again on the other hand he wasn't an active pirate until was forced to join Naruto's crew more or less by way of impressment, so he technically was a rookie, "But… we're not pirates anyway."

At least Naruto kept asserting that they weren't.

"Whatever you have to tell yourself." Laughed Shakky at Soren's flimsy excuse, "You know you guys aren't as scary as the papers swear that you are. If you read those things they make it sound like Uzumaki drowns puppies for fun and you personally eat babies."

"Of course Soren doesn't eat babies!" Yosaku chimed in from their stools at Soren's side, he and Johnny finally paying attention to their friend's conversation with the bartender, "How could you even say something like that?"

Nodding in agreement with the power swordsman, Soren took another drink before speaking again, "Yeah, I don't eat babies. That's absurd." Another drink and he added on to his previous comment, "Babies have little to no nutritional value. If you want to eat kids you have to wait until they get around five years old. Any older than thirteen though and they get all tough and hard to chew. Thank goodness for the Ibi Ibi no Mi on that front though."

And the thing that stopped the bar cold, even his own crewmates was that he had a completely serious expression on his face when he said that.

All Soren did instead of elaborating on his morbid and very disturbing statement was finish off his bottle all at once before frowning at the lack of content within, drained by his own thirst, "Oi, can I get another?" He asked, fishing around in his pocket for his wallet again.

Before he could get his money out to pay, hoping that Shakky wouldn't jack up the price again, another bottle was placed directly in front of him. Soren looked up to see Shakky shaking her head, "This one is on the house… 'Baby Eater' Soren."

Soren looked at her with a raised eyebrow until his eyes widened in horror, "Oh no. I swear to God that better not stick or I'm going to kill somebody."

Johnny and Yosaku were able to get a few laughs at Soren's expense as he grumbled and melted the cork off of his second bottle before starting in on it. With the bar back to normal after the previous uncomfortable comment, Johnny decided to make some conversation as well, "So you know Soren. Do you know about us too?" Shakky nodded and began busying herself with the cleaning of glasses, "How much?"

"Enough." Shakky said cryptically, "It's kind of creepy though. You're the ninth big time rookie crew on the Grand Line to reach this place at once. Weird timing."

"Ninth big time crew?" Now that was a topic of interest to Yosaku. There were other crews perceived as being rival-strong to the Foxhound Crew there as well, "Who else is here?"

XxX

(With Nojiko, Vivi, and Muret – Grove 45 – Tourist/Shopping Area)

Happily wandering out of a store while holding onto a string connected to a floating bubble that contained all kinds of shoes and new clothes, Nojiko walked over to a café where she found Vivi and Muret sitting and waiting with Carue napping right next to them. The doctor of the pair had a somewhat wistful look on her face, something that Nojiko addressed, "I didn't expect you guys to actually be waiting out here when I got out of that store. What's with Muret by the way?"

Vivi shook her head with a frown on her face, "I don't know. We went looking around and split up for a bit to look in different stores. I saw her go into a medical supply store because she said that the boys were burning through her supplies by being dumb all of the time, and when I came back out she was sitting here looking like this." She waved her hand in front of Muret's face getting her to stop it and move it out of the way before letting out another longing sigh, "Do you think she's alright?"

Hearing the worry in the younger girl's voice at the well-being of their resident doctor, Nojiko handed Vivi her the bubble containing her purchases while she kneeled down to get a good look at Muret's lucidly smiling face, "Hello? Is there anyone home in there?" She snapped her fingers repeatedly in her face to get her attention which she finally received when Muret jolted to awareness, "What in the world happened to you? You were seriously out of it."

Bringing up the topic of what put her in such a state, Muret sat slack in her chair with a blush on her cheeks, "I met… the coolest guy ever when I was looking at some of the high-end emergency equipment in the store. He's a doctor, and get this; he's a captain of a crew of pirates after One Piece."

"A doctor that's a captain too? And he made it all the way out here?" Vivi said in a bit of amazement. With what they had gleamed thus far, it was quite a feat to go all the way from Reverse Mountain to this point of the Grand Line, "That's actually really impressive." She then paid close attention to the fond way Muret had been speaking about this man and got a sly smirk on her face, "Wait, are you actually into this guy?"

Muret spared Vivi a glance before straightening up in her chair, smoothing out her skirt as she pretended to be busy to avoid eye contact, "So what if I am? I'm a perfectly adult 19 year old woman that can make my own decisions. It doesn't stop you from having your little complex with-. Ow!" Before Muret could finish her sentence meant to poke fun at Vivi, Carue inexplicably awoke and pecked her once in the head. Stupid duck.

Byplay between her fellow crewmates aside, Nojiko was still curious over this new development. Yosaku had been trying to get Muret's favor (and failing miserably) for months, and now she had come across some guy that she had seemed to fallen hard for.

The gossip in her wanted to hear a name, even if she had no idea who the person was which was more than likely, "So who exactly is this guy in the first place?"

"He's so cool." Just to clarify, Muret felt the need to reiterate that fact in case it had been lost in translation over the course of the conversation at hand, "His name is Trafalgar Law…"

XxX

(With Naruto and Miss Valentine – Grove 17 – Lawless Area)

As the pair sat in a restaurant, watching on with trepidation Miss Valentine inwardly wondered if she should stop Naruto before he managed to hurt himself… or more importantly the poor table that he was repeatedly slamming his head into, "Naruto… you should stop."

But he wasn't really hearing her at the moment. Each bang of his head off of the table was accentuated with either one of two words that at this point seemed like they would follow him all over the rest of the world, "No. Ramen. No. Ramen. No. Ramen. No! Ramen! Goddamn it, no ramen! Why is there never any ramen?" He yelled, alarming all of the patrons in the restaurant more than they already had been by his mental breakdown, "It can't possibly be that hard to make!"

"You can't even make it yourself and your directions were completely half-assed." Miss Valentine commented while looking at her own menu now that Naruto had ceased abusing their poor table with his forehead, "How can you expect anyone else to be able to?"

"Don't blame me for that…" Naruto said, placing his head down on the table with a defeated look on his face, "I became dependant on the greatest source of ramen the mortal plane has ever known. Anything else that I tried to make was rubbish." It didn't help that he could routinely burn water, which was why he wasn't that picky with his food. He had been feeding himself and eating in restaurants all over the Elemental Nations for over fifty years after leaving Konoha for good.

Sometimes he wished he knew the Edo Tensei (Impure World Resurrection). He was probably deprived enough of good ramen to deal with the moral faults of bringing someone back from the dead at the cost of another's body if only he could have Ayame or Teuchi to cook for him again.

At times he figured that he couldn't even remember the sweet taste of Ichiraku Ramen. Even other places that served it in the Elemental Nations paled in comparison to the point where he stopped eating it except for once every blue moon in an attempt to rekindle the spark. But at least it had always been an option… now he didn't even have that.

You never know quite what you have until it's gone.

It was not an obsession. It was merely a passion.

Was that food really that important to him that it affected his overall mood? This was what Miss Valentine was thinking about as she proceeded to pat Naruto's head to try and cheer him up, "Come on, it's okay. Why don't you try a steak?"

"Don't want a steak. Want ramen…" A grown man older than three grown men put together pouting over food in a restaurant. There was something deeply wrong with that.

"Well you can't have ramen so act your age."

"If I acted my age then I'd be dead."

Hearing Naruto be so childish began to work on Miss Valentine's nerves and instead of patting his head like she had been doing she grabbed a hold of his spiky golden locks and pulled his head off of the table, "Naruto, order some food." She said in a deceptively sweet voice, her face still smiling all the while. This smile had a rather foreboding undertone behind it though.

"Okay Valentine-chan." Naruto said, not willing to risk earning the usually good-natured woman's ire in a public place. She didn't care about his reputation, she'd emasculate him if she felt the need to since she knew he'd never hurt her. She had clearly picked that up from Nojiko, "Ugh. They have this pizza crap here but no ramen… this world's going to hell in a handbasket."

"Who's spouting crap about pizza? If I have to hear one more word about that stupid nonexistent 'ramen' I'm gonna kick some ass!"

That got Naruto's full attention, and not in the good way as he spun around in his chair, looking for the person trying to slight his perfect food. Upon seeing who it was his argument died in his throat, "Wait, Jewelry Bonney? You're here?"

The pink-haired female pirate captain blinked curiously upon seeing who was sitting right behind her the entire time. Too bad she had been too busy eating the mountains of food at her table to notice beforehand, "Uzumaki Naruto?" She said questioningly.

"There should be a captain in there somewhere…" Naruto said raising a finger as if to make a definitive point.

Ignoring the statement, Bonney shook her head at the sight of the two blondes sitting right there by her, "Hah, well I'll be damned… I didn't think I'd ever be seeing your stupid looking face again after the things I've heard."

Miss Valentine smirked at the sight of an old familiar face, "Wow… I really wasn't expecting to see her again after that run-in with those cyborgs on that island where she took off at the first sign of trouble." Getting a growl of anger out of Bonney, Miss Valentine let out a laugh

XxX

(With Soren, Johnny, and Yosaku – Shakky's Rip-Off Bar)

With time to kill, they were regaled by tales from Shakky about the other notable rookie pirate crews that were currently at Sabaody Archipelago, those with bounties that exceeded 100,000,000 beli. And that was where things quickly degenerated in a matter of seconds.

Both Soren and Shakky stared at the front door of the bar as it was thrown open with only two dust trails otherwise visible. Shakky looked at the two vacant barstools that used to house Johnny and Yosaku, "What did I say to set them off?" She asked, wondering exactly what it was that got the two swordsmen to sprint out.

"You told them that the Kid Pirates were here." Soren replied matter-of-factly, not really caring one way or the other, and who could blame him? Hey, they were big boys and they could take care of themselves, "They've got an axe to grind with those guys for what they did to a village a while back." Now they were going to be running around the entire place looking for them just to get some payback. Hopefully they'd get lost and sidetracked and that would be the end of that until the next time the topic came up.

The intelligence level of the two men did not give Shakky much confidence in their chances of having an easy time of it if they did indeed find the Kid Pirates, "You really should go after them. I had heard that you were the first mate on your crew so aren't they your responsibility?" She said, trying to urge Soren to get up and go after them.

"They're older than me. I'm not even twenty yet. Why do I have to be the responsible one?" Complained Soren in return. He had finally managed to get some peace and quiet and now he'd have to lose all of that? Damn it he hated the fact that he liked this crew, "*sigh* Fine… I'm going." He said, standing up out of his stool with a grumble.

It wouldn't do to have the idiot brothers tear apart an entire grove trying to find and fight some people… and that wasn't even worst case scenario for what those two airheads might do if they actually wound up finding their targets.

Throwing a half-hearted wave of departure to the bar's host Shakky, Soren ran out the open door to try and find Johnny and Yosaku. They hadn't even been there for six hours yet and trouble was already beginning to bubble up.

Being in the place was going to be more trouble than it was worth.

'Isn't this a bitch? I used to be a feared killer that made Marines shake in their boots and now I'm a babysitter for two dumbass swordsmen.' Soren thought to himself as he stomped past the people outside to begin his search, 'I think I'm going to hate this place…'

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku)

"Gonna kick some ass!" Johnny yelled with his hand on the hilt of his sword as the two ran side-by-side, people clearing out of their way as they did so.

"Yeah!" Yosaku bellowed in agreement before gnashing his teeth heatedly. They didn't know exactly what they were looking for, but they would be damned if they didn't wind up looking high and low for those smug Kid Pirate bastards, "They're probably scheming… or even conniving right now."

"The schenniving bastards!" Was the nearly nonsensical reply from Johnny.

They continued to run until Yosaku inexplicably stopped abruptly to stare at a young man sitting on a crate with a nodachi at his side. He was a slim, unassuming looking man with slight bags under his eyes, a calm and even smile on his face, black hair, sideburns, a small goatee, A white spotted fur hat on his head, A yellow hoodie with black sleeves that were rolled up to show his tattooed forearms and hands, jeans with brown spots on the knees and ankles, and black shoes.

Johnny turned around and ran back to Yosaku to find him staring at the man, "Hey, come on. What are you stopping here for? Let's go kick those bastards' asses already."

Remembering the reason they had run out of Shakky's bar in the first place, Yosaku took off running with Johnny again, leaving the interesting looking man alone to sit on his crate. Even though the run-in was over, Yosaku couldn't help but think, 'Why did I feel like I wanted to fight that guy like a dog defending its property? It couldn't just be for the sword, could it? Kubikiribouchou is way cooler.'

Somewhere else with Vivi and Nojiko, Muret suddenly sneezed harshly.

* * *

**Hello all. Kenchi here once more attempting to brighten your day in some kind of way (probably failing miserably to do so, but it's the thought that counts in the end) with a little something to read. I would have thrown more into the chapter, but there was no way to write what I intended to next without some time passing, and a chapter end seemed like as good a scene break and a requisition for a time skip of sorts… so I guess this is adieu until the next time around.**

_**I**_** happen to work for a living.**

**Later.**


	38. Self Fulfilling Prophecy

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece… and I've written this in one form or another around 280 plus times already.

**Chapter 38: Self-Fulfilling Prophecy**

* * *

"Where the hell did those idiots go?" Soren growled out as he stomped from grove to grove looking for Johnny and Yosaku. The one time he wished they'd have actually screwed some stuff up and left a trail of destruction so he could at least follow them and they seemed to gain enough coordination to not randomly run into people, knock things over, and make a huge mess to mark the direction they went in, "I knew I should have stayed at the bar… that Shakky lady was kind of hot. How old was she again?"

He was completely scoping some kind of vibe from the woman. From the second he sat at the bar he was commanding Shakky's attention with his greatness. Or maybe that was intentional so he'd buy more drinks from her? His ego was kind of hoping for the former though.

"Seriously… where the fuck am I?" He asked out loud as he looked around and grabbed the first random guy he could, letting him cower at the scowl on his tattooed/scarred face, "You. Where the hell am I and how far am I from Grove 13?" If he was still close he was going to quit looking for the dumbass brothers and get another drink.

"Y-You're at Grove 51." The man in his grasp stammered out, "This is a whole different district. The shipping area."

"Shipping area? Grove 51?" Soren said in a disappointed voice, "Damn… I'm nowhere near that bar." The drinks might have been high-priced as hell, but the atmosphere was nice. Much better than any scumhole he had been in before getting to Sabaody anyway, "Wait, what kind of ship stuff does this place specialize in?" The ship may have gotten an upgrade at Water 7, but one could never overlook any possible improvements.

"You don't know?" The man still stuck in Soren's headlock said, the fear from the initial meeting of the scary man now gone, "You're in a pirate crew aren't you?"

"Yeah, sure. Let's go with that." Soren grinned in a feral manner as he was sure that somewhere on Sabaody Archipelago Naruto had tripped over a root or something along those lines once he had said that, "But no, I don't know. So why don't you bless me with some knowledge?"

The man pointed at the trees and then down, "Under the water deep down on the roots under the ocean these trees secrete resin that create the bubbles you see all over the place once they come into contact with water. If you coat your ship with the resin then it'll be able to go underwater and dive down using the ocean currents to steer."

"And I would do this to my ship, why?" Sinking did not seem like any kind of advantage whatsoever to Soren… who could not swim, "I kind of like the ship I'm on and I like living. Drowning doesn't seem like that fun of an option yet."

"You'll live, and your ship will be fine. It's the only way for pirates like you to get past the Red Line. You've got to sail down to Fishman Island and head up past it to cross. Don't you know anything about getting to the next part of the Grand Line?"

"No smartass, I don't." Soren said, tightening his headlock somewhat, "I personally never gave a crap about going to the New World. But if I can win against the enemies there then there's no way I'll lose to _that_ bastard again." So maybe he did have a reason to go to the New World? Not a good one, but not everyone's reason had to be profound and incredible.

"What bastard?" The confused man strained out through the tightened grip Soren had on his head.

Realizing that he still had the poor hapless citizen held in his grasp, Soren let go and he dropped to the ground, "Whoa, sorry about that. And don't worry about the whole bastard thing… inside reference. Thanks by the way…" He added as an afterthought as the guy walked away and rubbed his neck.

Well… Johnny and Yosaku could wait for a bit while he found his way back to the Natural Disaster and told Paulie what he had just learned, and maybe Naruto too if he could find him.

Where were those two morons anyway? Did they actually find the Kid Pirates and start any trouble?

XxX

(With Johnny and Yosaku – Grove 36 – Sabaody Park)

"Whee!" Both Johnny, Yosaku and the other denizens of the log ride they were in yelled as they flew down the large water slide the ride was set on. In the course of their search for the Kid Pirates they came across this wondrous attraction known as Sabaody Park and had been there for several hours already.

"Weren't we supposed to be doing something?" Johnny yelled at Yosaku over the noise that the others were making on the log ride, "Why'd we leave the bar?"

Upon hearing his partner's question, Yosaku took a moment to think about it before shrugging, "I don't know. Who cares? This is way better than the bar though! So shut up and enjoy while we've got the chance man!"

And with that the whirlwind search was over.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster – Grove 23 of 79 – Lawless Area)

"So that's how we get past the Red Line?" Naruto said, sounding pleasantly surprised at that bit of news from Soren, "That sounds way better than my new idea was going to be." He then noticed the entire crew that had come back to the ship at the end of the day looking at him expectantly, "Yeah… you don't want to hear what the idea was going to be."

"I'm sure we didn't." Nojiko said, cleaning her guns. After seeing how messed up this place could be, she wanted to make sure her equipment was in top condition. Especially with the company she had come to keep and knowing their propensity for falling into something, "So how long is this whole thing supposed to take?"

"Do you really care?"

"No. It's just nice to be at land for a bit every once in a while."

Chuckling to himself at Nojiko's excuse to just do more shopping while they were still there, Soren decided to answer her question, "Well I took it upon myself to find out more about this whole thing, it'll take a week at most for the ship to be coated."

"A week?" Paulie barked incredulously, angrily chomping on his cigar, "How would it take a week just to coat the whole ship in resin? What kind of lazy workers does this place have?" He angrily started pacing around the common room grumbling about how low the quality of ship workers happened to be away from Water 7, "Why don't I just do it my damn self and save us the time?"

"Because you don't know the first thing about the process. You'd be a rank amateur." Chirped Perona as she gave Paulie a few pats on the shoulder, "You'd do it and you'd wind up screwing it up and getting everyone killed." A few giggles erupted from her when she saw Paulie start to sulk over the fact that he indeed had no skill as a coating mechanic.

Meanwhile, Naruto just shrugged, "So we just have to hang out here for a week to wait for the ship to get coated. That's fine with me." His eyes then turned around the room as he saw that everyone was of the same mindset… as a matter of fact Muret seemed a little too happy to still be there. The only one that seemed a little downcast at staying was Vivi, "What's the matter with you Vivi-hime? Something seems off?"

When attention seemed to be placed on her, a self-conscious looking Vivi just smiled sheepishly in return, "Oh it's nothing. I just have a really bad feeling about this whole thing. I'd rather we just leave, but we can't go any further without staying here to get the resin for the ship first." She really didn't like any possible chance of meeting World Nobles when she didn't have to. The last time she went with her father for a world council Reverie meeting they didn't exactly strike her as people she'd like to spend any amount of time around whatsoever to say the very least.

"Everything should be fine." Naruto said confidently with a grin, "I thought things might get crazy because if this is where everyone stops before moving on we'd probably run into some people we'd rather not see again, but me and Miss Valentine saw Jewelry Bonney today…"

At hearing the name of someone they had met on the Grand Line, Johnny and Yosaku started thinking about what were supposed to be doing earlier that day until they had gotten sidetracked by the theme park, but they just didn't remember what it was.

"Yeah, blah, blah, blah." Soren said before smirking, "I found out that I have the third highest bounty of anyone in this place. 251 million. Only behind Uzumaki and that Kid prick we fought a few months ago." And he would bet that he was stronger than Kid… he just didn't have a propensity for killing random people the way he had seen Kid and his crew do. What a cheap way to get famous.

Kid Pirates…

"Those bastards are here?" Yosaku asked angrily as he and Johnny began to seethe at the thought of the anarchist pirate crew.

Everyone stared at the two swordsmen incredulously while Soren palmed his face hard, "Yes… they're here. We found that out hours ago at the bar. What the hell were you two doing all day to make you forget? I thought you two were supposed to be looking for them to kick their asses." He shook his head when he saw the expressions on their face turn goofy as they started laughing about a log ride or something like that.

"Whatever it was, I'm sure it was something adult and manly." Miss Valentine said sarcastically before laughing aloud.

"Log Ride? Are you serious?" Muret said rather distastefully as she spared Yosaku a glance and shook her head, "How uncool can you get? You two are how old? 21? What kind of a swordsman or a pirate goes to an amusement park?"

"One that wants to be amused obviously." Johnny replied before elbowing Yosaku in the side and whispering at him, "Are you just going to let her talk to us like that? Show some backbone man. You're a friggin adult, you can do anything you want to."

Yosaku hurriedly shushed Johnny soundlessly before dragging him out of the room and down the hall whispering back at him, "I'm not trying to piss her off. Don't you see that she's my dream woman? She's cute, she's smart, and she doesn't mind patching me up when I get all cut up. She's perfect!"

"She's never going to want to get with you if you back down like a scared puppy around her." Johnny said, poking him in the side of his headgear repeatedly, "Muret doesn't respect you and she won't if you keep doing stuff like this."

A sigh left Yosaku, "You mean I should stop all of the immature stuff we do?"

"No! Fuck that!" Johnny replied, shoving Yosaku in an offended manner, "You don't mean that! I'm talking about you being a bitch when it comes to anything involving her. You fall over yourself to kiss Muret's ass, and I don't blame her for not being into you. It annoys the hell out of everyone else too. I can't imagine how _she_ feels about it."

Confusion and then a mortified look crossed Yosaku's face, "But if I argue with her and treat her the way I treat everyone else how will she know I like her?"

"You've been on her for three months." Johnny deadpanned, "I think she knows already. But if you want to keep pushing her away and losing your manhood every single time she shoots you down go on ahead and do it. I can't make you do anything."

With that, Johnny headed off to his room and left his oldest friend and partner with his own thoughts on the matter. He took one last glance towards the common room and Muret as he heard her telling everyone else about some cool doctor/pirate captain she had met named Trafalgar Law and walked off towards the dojo in the hold to train a bit.

XxX

(Several Days Later – Grove 54 – Shipyard Area)

"Hey." Naruto said in greeting, appearing in a whirlwind of leaves as he walked towards Paulie who was leaning against the side of a bridge leading to a different grove, "Whoever thought to use these bubbles as hotel rooms needs to be slapped in the face. The privacy sucks." He then gestured his head towards the grove that their ship was being coated at, "How's it going?"

With a cigar burning down in his mouth, Paulie took a few puffs and exhaled smoke, "It took long enough because they had other coating requests, but the ship should be good to go by the end of the day." He grinned at the fidgeting blonde captain, "I'm going to take a guess and say you're either bored or you've got blue balls since you were bitching about the lack of privacy." He chuckled when he saw Naruto's entire form stiffen, "It's the last one isn't it?"

An irritable growl came from Naruto's throat as he looked around with paranoia, "It's this place… it's just saturated with negative emotions. It's centered somewhere in the lawless place, but I just can't find it. It's an aura that's hanging in the air. I can't pinpoint it. And there are so many people here with strong lifeforces that it's drawing my full focus away when I'm in Sage Mode." He then looked around after noticing something was amiss, "Where's Perona?"

"The women took her again, saying something about how it was just cruel for a girl to be stuck with someone like me in a place like this." Paulie said as he tapped the ashes off of his cigar, "What the hell is that supposed to mean by the way?"

Naruto blocked a laugh at Paulie's expense and pointed off away from the grove the ship was being treated on, "So the end of the day is a long way away. Do you want to hang out and do something while we wait? Let's go find some trouble to get into."

Shaking his head, Paulie pushed himself off of the side of the bridge and flicked the butt of the rest of his cigar before walking back towards where the ship had been left, "No way thank you very much. What you consider trouble is way higher on the scale than what I'm cool with tolerating. I'll stay with the ship and make sure those monkeys don't screw anything up that I'll have to fix later."

"You're no fun!" Naruto shouted after him only to get a lazily raised middle finger for his trouble from his crew's shipwright, "Great… now there's nobody to hang out with." With a bored sigh, Naruto decided to at least keep searching for the source of all of the negative emotions in Sabaody to occupy himself. Maybe there was something he could do about it in the meantime?

It was better than sitting around doing all of nothing for the rest of the day.

He began moving from grove to grove at a high speed, faster than any normal person could ever dream of reaching. As he jumped from roof to roof in one of the groves he eventually came to a screeching halt once he saw pretty much everyone that had been walking around outside on the ground bowing as a few people walked through the crowd. There was a man in a dark suit and hat that reminded Naruto of one of the government agents that he and Sanji had beaten up on the Sea Train at Water 7, and there were also a pair of women with strange looking collars around their necks.

The one that really got his attention though was a man riding on another as if he were a horse. He had a fat face, stubble, and a weird hairstyle with his black hair; it looked like a large cowlick sticking up in the air. He wore a white robe with gold and green trim and had an oxygen tank on his back. Around his head he had on a bubble for some apparent reason and on his face was a look of utter disdain for the normal people around him.

He then remembered what Vivi had told him about World Nobles and sneered to no one in particular since he couldn't be seen by the unattentive citizens around him. It was probably best if he just left before he wound up seeing something that would end up setting him off. He told Vivi he'd do his best to avoid them and he wasn't about to go playing with fire just because he was curious and didn't like the way someone looked.

Besides, if being down there meant he had to bow to keep from causing trouble he'd much rather stay up above it all where he currently was. He wasn't about to bow down to anyone, especially someone he didn't respect, and at the moment he had no respect whatsoever for whoever this World Noble guy was.

With that, he simply vacated the scene unseen, vanishing in a swirl of wind and leaves.

XxX

(With Nojiko, Vivi, Muret, and Perona – Grove 73)

"Stop talking about that Law guy…" Perona said in an exasperated manner. She had been grabbed by Nojiko and Vivi to go with them for the day, a welcome break from doing nothing but hanging around that buzzkill shipwright Paulie, and then they went to pick up Muret who had apparently spent the earlier portion of the day with Trafalgar Law again. And she hadn't shut up about him since she had shown up, "We get it… he's awesome. Now shut up already."

Muret stuck her tongue out at Perona and opened her mouth again, more than likely to continue gushing over her crush on Law until she found a light-as-a-feather Miss Valentine riding on her back piggyback-style with a sweet smile on her face, "Every time I hear you talk about this Law character without being asked first I'm going to add on 45 kilograms." Muret nodded mutely, not particularly wanting to risk the happy blonde pirate's crushing wrath.

While this was happening, Vivi watched on with an amused smile on her face until Nojiko got next to her and bumped her hip into hers, "So… we spent some money, got you some more nice things and whatnot your highness. Do you finally feel better?"

"I'll feel better when we leave this place." Vivi said as she looked over at Carue carrying the bubbles that contained her few purchases from the day, "I hate how everyone here can pretend that everything is okay when things like what the slavers do go on around them."

Nojiko raised an eyebrow at the younger blue-haired girl and her concerns, "You know, most people that would pick fights with others know who we are. Why would they go after us when our bounties are so high?"

"I don't have a bounty." Perona chimed in brightly, with Muret raising her hand as well.

"We do though." Nojiko continued unfettered by the ghost princess and her need to interject in the middle of her point, "Both me and Miss Valentine almost have a combined bounty that reaches 100 million."

Vivi gave her a dry look and pointed at herself, "The reward for capturing me and giving me to the Marines or taking me back to Alabasta is 150 million. To someone that really wants the money it's worth the risk, especially if they can beat you two too and take your bounties to boot. That's not very helpful."

"Then we'll just beat them up." Interpolated a characteristically cheerful Miss Valentine, holding up her umbrella above her and Muret's heads, "I mean we're all tough enough with good working weapons and fists aren't we? And with Naruto's built-in excuse about you being brainwashed or hypnotized or whatever it's supposed to be you can fight anyone you want to now."

Instead of cheering Vivi up with the confidence in their own ability to defend themselves, it only caused her to wallow in anguish even further, "…You can't solve all of your problems by just beating them up. Sometimes there's just too much to lose by doing that."

This was not Nefertari Vivi. Vivi was a usually bright and cheerful girl. Even at Enies Lobby she didn't think that things were desperate for even a moment and went along with the others fearlessly. Ever since they had arrived in Sabaody Archipelago she had been fearful and downcast.

Just like right now. As a matter of fact, especially right now with the look of abject horror on her face. Wait, what was the matter with her?

"No…" Vivi said before rushing to Muret's back and getting Miss Valentine down much to her displeasure and confusion, "Bow. Bow right now, I'm telling you, you don't need them to pick you out of a lineup."

"What on earth are you talking about?" Nojiko asked before turning her eyes once her attention was attracted by the absurd amount of people dropping down to bow, Vivi, Muret, and Miss Valentine included as the last two were forced to by Vivi. Nojiko let out a silent curse and did the same once she saw who was coming their way.

Riding atop the same unfortunate man as before and now picking his nose through the sturdy bubble on his head, the fat looking World Noble that Naruto had seen roughly an hour before was carried through the crowd of people, sneering at them as if they were all roaches scurrying around him, "I don't see why the commoners are even allowed to come outside of their hovels when they know that the World Nobles are in the area."

Miss Valentine was not laughing for once as she kneeled along with the others and looked at Vivi's petrified face as she tried to keep it angled down, "I'm assuming that this is one of those World Nobles you were fretting over so much." She said softly so as not to stick out per Vivi's instructions.

All Vivi did in return was nod, not willing to speak and draw the man's attention.

"You."

Everyone tensed up when they heard the man call out to someone amongst them, but no one dared move for one reason or another. A gunshot then rang out, alarming them all, but none more so than Vivi as the bullet was deposited right in front of her to where she was looking down. She turned her eyes up to find the World Noble looking directly at her like he had seen a ghost, his gold-plated, jewel-encrusted pistol falling from his hand in shock, "It's… it's you. Nefertari Vivi…"

Vivi didn't know this person personally at all. She'd know if she had ever run across a World Noble in an individual way in her life and she hadn't, not even when she had ventured to Mariejois with her father years ago, "How do I know you?" She then hurriedly corrected herself in case she would offend him, "I mean, of course I know of you. But how do you know of me?"

"Of course you know of the great Saint Charloss. How could you not?" The World Noble said in an obnoxiously haughty manner, "I can see how you would think that one in a higher state of being such as me wouldn't remember a lowly princess of a kingdom such as yourself, but you've had me stricken since the day I saw you those two years ago."

"S-Stricken?" That didn't sound good from Vivi's point of view whatsoever.

Charloss jumped down from the person he had been riding prior to seeing Vivi and kicked his legs out from under him to knock him to the ground for easier remounting, "I wanted to take you in addition to my twelve other wives, but as you were with your father at Reverie I simply could not take you to be mine. But God has been good and has brought you back to me with nothing in my way. Nefertari Vivi you're coming with me to become my wife. I demand it!"

'Oh hell no.' Nojiko thought, subtly moving one of her hands to a pistol at her waist to show that overbearing bastard what she thought of that until Vivi's leg kicked her hand back down out of sight, 'What the hell are you doing? There's no way this guy that doesn't do anything important can have enough power to make Vivi be his wife!' She shared looks of shock and panic with the other three women there bearing witness to what was happening.

But Vivi was far away from home, and the way she was she had next to no power other than her name. Apparently this man had the World Government willing to stick up for him and Vivi was terrified of him before even knowing that there was a World Noble around.

Without a word, Vivi stood up and walked the rest of the way over to Saint Charloss, "I… see." She spared a glance back at Miss Valentine, Nojiko, Muret, and Perona and just shook her head with a stone-cold look on her face.

"Oh, I finally have my rare, exotic Alabastan beauty." Charloss exclaimed with a sense of glee. Whether he was ignoring the despair radiating off of Vivi or simply did not care one way or another he didn't show as he climbed back onto the poor man that had been carrying him, "Psht, I need a stronger slave. How else would I transport my lovely and most treasured bride-to-be? To the Human Auction House!"

Everyone kept bowing until the noble and his entourage got out of their sight, and then the citizenry got up and continued on with their lives as if they had not been more or less held hostage just moments prior.

Only Nojiko, Miss Valentine, and Muret stayed in the positions that they had been in beforehand as Perona had gotten up and had wondered why they were still in the same kneeling stance. Muret's eyes were quivering in pure disbelief at what had just occurred, "Did that really just happen? That didn't just happen right in front of us did it?"

"Why didn't we do anything?" Miss Valentine said, shaking her own head as she stood up and looked in the direction that Vivi had gone off in with Saint Charloss, "I thought you were about to blow that guy away Nojiko? What happened to that?"

"She stopped me." The voice of Nojiko seemed almost haunted at what had just occurred. Vivi had been taken without a fight; not from her and not from them either, "For the love of God are these people that scary that she'd rather go with them than fight back?"

"You're damn right they are."

The girls turned towards a pirate with a familiar face as far as Nojiko and Miss Valentine were concerned, especially with the x-scar on his chin, "X Drake." Miss Valentine said in recognition of the sharply dressed former Marine.

Drake nodded at being identified, "It has been quite some time since we've met Foxhound Pirates. Is that barbarian Soren still alive or has Uzumaki gotten sick of his baggage yet?"

Nojiko stepped towards him with a stern look on her face, "Vivi seemed totally terrified of these people but I saw that guy shoot when he was getting her atttention. He couldn't hit a Sea King in the head at ten feet with that gaudy pistol of his." She said, stomping on said gaudy pistol that Charloss hadn't even seen fit to pick up again, "I could have put him and his stupid black suited escorts down in a matter of seconds. Six shots are enough to kill anything that moves."

"And you would have called down the full wrath of the Marines' most potent fighting force. Unless you think you could survive a run-in with an admiral." Drake said with a serious look on his face, "Because the moment that a World Noble falls into some sort of jeopardy an admiral will be called forth and all that comes with it to deal with the issue."

Nojiko wanted to say that Naruto could fight an admiral. But his condition after the last battle with one he had, and the technicality that had netted him the victory by default that he would never be able to duplicate twice kept her from speaking up on the matter.

Hearing nothing from her or any of the women, Drake continued, "You shouldn't be angrily questioning why this has just happened because it's quite simple as to why it did. World Nobles are simple once you get past the smoke and mirrors. Saint Charloss wanted something and he got it. Instead you should be thanking your friend Nefertari Vivi for giving up her freedom to ensure that a ruckus wasn't caused. If she had refused or hesitated he would have tried to harm her, and if you had attacked him then you and potentially every pirate in Sabaody would be in complete and utter jeopardy. She's clearly stronger-willed than the rest of you."

Muret looked down in a bit of shame even though there was not much she could do anyway due to her lack of combat ability. On the other hand both Miss Valentine and Nojiko seethed at the barbed remark as one wished to give him a shot and the other wished to try and crack his skull with her umbrella.

It was Drake's parting words that really gave them pause though, "…It's too bad that strong will of hers will be broken soon once she's taken from this place."

XxX

(With Soren, Johnny, and Yosaku – Grove 6 – Glassjaw Club)

In a dark and dingy building with an open floor surrounded by spectators drinking and cheering raucously, Soren stood, sans shirt or shoes with his arms crossed. He smirked as he was staring down five different men in similar states of dress, "Am I really going to have to come after you all or have you been paying attention to the last seven fights to know that you don't want me to do that?"

There was little more that needed to be said as at that moment all five of them jumped at Soren and began pounding away on any part of his body that they could reach as he stood there, still as a statue with a displeased look on his face.

"I might as well be getting rocks thrown at me as weak as these punches are… Tekkai (Iron Mass) or not." Soren quipped, almost yawning for all of the effect the attackers were having on him. Eventually he got sick of taking punches and vanished in a rush of Soru before knocking two of the men out from behind with a pair of clotheslines that knocked them upside down onto their heads. He kicked another man in the stomach sending him flying into another and then delivered an uppercut to the last one that knocked him up through the ceiling, "Hah! And that's that! Now pay me fools!"

"Whoo!" Johnny and Yosaku cheered, waving mugs around and spilling beer everywhere, "Pay us fools!" They chimed in stereo as Soren came walking out of the fight pit flipping a large stack of bills. He grinned and handed a few of the proceeds of his winnings to both swordsmen to share the wealth, "Yeah Soren!"

"Yeah, me." Soren said in a very pleased manner as he put his shirt and boots back on, "I thought I could train my Rokushiki in here but there isn't anyone that can throw a half-decent punch to put me to the test."

Johnny gestured to the door as Yosaku finished his mug of beer in one swig, "Well let's go then. This place waters their beer down anyway. The bartender's a total cheat."

"Cheat?" The entire club said as one before looking around and glaring at each suspiciously. Yosaku finished drinking and dropped his mug before noticing the standoff and grinning. He motioned Soren and Johnny out of the club before picking up a chair and throwing it through the air. All eyes were on the chair until it hit the ground, not injuring a soul… and then a massive brawl involving most of the club's patrons started.

Soren, Yosaku, and Johnny stared at the wild, yet tame by their standards of what incorporated a real fight, melee from the entrance of the bar before shrugging to themselves and leaving.

Johnny elbowed Yosaku as they walked onward to the next grove to find something else to get into, "How did you know that would work and start a fight?"

A scoff came from Yosaku as he grinned mischievously, "It's a port full of pirates and whatnot. I could have thrown a peanut into there and it probably still would have started that fight. So where to now?"

"Hell if I know." Soren said, tying his bandanna back onto his bald head to finish getting redressed, "But this is getting pretty tame. I want to find the worst, most lowdown 'I can't believe places like this exist in the modern world' spot to go to."

"Why?"

"I don't know. Life experience?" Soren said awkwardly, "Besides… I've got all of this money and nothing to spend it on except booze, and I got enough of that for free with every fight I won in that club."

"You've got a ton of money to spend? I know just the place a rough-looking guy like you would like to drop that cash." A weasely looking guy said, having eavesdropped on the conversation, "You look like the kind of-." He let out a yelp of alarm as he found Johnny's sword suddenly placed against his neck, "Don't kill me please!"

"Who do you think Soren-?" Johnny said, offended at the way that the man implied that he would feel right at home in some lowdown place. He would have continued had Soren not walked closer and put his hand on the flat of the sword to lower it, "Soren?"

"Let him talk Johnny." The second-in-command of the Natural Disaster said, putting on his best sadist face for the sake of selling his cover, "I want to hear what he has to say. Tell me a place I might like to go."

The man thanked his lucky stars that this psychopath with the facial tattoo and murderous aura spared his life for the time being, "You want to take that wad of, what is it a million? But yeah, anyway you're going to want to take that over to the Human Auction House if you know what I'm saying. I heard there was a good crop of slaves this time, my crew went out and did some good work. Some good looking girls. You could buy yourself a nice one."

As the man continued to speak, both Yosaku and Johnny felt like cutting him clean in half and their faces showed it, but Soren's visage remained strangely stoic until the man finished speaking, "Hmm… Maybe I'll stop by. Thanks for the tip." He said before motioning for the man to buzz off and leave, which he then proceeded to do without a second thought.

Soren let him get quite a distance away until aiming a loogie high into the air and letting it fly in a high arcing pattern until it fell down and hit the man right on the top of the head, eliciting screams of anguish as he fell to the ground and started rolling around until he came to a stop with people crowding around him to see what had happened.

The boots of the acid-manipulating young man thudded off of the ground as Johnny and Yosaku followed him, not saying a word with hard looks on their faces, "Slaver scum…" He spat on the ground spitefully before he turned his head to look back at the two swordsmen, "Do you think karma would have our backs for once if we went and started some trouble?"

XxX

(With Naruto – Grove 1 – Human Auction House)

It was crushing him. The feeling around this place was smothering him, choking him alive. He hadn't felt such intense and concentrated despair in one place in his entire life. Standing slightly outside of sight of the large auction hall on the bridge leading to the grove in general, Naruto fell to his hands and knees with his Sage Mode eyes active. His blue eyes soon returned with him sweating a breathing heavily on the ground now that he had found his relief, 'So this is where it came from. All of that anger, sadness, hate… everything. From the center of the archipelago. It didn't feel like this until just recently.'

He had been around there before but everything had been spread out and hard for him to pinpoint. There was no mistaking where it was all coming from now.

"Uzumaki!"

"Naruto-aniki!"

Naruto was hurriedly picked up by his arms and steadied by Johnny and Yosaku while Soren tried to look him in the face, "Damn, are you alright? You look like you have to puke or something."

"I might." Naruto said before letting out a sick sounding burp and holding his stomach, "This place made me sick when I was in Sage Mode. I could feel everyone inside. There were so many negative emotions and despicable people… I haven't felt anything like this even on a battlefield."

"It's a slave auction house Naruto-aniki." Yosaku informed Naruto, patting his back to help even him out, "We found out about this place like an hour ago and came right here. Soren got it out of some guy that we think was a slaver. Right Soren?" He said, getting no affirmation from the man, "Soren?"

The thing that kept Soren's attention from responding to Yosaku was that he could see several smiley-face symbols with cancel marks through them. Donquixote Doflamingo's symbol that had been seen with the Shichibukai's former loose affiliates the Bellamy Pirates when they were on Jaya.

Johnny's eyes spotted something emerging from the auction house and he narrowed his orbs at it from behind his sunglasses, "Look."

He directed everyone's attention to the sight of a rich looking man and woman laughing smugly with a burly attendant dragging a man in chains away from the building across the bridge that they were on. The tall and strong looking enslaved man had shoulder-length feathery blonde hair, blonde stubble on his chin, and bandages wrapped around his forehead as well as an open dirty black jacket and a white ruffled shirt underneath to go with torn black dress pants and no shoes.

Naruto growled and bared his sharpened canines angrily at watching the man get dragged harshly by the strange collar around his neck. Between the negative emotions that had been drenching the environment all week and the sight of a slave being dragged away right in front of him, Naruto had seen enough.

As the couple walked away, happily chatting about what they were going to do or buy next, they found their progress halted by a blonde man standing between them with his arms around their shoulders in a friendly manner, though the smile on his face had a belying treacherous nature to it, "Did you guys just purchase that guy back there?" Naruto said, gesturing his head back to the obvious slave.

The man smiled proudly and adjusted his suit before answering, "Yes we did, I'm afraid if you were looking for such a fine specimen yourself this man isn't for sale. Byron just had too many advantages to me to pass up. He'll be worth the 600 thousand I paid for him."

"If you're looking for your own to buy I suggest you head inside before the auctions all end." The woman suggested, "I don't think there are any other men for sale that are as good as this one, but I heard that there is a mermaid in there for sale. Expensive but exotic."

"Well worth the price." The man agreed with a nod, "But I just need this man here to work on my ship. He's going to be very use-."

"Why don't you just let him go?"

Both the man and the woman looked at Naruto with stunned expressions, but he still had that pleasant smile with his eyes closed. The man stammered before finally getting his words back, "Let him go? Are you out of your mind? I paid good money for this slave."

"No, I'm pretty sane mostly." Naruto said, tightening his hold on the two so that they couldn't move, though that probably had to do with the killing intent that he began to radiate lowly, "Apparently it's the rest of this world that's crazy."

The large attendant that had been dragging Byron jumped at Naruto to attack him. He never got close before he found himself cut down in one move by Johnny with the only move he made visible to normal people being the end of the Kusanagi no Tsurugi resheathing with a click. Yosaku then sprinted forward and batted the man away with the width of Kubikiribouchou, sending him flying.

Naruto's killing intent grew and grew until both the man and the woman simply collapsed from the pressure he was exerting, both foaming at the mouth. Upon seeing that he sighed before glaring at the distant Human Auction House.

"I want to thank you for your effort." Byron said with his eyes to the ground, staring angrily at the people that figured that buying and selling him was okay, "But I'm afraid there's nothing you can do further for me." He pointed to the collar on his neck, "Once it is learned that I've escaped they'll just trigger the bomb collar on my neck and any attempt to break the chain will result in it exploding as well. Only the handlers in the auction house have the key to free me."

"Fuck a key. Who needs a key? I am a key." Soren said, punching into the palm of his other hand, "I'll melt that piece of crap off of you, explosive and all." He walked up to the nervous Byron and grabbed his collar tightly right around where the explosive was rooted as a sizzling noise and steam rose from the device. Much to the surprise of the man, Soren then yanked the collar off and threw it away, "There. Now you can run as far away as you want to now."

Tears sprang to Byron's eyes before he suddenly dropped to the ground in front of the four men and bowed to them all, "I… I don't know how to possibly thank you."

A frown crossed Naruto's face as he pulled the taller, more muscular man up from off of the ground, "Just don't get caught again if you really want to thank us." He then moved past Byron to cross the rest of the bridge to get to Grove 1 and the Human Auction House, "Now I think we should go bust this whole thing up. Are you guys with me? We're definitely going to get into some serious trouble for this."

Soren chuckled and cracked his knuckles as steam from his own acid rose from his body in anticipation, "Doflamingo owns that place. What do you think I'm going to do? I'm all in Uzumaki. You can count on that. It's going down."

"What, do you think we're just going to run back to the ship where Paulie is and hide until this is all over?" Yosaku said, swinging Kubikiribouchou around wildly before stabbing it into the bridge, "No way!"

Johnny nodded and placed his hand under his chin in a serious pose, "For better or worse we're your loyal Dobermans Naruto-aniki. And this is as good a reason to cause trouble as anything else we've ever done." Both he and Yosaku threw an arm over each other's shoulder and pointed their swords at the auction house, "Let's do this thing!"

Byron clenched his fists and ran in front of the crew as they walked towards the grove, cutting them off from advancing any further, "I want to go with you. Please let me go. I can fight. I _want_ to fight."

No one said anything at first until Naruto spoke, "Well that's the thing about not being a slave." He said with a grin springing to his face as he gave Byron a thumbs up, "You can do anything you want to as long as you're free. So follow along if you want to, you don't have to ask us anything. If you want to fight then that's your choice… we'll try and save you some." His grin then turned feral as he walked past Byron and continued on his way.

Seeing Naruto walk and stretch out his shoulders to get ready for a fight, a grin just couldn't happen but spring to Byron's face. The first grin he had managed since he had first been captured, "Save me some? You should hope that I save _you_ some."

XxX

(Inside the Human Auction House)

From a spot in the balcony of the auction house next to Perona, Muret, and Miss Valentine, Nojiko was looking through her hands like a sniper scope, gnashing her teeth angrily, "One shot. He'd never feel a thing. Nobody would know it was me at all and then Vivi could just run away from that bastard." She could see Saint Charloss sitting next to a woman and an older man wearing the same outfit he was wearing.

"Then why aren't you taking the shot girl?"

Nojiko turned her head and felt her need to shoot something increase when she saw Eustass Kid and his crew sitting nearby with the same smug air about them they had through her scope on the island in the village they destroyed. Kid's feet were even up on the railing of the balcony, "Oh it's you." Nojiko said in a less than excited voice, "What are you doing here? Looking to buy someone to clean your mess of a ship for you?"

Kid sneered at her before letting out a scoff and turning his attention back on the auctions below, "The only reason I even know about you is because you're on Uzumaki's crew. I'd kill you just to tell him 'hello', but this ain't the time or the place." He didn't even bother looking at her but pointed instead, "You're not going to fire a single shot in here as long as those World Nobles are down there and you know it. If you do you'll be screwing over every pirate in the building and every pirate in Sabaody."

"Well just what are we supposed to do then, let them take her away to Mariejois?" Miss Valentine said, not laughing or smiling for once because the situation most definitely didn't warrant it, "I don't care who they are. People just can't do this to others and get nothing done to them in return."

"Yeah, the world is messed up isn't it?" Kid's face twisted into a grimace as he looked down at the auction floor to see a man on display bite his own tongue off to keep from being sold, "Sure there are guys like me walking around, but at least I don't try to justify what I do. I'm a bastard and a scoundrel and I do what I want, and I know I'm going to hell, but when you compare people like us to them we're saints. At least we're kind of charming about our villainy and know who we are. They justify their actions based off of what their ancestors did centuries ago."

At that point for the next auction a curtain was pulled back to reveal in a closed-up bowl filled with water a chained up mermaid with neck-length green hair and purple eyes wearing a yellow and pink t-shirt.

"A mermaid?" An astonished Muret rubbed her eyes almost in disbelief, "I've never seen a fishman or a mermaid before… are they really about to sell her to someone?"

"500 million beli! I'll bid 500 million!"

The jaws of all four women in the balcony dropped at hearing such an assertive declaration of spending so much money, "500 million? Just like that?" Perona said in disbelief at the bid, "I've never seen that much money in my entire life! You guys don't even have that much, all you've got is like 300 million at most!" No one even bothered asking her how she knew that as she was still technically their prisoner.

As chattering throughout the building went up on how no one could match that price, Muret looked down at who made the bid and frowned, "Oh man… just look at who bought the poor mermaid."

They all looked down and Kid let out a sardonic laugh when everyone saw who it was, "A lesson in what the 'justice' of this world really boils down to. And what is so 'just' about all of this?"

XxX

In the wake of his son's bid, the older male World Noble shook his head, "There you go again, wasting money. Isn't your fishtank already packed full of piranhas to begin with?"

Charloss simply had a satisfied smile on his face at being moments away from getting what he was after, "Money isn't an object when it comes to making my new wife feel welcome." He said as he looked at a completely reserved and emotionless Vivi sitting between them, "The chase that will bring should be very entertaining. She should enjoy the sight. Isn't that right?"

Vivi only stiffly nodded, never tearing her eyes away from what was directly in front of her, even though the mermaid's fate would be far worse than her own.

"You are going to brand this girl are you not brother?" The female World Noble on the other side of Charloss said, looking at Vivi with some disdain though she didn't return the look and make eye contact, "She is yours now."

"Absolutely not!" Charloss exclaimed in return, "She is not less than human! If anything she's above them. Far above them! And that is why having her is such a desirable thing! She is my wife, not a slave."

'Same difference.' Vivi thought cynically. She had survived Crocodile, a civil war breaking out in her own country, dealing with the Marines on their own doorstep, escaping captivity and blackmail, and now she wound up being done in by an admirer more dangerous and politically powerful than she had ever dealt with before and ever dreamt of having to handle.

XxX

Elsewhere in the auction house, Sanji, Chopper, Nami, and even former enemy Hatchan were almost to the point of panic as they watched their fried, the mermaid for sale, be auctioned away without the ability to do anything.

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Chopper in his large human form asked the others, "There's got to be something, right? Come on… Sanji? We can't just let Keimi get dragged off by that guy?"

All Sanji could do was shake his head. He didn't even feel like taking a puff of the cigarette in his mouth, "This is really bad. We never accounted for this possibility. We were relying on trying to solve this with money and get out of here. But things just got a whole lot worse…" He looked over at the smug man that had put out a bid that no one would be able to match and went wide-eyed at who he saw, concealed as she was by the other people around her, 'I'd know that exotic beauty anywhere… even from behind. That can't be Vivi can it?'

What was Vivi doing there? Why was she with those people by herself? And why the hell was the ground shaking?

XxX

(Meanwhile – Backstage in the Human Auction House)

A human shaped hole in the wall stood right in front of dozens of bodies that were beaten to a pulp, all cut up, and in some cases melted in some rather vital areas, "Like I said." Soren said, cracking his neck to the side as Johnny cut down the very last man that tried to stop them from infiltrating, "Who needs a key? I am a key. Am I right or am I right?" He said, looking over at Byron with a feral grin, "You fight good… how the hell did anyone ever catch you?"

"Always watch your drinks in a strange place." Byron said, crossing his arms and not willing to say anymore than that. The other three men nodded in full understanding of what he was implying.

"I can't believe we got in at all without any ruckus." Yosaku said in a rather ecstatic sounding voice, "Naruto-aniki's doing a really good job outside keeping their attention."

"You idiots messed my whole plan all up."

Upon hearing the grizzled voice coming from the direction of the cages, all four men looked inside to see an old man with long grey hair, a grey beard, a pair of glasses on his face, and a vertical scar going down his right eye. He wore a grey hooded sweatshirt, a plain green t-shirt underneath, and a brown pair of shorts with sandals.

"Well there's a new plan now old man, because we're getting you out!" Johnny exclaimed, expecting the old man to show some gratitude as Yosaku hacked right through the bars of the cage, "This is the part where you cheer and thank us, and all of that other hero crap."

The old man didn't respond. He merely grabbed the chain at the end of his collar and with one sharp tug broke the links, triggering the explosion around his neck much to the horror of the Foxhound Pirates and their tagalong. But then much to their surprise the smoke cleared to find that there was nothing wrong with the man whatsoever.

'I'd have to use Tekkai to negate that kind of thing.' Soren thought to himself, finding this old man to be more dangerous than they had first let on, 'Even then I'd still get burned from the blast and my ears would be ringing to boot. Just who is this old guy?' The old man tossed aside the remains of the collar with a smirk on his face as he stood up.

XxX

(Outside the Human Auction House)

Naruto stood completely surrounded by the entire force of Marines that had been surrounding the building as a security precaution for the proceedings inside, "Yeah it's me, Uzumaki Naruto, 395 million beli bounty, just wandering around here to walk inside and kill every noble inside in a rain of blood and blah, blah, blah as I am wont to do from my reputation as a ruthless killer and kicker of small puppies and whatnot." Spoke Naruto longwindedly in a bored sounding voice as he was held at gun and saber point by every Marine wanting to keep him from going a step further.

"We have you surrounded, you can't escape! Surrender!"

"Can I do my introduction first?" Asked Naruto with a tilt of his head only to have every Marine cock their firearms in preparation to shoot at him, "Is that a no?"

"No!"

"Too bad." After uttering those words, the Naruto that was surrounded disappeared in a puff of smoke before an even large puff of smoke appeared in the air above them, "Kuchiyose: Yatai Kuzushi no Jutsu (Summoning: Food Cart Destroyer Jutsu)!" And a large summoned toad the size of the auction house dropped right on top of them with Naruto standing on top of its head as the Marines that managed to escape the attack scuttled about, "Because when it comes to asking for permission, for me it's more like asking for forgiveness, because the immortal toad sage needs agreement from no one to do what he wishes! Let the chaos commence, because Uzumaki Naruto is in the house! …Err, _outside_ the house! Whatever, you get the point!"

"This really is the pirate Uzumaki Naruto after all! Keep him and the creature away from the building!"

"I am not a damn pirate! I'm a ninja!" Shouted Naruto as the large toad he had summoned began hopping around the area with Naruto on its back, causing panic and tremors around the entire area. Naruto just sat down on the toad's back, marveling at his version of a distraction. He would just have his large amphibian friend level the whole place once the slaves inside were freed and it cleared out. Problem solved.

"AAAHHHH!"

And, then flying through the air, Naruto saw what he could only define as a giant flying fish crash into the Human Auction House and land inside. Normally one would find something quite wrong with this since the random attacking of a regional fixture building was only reserved for people like him that were just enough of anarchists to deal with things they didn't like.

But being someone that had long since been used to weird things and with Naruto being the eternal optimist he wanted to go inside and see just what was going on in there with the internal disruption. Because really… what was the worst that could happen because of something like that?

* * *

Omake: Long Time no See

(Grove 54 – Shipyard Area)

"There's a call for you!"

The shout from the ship that was currently being coated in the resin needed for the Foxhound Pirates to continue on their trip got Paulie's attention from his making sure that the coating mechanics took care with the Natural Disaster, "What do you mean there's a call for me? Who is it?"

"We didn't pick it up to see! It just started ringing in your main room inside! Do you want us to answer it?"

With a grumble, Paulie got up from where he was sitting and used his ropes to quickly climb aboard without touching the sides of the freshly coated ship, stomping his way across the grass-covered deck to head inside to the common room. He picked up the receiver of the Den Den Mushi and held it to his mouth to speak, "Yeah? Who's calling?"

"_Is that Paulie? It's been a while hasn't it?"_

Paulie frowned at the familiar voice he heard over the line and let a plume of smoke escape through his nose before he chose to speak again, "I thought I fired you guys."

"_That doesn't really matter anymore does it? We let bygones be bygones and so did your captain."_

"I suppose that's the best I'm going to get in regards to an apology after betraying Iceburg and all of your fellow shipwrights after 5 years of camaraderie." Remarked Paulie, lazily sitting down on a couch in the room to continue talking, "So what are you calling for, or can I just hang up on you and feel good about myself?"

"_Where is Uzumaki? We want to talk to him about something. He made us an offer earlier that we took him up on and we wish to have his help."_

"He's not around right now." Paulie said, throwing his feet up on the coffee table in the room to relax, "We're in Sabaody Archipelago so if you want me to find him it'll take an hour at least." He could have just gone into Naruto's room if it wasn't locked and used the kunai he kept on his headboard to summon him, but he really didn't like who he was speaking to and would rather not help them.

"_Fine. When he appears tell him that we're actually near that location and we need to meet."_

"Or you can just go to Grove 54 and wait near our ship for him to come back. I'm going to punch the lot of you right in your faces when I see you all again just so you know."

"_Feel free to try."_

A click and the conversation ended by way of the other line hanging up, leaving Paulie to sigh and set the receiver aside, "I hate those guys…"

* * *

**Chapter done. Now I have much work to do for a quick buck before Tuesday rolls around and I hope you enjoyed. Next time should be a good'un if'n you're a fan of this story. **

**My butchery of the English language aside, I'll see you all around.**

**Kenchi out.**


	39. Point of No Return

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I had a better disclaimer all set and ready to go… but then I took an arrow to the knee.

**Chapter 39: Point of No Return**

* * *

Backstage in the Human Auction House, if Soren had hair it would have been standing up on end after what he was feeling looking at the old man that had just yanked his own explosive slave collar off, "Johnny, Yosaku! Get the hell away from him now! He's dangerous!"

If Soren who was willing to pick a fight with Donquixote Doflamingo shouted aloud that someone was dangerous then everyone in attendance had better take heed of the warning, but just as both swordsmen jumped away, they found that the moment they had turned away to pay momentary attention to Soren, the old man had deposited himself right behind where he seemed to know they would retreat to.

"Oh please, why do you young people have to be so dramatic about everything? If I wanted to crush you two…" The old man said, setting his hands on their shoulders and surprising them at his tight grip, "I already would have." He finished with a smile on his face.

Taking those words as a threat and having long since learned to never take a smile as a good sign of anything, Johnny quickly unsheathed his sword and swung at the man's head and neck, but by the time he had finished the rotation for his swing the man was gone again, "Fast…" He gasped out, "He's that much faster than me!"

"I don't want to fight you brats." Soren, Johnny, Yosaku, and Byron all looked up on the top of a slave cage with a giant of a man within it to find the old man sitting on top of it, looking down at them, still smirking the whole way, "But could you help an old man out and free the last one here?"

"Sorry old man." Soren said, keeping a watchful eye on said old man. Even though he said that he didn't want to fight, if he made a move it probably wouldn't be a very long fight either way, "We don't help strangers just like that."

Johnny elbowed Soren in the side and whispered to him loudly, "What are you talking about? We help strangers all the time." A glare in return from Soren shut him up as steam from his acid burning rose from his skin, "Oh… n-nevermind then."

A carefree laugh merely came from the old man who adjusted the glasses on his face, "Well in that case let's not remain strangers any longer then shall we? I'll introduce myself first… my name is Silvers Rayleigh."

The jaws of all of the present Foxhound Pirates dropped and they stared up at Rayleigh with bug eyes, not really believing that they were really looking at one of the most legendary pirates ever in the form of that old man. But the look in his eyes of pure confidence and experience of things none of them could even fathom said otherwise.

If there was ever an example of being star-struck that had to have been the moment that would have been a banner example of such.

"Hmm…" Byron said, breaking the tense (for everyone except Silvers Raleigh of course) silence between everyone, "Well… this is turning out to be a pretty good day for me. How about the rest you guys?"

*BANG!*

XxX

(Onstage of the Human Auction House)

The place had been in a panic with the sudden arrival of Luffy crashing through a wall on a flying fish to interrupt the auction, but in trying to stop Luffy from causing trouble by his rushing the stage, Hatchan wound up being shot in the back by Charloss who was celebrating at what he had just done, laughing in satisfaction as the other nobles in the building seemed happy that the fishman had been injured so gravely, "I got the fishman! I caught my very own fishman! I got it myself so it's free right? Absolutely free! Hahaha!"

Luffy had stopped his rampage towards the stage to turn towards the celebrating man, stalking up the stairs towards him slowly until his arm was grabbed by one of Hatchan's, "Straw Hat, don't…" He said, weakly as he lost blood steadily, "You can't… it was my own fault. You promised us, that even if someone was shot right in front of your eyes that you wouldn't fight the Tenryuubito. This is what I deserve anyway. I was a pirate… I did evil things. I just never meant for things to turn out this way. I just wanted to make things up to Nami if only a little bit. But I always just screw things up! I'm so sorry…" Tears were in his eyes at this point as he pleaded with Luffy not to do anything rash.

From the top of the stairs at the entrance point of the building, the doors were thrown open with several Marines flying inside all over the place.

"Don't let him get any further! He can't be allowed inside!"

"He's a monster!"

Those cries were cut off when the Marines claiming such were smashed hard enough to be thrown through the walls of the auction area, unconscious and quite battered but alive, "A Human Auction House…" From the open doors, Naruto walked in and looked around with a hard expression in his eyes as they panned over the lot of people there for purchasing slaves, "How about you try to enslave me? How much would I go for?"

From the top balcony, Nojiko, Miss Valentine, Muret, and Perona looked over the edge of the railing to see Naruto walking in like a tiger surrounded by hostile prey, "Hah…" Nojiko said, feeling a bead of sweat on her brow, "It's like a standoff or something."

As he walked down the stairs, Naruto looked past Saint Charloss and over at Luffy who seemed quite heated, as well as the downed and injured Hatchan, "You. Aren't you one of the Arlong Pirates from Nami-chan's hometown?"

"Even Uzumaki Naruto too." Hatchan said with quite a bit of effort, "Hey… you're Straw Hat's friend too aren't you? Tell him to st-."

"Shut up you stupid fish!" Charloss shouted at Hatchan, cocking his pistol and pointing it at the octopus fishman, "You haven't shut your mouth even though I shot you… you're really getting on my nerves!" His tirade stopped when Naruto walked past him, ignoring him completely and bumping his shoulder while passing to reach Hatchan's side, "What?" How could he just ignore someone of his stature?

Naruto just kneeled down in front of the fishman that was once his enemy, staring into his eyes until apparently finding what he was looking for and smiling at him, "You've been a good guy since all of the stuff that happened back on Commi Island haven't you?" This surprised many people there, including Hatchan himself who all thought that Naruto was a total ripper of a human being. Hatchan then cringed as Naruto inspected his wound, "Whoever shot you sucks… this wouldn't kill an eight year old."

"Uzumaki." Hatchan grimaced in pain as his wound was prodded testingly by a man assumed to be the enemy that destroyed his entire crew of fifty plus, "Why?"

"You should want to kill me more than I want to hurt you." Naruto said calmly and brightly, "If you don't then I don't have a problem with you. And if you do I don't care, because you're not trying anything on me now, and Luffy seems to trust you. That's all I need." Looking up at Luffy, Naruto nodded stiffly, "This guy's going to be fine if we can get someone to him to help. I ain't a healer."

A blood vessel appeared on Charloss's head in anger, staring at his shoulder where Naruto had barely come into contact with him, rage in his eyes, "Who do you think you are? You filthy insect! You think you can just walk past me? That you can make contact of any kind with me? You bow in my presence you worm! Beg for forgiveness!" He ordered, pointing his pistol at Naruto's back this time.

Not even registering the man's presence, Naruto just kept trying to help Hatchan the best he could, using a kunai to dig the bullet out of the wound and getting a groan of pain from Hatchan, "Oh come on you big baby. You're supposed to be a big tough pirate aren't you?"

"You're just another of those squalid, filthy pirates…" Charloss said, cocking the hammer of his pistol back while shakily aiming it with one hand at Naruto, "Fine. If you love that inferior creature beside you so much you can die along with it."

From her seat nearby, Vivi had kept silent. This time it wasn't simply her resigning herself to her fate, it was in abject shock of how things were falling apart. Even when trying to take things as they came things still fell out of control. And there was no way that any of this was going to end well. Her body didn't even give her the option of choosing otherwise; she let out an ear-rending scream, "Naruto no!"

However, Luffy had walked past Naruto and Hatchan up the stairs towards Charloss, not saying a word, just with a horridly angry expression on his face until he finally got close enough to deliver a good old-fashioned haymaker right to the bloated World Noble's face. No stretching necessary, decking him hard enough to smash him through several rows of chairs behind.

The entire mass of rich people let out sounds of shock and terror, faces twisted in horror while Naruto just kept treating Hatchan, his own face devoid a smile altogether, "…I'm not a pirate asshole." There wasn't anything funny about that guy to him.

Luffy just stood in the same place, cracking his knuckles and looking around, waiting for someone to make something of what he had just done. He had been expressly warned that there would be trouble if he had done anything to a World Noble. It was just too bad that when it came down to it he didn't care that much, "Sorry everyone. I heard that if you deck one of these guys a Marine admiral's gonna show up with battleships too."

"Chalross-niisama!" The female World Noble shouted, standing up at the shock of seeing her older brother get hit. It had simply never happened before. The entire place was in full panic mode at this point, with everyone who had previously thought they were about to buy a slave rushing towards the doors to escape.

An older man, dressed the same way as Charloss only he had grey hair, a beard, and wore sunglasses, stood up and glared hatefully at Luffy, "How dare such a lowly peasant like yourself lay even a finger on my son!" He shouted at Luffy, pointing his cane which doubled as a rifle at the young man, "Do you have any idea what will happen to you if you rise against us? Against the descendants of the creators of this world?"

Before he could fire his weapon though, he found Vivi standing in front of him with her arms outstretched to block, "I can't let you do that Saint Roswald! They're my friends!"

"I don't care! Property like you should not stand in the way of perfect ancestry!"

*BANG!*

It didn't matter to the man one bit, and it didn't matter that Vivi was in his way as he instantly fired, intent on getting her out of his way one way or another. A puff of smoke enshrouded Vivi as the shot was fired.

"…What the hell are you doing here Vivi-hime?" The smoke cleared to show Naruto shielding Vivi from the shot, his shoulder bleeding from taking the bullet. Vivi's eyes widened and started to quiver as she looked at Naruto, "Were you with those guys?" He asked her in a slightly strained voice, wincing at the wound in his arm.

"Get away from my son's new wife!" Saint Roswald said again before reloading his weapon to fire again at Naruto. Not fast enough though since Naruto moved swiftly, snatching the cane/rifle out of his hands and smashing him in the face with it, sending blood flying and most definitely breaking quite a few facial bones.

Well, to say the least Naruto definitely popped the resin bubble around his head with that swing, and maybe popped his skull too because there was definitely a crack heard, "Get out of my fucking face!"

"Father!" The woman World Noble cried in alarm as the man's body flew across the auditorium and smacked into the wall with an echoing audible thud, falling to crash through the seats in that part of the Human Auction House as well. Her eyes turned angrily towards Naruto who tossed the cane away, its use no longer necessary. She gnashed her teeth together before loudly barking an order, "Summon the Marines and have them send an admiral! This will not stand! You and all of yours will die here!"

"Sorry." Naruto said, not sounding very sorry at all about what he had just done, "But nobody shoots at my princess." He then turned his gaze of scrutiny back to Vivi who shirked slightly, "…Who needs to tell me just what she was doing here away from the whole crew and just what that guy meant by saying she was that noble guy's new wife."

Before Vivi could try and explain anything, Miss Valentine drifted down with her umbrella from the balcony with the other Foxhound Pirate women holding onto her and landed right by them all, "Don't be mad at Vivi sweetie. If she hadn't gone with that guy there would have been big trouble for us." She then looked around and laughed quite a bit, "But there's big trouble anyway so that's a moot point!"

In the middle of this conversation, the rest of the Straw Hat Crew had arrived and happened to be fighting through the guards of the World Nobles while people were scrambling to escape. Apparently this wasn't enough of an issue to stir Naruto or any of the girls… even though Luffy's crew now seemed to have a living skeleton with an afro as a member.

A sigh came from Naruto before he locked eyes with Vivi and pointed intently at her, "Don't ever do anything like that again. Stop trying to do stuff to protect us on your own. That's what teams are for in the first place; so that no one has to do anything like that." He had more of a lecture set and ready even in the calamity around them, but he was cut off when Vivi threw herself at him and hugged him, crying into his flak jacket, "Aw geez, don't cry. I'm not really mad at you, it's just-."

"It's not that…" Vivi interrupted, with a sniffle, "I thought I was really going to have to go with that man. Being a princess doesn't mean anything to a World Noble."

"You still belong to my brother." The female World Noble said, "This little incident isn't going to change that. As a matter of fact, this all just made it worse for you for when you're obtained once more. And that won't take long. The admiral that is sent will turn this island upside down to take down you and that other crew of fools."

The back wall on the stage then started coming down in a bubbling, melting mess until enough of it had been destroyed for the male members of the Foxhound Pirates to walk out from behind with Byron still with them, "Old Man Rayleigh, you're definitely coughing up some of that money you stole from this place to us. We did the real legwork here."

"We could fight over it if you'd like." Rayleigh replied, getting a quick shake of heads from the lot of them that elicited a loud laugh from him, "That's what I figured… still got it."

"Crazy old bastard…" Johnny mumbled before seeing that they were standing right by a prison for the mermaid Keimi and his eyes widened behind his sunglasses, "Awesome! Mermaid!" Without another bit of prompting, Johnny quickdrew his sword and slashed the top of the watery prison off, more or less freeing her except for the slave collar, "Okay Soren, do the rest so we can talk to a real life mermaid. This is a _great_ day."

Before Soren could move forward to try and rid the mermaid of the collar his way, Rayleigh got there first and grabbed a hold of the collar, getting everyone that was paying attention to recoil in shock. Maybe that guy could take an explosion like what that collar would produce, but that mermaid didn't look even close to being tough enough to survive it.

It was a moot point though, as Rayleigh ripped the collar off with absurd speed and threw it at some of the many armored guards in the room, causing it to explode on them instead. How productive.

Seeming to not believe what he had done was impressive or was even a big deal at all, Rayleigh looked around the room until his gaze stopped on Luffy and a smirk came over his face, "Ah, I've been waiting quite a while to meet you Monkey D. Luffy. You certainly have a knack for finding yourself in trouble." With her bonds cast off, a few of Luffy's crew members ran down fighting their way through the soldiers to try and reach Keimi and help her out of her predicament.

"Soren, Johnny, Yosaku, get your asses over here now!" Naruto shouted across the room, getting all three men to shrug before they started heading towards him. Soren came to a stop though when he heard something that had his ears burning.

"Damn it stop those pirates!" A man with long silver hair, loud gaudy clothes, a colorful top hat, star sunglasses, and a thick mustache shouted over the house microphone. The emcee for the whole slave auctioning process shouted desperately, "That mermaid sold for 500 million! Mr. Doflamingo's shop has a reputation to keep up!" He then stopped yelling when he felt a shadow of death standing behind him and turned to find Soren standing in front of him.

"So this is Doflamingo's place is it?" He asked in a threatening manner with an evil grin on his face, "Well I think he's going to want to know all about these developments, don't you? I'd sure like to if I were him." Soren grabbed the man by the back of his neck like a disobedient puppy, "Let's call him." He then turned towards Naruto and the others and yelled towards them, "You guys get out of here, I'll catch up!"

The minute he heard the name of Doflamingo he was locked in on that and nothing else. Even the panic that Sabaody Archipelago was about to be thrown into didn't matter to him as he seemed to walk with the man to the back where his office and a Den Den Mushi was.

"Soren!" Naruto yelled at him again, only getting flipped off for his trouble, "Damn it! There are like one hundred and fifty knight guards blocking the way out, you get your ass back here and make a new exit for everybody!" He shouted, ducking out of the way of a halberd swing to abusively kick his armored attacker away, "Kami I hate armor!" He took another guard's helmet right off after they missed a sword swing and headbutted the man right in the face, knocking him out.

Yosaku could cut through metal, Naruto was skilled and enough of a juggernaut that armor didn't really matter in the end, and Miss Valentine could generate more than enough concussive force to turn armor into expensive tin bodysuits, but the others weren't aptly suited to trying to best a large group of knights.

Byron simply avoided the attacks of the knights with what seemed to be a practiced grace of his footwork, almost like a dance of nobility, "Naruto-sama, the rest of the slaves in the back have been freed." He said calmly as he leaned out of the way of a sword strike and watched Naruto cover him by blasting the knight with a Rasengan.

"Cool." Naruto said, pulling Nojiko out of the way of another attack from the persistent knights, but it served to be unnecessary to really assist her in the end when she used her shotgun to produce a harsh blast of wind that sent the guard flailing away, "Can we tear this place down and leave now?" His question was cut off when a still pressurized feeling filled the entire building, getting everyone to stop fighting, "What the hell?" It felt like raw killing intent just without the feeling of certain death behind it.

It was strong enough to utterly paralyze Vivi and force the entirety of the armored guard unconscious. Muret also fell victim to succumbing to the feeling, fainting on her feet only to be caught and kept from hitting the ground. Her eyes fluttered open and a blush appeared on her face as she saw who her savior was, "Oh. H-Hi Law."

The laid back pirate and surgeon gave Muret a calm smile and set her back on her feet, still holding on to her hands, "Hey there beautiful. Your captain needs to get the hell out of here now like my crew is. Whatever admiral comes here is going to tear this place up. No pirate with a bounty is really safe for this one."

"I'm not a pirate damn it!"

Muret palmed her face at Naruto's boisterous cry that was seemingly instinctive at this point, "Yeah… Naruto-sama isn't a pirate, but I don't think that matters. Thank you for caring."

"I don't really care about your crew to be honest." Law stated bluntly, getting the other Foxhound Pirate women to wonder why in the hell Muret seemed to be swooning over the guy, "But you're cute, and a doctor has to be pretty tough or lucky to get this far on the Grand Line, trust me. It's impressive."

"Hey! Let go of my beloved!" Yosaku shouted at Law, sprinting up to him with Kibikiribouchou on his shoulder, "You can't touch Muret like that! I can't even touch Muret like that! What the hell man?"

Law just kept his smirk on his face as Muret addressed the power swordsman, "Well… he's got my permission to. Law's just cute, and he's cool. And you're… well, you're not." She said reluctantly.

That was like a shot to the heart for Yosaku who dropped to his knees with a stricken look on his face. Muret fought the urge to pet him like a dog as that would have made things worse. Law felt the need to comment though, "Keep your head up man. It'll be alright." Looking at the doors, Law saw a few members of his crew beckoning him to leave, "I'll see you around sometime. Maybe in the New World?" He asked Muret, getting a shy nod from her before he ran off.

In Yosaku's mind there was a little something new going on though, 'Got to kick that guy's ass eventually…' He thought to himself, as beating Zoro to measure his worth as a swordsman was no longer his top goal in mind, 'True love is as rocky as the roughest shore! And nothing worth earning is easy!'

However in the middle of his heroic inner monologue, he was yanked to his feet by Naruto and slapped once to get him out of his trance, "Oi! Come on! Stop spacing out and let's roll, we've been in here for too long and this place is totally surrounded! The rest of our crew, the Straw Hats, the Kid Pirates, Law's Heart Pirates, and that old ass man with the weird killing intent already went outside!"

The slap woke Yosaku back up and he glared at Naruto with a red handprint on the side of his face, "Well why didn't you get me up sooner? What were you waiting here for then?" He noticed that Naruto had strange, ripple-pattern eyes and orange pigment around them, "Oh. That." Come to think of it, that slap did hurt a hell of a lot more than it should have for as slow as it was going, "Why?"

"This." Naruto said, as he clapped his hands together and held them in place, "Now go catch up, I'm gonna be here for a while. Chibaku Tensei (Heavenly Body Bursting from the Earth)!"

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Soren – Office of the Human Auction House)

"Um… Mr. Doflamingo, this is Disco." The timid owner of the Human Auction House said into the receiver of the Den Den Mushi in a quiet voice, "Listen, there's been some problems here and I was just wondering… can you come over to maybe try and help out?"

Laughter came from over the line before Doflamingo spoke back up, _"Hmm. No. I don't think I will come to think of it. I'm so tired with the slave trading business, it's so boring. So from now on your problems are your problems. Ta-ta Disco-kun."_

The entire building began to shake as Disco's jaw dropped, "You can't be serious! You're just going to let us alone here? I'll be killed! There's a lunatic right here with-." He was then promptly knocked unconscious via having his head shoved forward through a wall by Soren from behind.

"Tch. Useless…" Soren said to himself as he then took the receiver and spoke into it, "Hello Doflamingo! So I hear you aren't dropping in to let me turn your organs into a fine liquid. That's disappointing."

"_Oh, it's acid-boy! Well sorry, I've got something more interesting than that passé slave house to worry about these days. Something that's far more interesting than you too. And it's not even close, fuffuffuffuffu!"_

"Well maybe we can meet up for this 'interesting thing'." Soren said, flexing out a fist and wishing that Doflamingo was right in front of him to punch right in the mouth or worse, "I like to party, so let me drop in on this too. Is there alcohol?"

"_Oh you don't seem to be the warfaring type. This one's way over your head you bald baby chick. But hey, if you feel like stepping in between a war between the Shichibukai, the Marines, and the Whitebeard Pirates then be my guest!"_ He started cackling again as Soren's face was one of pure astonishment and disbelief, _"That's all the answer I need from you right there. Try again when you get a little more heart kid!"_

The conversation ended with Doflamingo hanging up on his end of the line and Soren just standing there frozen by what he had just heard, "A war between those three? No way man. That's just…" He shook his head as the shaking of the building gave way to it tearing away all around him, starting from the ceiling up and floating into the sky over their head, "Oh, and this just keeps on getting worse." He said as he ran off to get back to the ship, not knowing that his crew was still pretty close.

XxX

(With Foxhound Pirates – Grove 15 – Lawless Area)

"This is ridiculous!" Perona cried out, using her negative ghosts to sap the fighting spirit out of multiple Marines that had tried to attack her along with the other Foxhound Pirates, "I. Am not. With them! I'm a prisoner!" She argued, still fighting back despite her claims to be innocent in all of this. She was a Shichibukai's crewmate. Even though she wasn't famous outside of Thriller Bark her word had to mean something, didn't it?

Not really.

"Yeah, because you sure seem like one right now." Nojiko sarcastically remarked from atop Funkfreed along with Muret, clearing the way off in the distance with her ranged rifle before they ever got that far, "Come on, how much further is it to Grove 54?" This entire day had just frazzled her nerves entirely. She had never even gotten to say hello to her sister Nami or anything since everything broke down so quickly.

"It's this way!" Johnny shouted before being grabbed from behind by Yosaku, "What's the big idea?" He asked, stopping long enough to quickly unsheathe his sword and cut down a few Marines that had strayed too close to try and take him down.

Yosaku used his massive cleaver sword and smashed through his end of a bridge leading to their grove to cut the pursuing Marine force off from chasing them, "You're going the wrong way jackass! It's that way!" He shouted, pointing in a completely different direction.

"This way!"

"This way!"

"No, it's that way, I'm sure of it!"

Vivi palmed her face while Byron, who was still with the lot of them looked over at the two arguing swordsmen who were yelling at each other and fighting Marines simultaneously, "Does this happen too terribly often?" He asked, wondering just what the dynamic of these people happened to be.

"Yes sadly…" Replied the blue-haired desert dwelling princess. So they were lost? That was just great. It wasn't like they could just stop and ask for directions either. The whole archipelago was in an uproar and quite personally Vivi wanted to put as much distance as she could between herself and that place, "Hey!" Vivi called out when she saw that Johnny and Yosaku were beginning to trade sword strikes between themselves while they kept arguing over the direction, "Stop fighting each other!" She ran over and punched them both in the head, "I am _not_ having a good week! Be stupid some other time!"

Muret hopped down from Funkfreed and moved to Vivi's side to put a calming hand on the shoulder of the seething princess who had been on quite an emotional rollercoaster that day, "Whoa honey calm down… easy. It's okay. Deep breaths." She then pointed east, "That's the way, I remember. So can we get going already before something else bad happens?"

"I agree." Byron said, eyes looking around for any more advancing Marines that may have tried to prevent them from moving forward.

His statement got Perona to stop fuming about the lack of respect or recognition from the Marines that were supposed to be Shichibukai allies in order to pay attention to him, "Wait, you're actually coming with these people weird guy? Why? You don't even know them."

Byron nodded in agreement but his face was one of poise and honor, "Maybe so, but these people freed me from my bonds and a fate worse than death. Thanks to them I can freely roam the seas again, so why wouldn't I choose to go with them if they would have me?" He gave a flourish of a bow to the women of the crew that were present, "I request a place on your crew if at all possible."

Wow. How old-fashioned.

XxX

(With Soren – Grove 7 – Bridge to Shipping Area)

"…Because one wasn't enough the last time." Soren said to himself. The reason being that there were two Bartholomew Kuma lookalikes on the bridge, more or less keeping it on lockdown. The last time he had seen more than one Bartholomew Kuma it was a stupid cyborg that nearly killed him, and now there were two, and he had no backup, "How many of these stupid things exist?"

"Soren!"

Looking up at the sky and the canopy of the massive trees that comprised Sabaody Archipelago, Soren saw Miss Valentine drift down from the sky on her umbrella, "Valentine? What the hell, aren't you with the others?"

"I was with Naruto when he made his huge ball of debris out of the Human Auction House, I saw you run this way away from everyone else and I thought, 'Hey, who would probably need my help the most?'" Miss Valentine said, closing her umbrella up and pointing it at the two Pacifista cyborgs in front of them, "Or do you want to try this by yourself?"

On one hand his pride and backward sense of chivalry towards women despite their strength told him to fight it out on his own, but the fact that the last time he fought a Pacifista he was mercilessly rag-dolled about won out in the end and he wordlessly ad reluctantly nodded his agreement to Miss Valentine's assistance.

The eyes of the pair of Pacifista began to glow as they locked on to the pair, "'Human Albatross' Miss Valentine, bounty 83 million beli. 'The Plague' Soren, bounty 251 million beli."

Miss Valentine scoffed, but never lost her smile despite her apparent annoyance, "I swear I hate that stupid nickname." She said before smacking her umbrella into her open palm in preparation for the coming fight, "You ready?"

Instead of getting an immediate answer from her current partner, the Pacifista charged laser blasts from their hands and fired them at the two pirates who used their respective speed techniques to evade, Soren's Soru and Miss Valentine's Haneho.

"I don't think it matters if I'm ready or not!" Soren shouted before getting in close, dodging extra laser blasts as he did so, 'Heh, I'm faster this time and I've got all kinds of other moves too. Maybe I won't be half-past dead when this one's over.' He thought to himself, deciding to fully engage in the battle at hand for better or for worse, "I hate this crew!"

"Oh, no you don't. Don't be such a liar. You love us." Miss Valentine said in a contradictory manner, dodging a laser blast with a high jump before evading another one by quickly putting on a lot of weight to fall down faster.

While Miss Valentine was focusing on her evasion techniques, Soren didn't want to get bogged down in a long fight at a time like that. Using one of his sharp canine teeth he cut a deep gash from his shoulder down to his hand, allowing his own blood to coat the entire limb before the sizzling life fluid with acidic properties quickly cauterized his own wound, "I've got to go for the knockout right now before this dries." It was the only thing he could think of that could get through the metal that his regular acid couldn't get through the last time around.

He had to be on his game and as fast as possible or else he was going to pay for attempting a close-range direct attack on this thing. Then again, that was the only way he knew how to fight other than launching distance attacks, and none of those would work in this case.

"Ibi Ibi no Chi: Ibi Ibi no Deba (Rot Rot Blood: Rot Rot Knife)!"

A high-speed rush from the first mate of the Foxhound Crew was used preemptively the moment he saw the telltale flash of another laser blast charging up. The blast missed him and Soren buried his knife-edged hand right through the neck of the Pacifista, surprised that the things actually bled when he decapitated it via his special attack.

As he watched the head of the Pacifista fly through the air and the body of the massive thing fall to the ground, Soren blinked in surprise. He knew his blood was his strongest acid despite the fact that he didn't have much to use freely due to the anemia his Devil Fruit power gave him, but it just let him drive his hand and arm into metal like it was a lump of cold butter, "Whoa." He said to himself, the loss of blood from his previously grievous wound getting to him as he stumbled a bit, "I did it? Without needing a doctor afterwards?"

Miss Valentine laughed as she wound up getting close to one of the Pacifista, "These things fight poorly, they're just really powerful and durable." She commented, using her umbrella to smash one in the leg with the weight behind it, sweeping it to the ground where she decided to finish with one move. Miss Valentine lifted one of her legs high above her head before dropping it heel-first in a precision ax kick, "Hissatsu: 5000 Kilo Hasaki no Ono (Sure-Kill: 5000 Kilogram Axe's Edge)!"

The kick smashed the entire head of the Pacifista, destroying the cyborg with the scary-massive amount of weight behind the attack crushing its cranium and part of the ground underneath it, forming a forceful crater.

"All you need is some serious sure-kill power to beat one. I think a minimum of 5000 kilograms dropping onto the head is enough, don't you?" Miss Valentine concluded with a bright smile and a laugh, undermining how dark that would have been if it had been an actual person instead of a cyborg. Even then it still bled, "…Most people can't put together that kind of force though, even with a cannon." Her powers were kind of cheating in that kind of instance, but it wasn't her fault she had trained on how to use them… it was Naruto's fault.

Soren took his bandanna from off of his head and wrapped it tightly around his bicep where his self-inflicted gash had been the worst to keep it from breaking back open while they ran, "Cool. So let's get going already… I'm dizzy."

"Poor anemic psychopath."

"Shut up Valentine."

XxX

(With Naruto – Remnants of Grove 1)

Standing on the top of his own massive airborne ball of random debris that in reality wasn't so random, Naruto was paying attention to every bit of material comprising the ball. His reason for using Chibaku Tensei was to take in all of the cannons and other heavy arms that the Marines had surrounded the Human Auction House grove with. It was only a bonus really that he could use it for a pretty scary attack to boot.

Just seeing the floating body of material sent the Marine grunts running for the hills (even though there weren't any hills) because Naruto had simultaneously disarmed them of anything that could reach him with the use of his jutsu. It was like fighting something inhuman.

The entire top stalk and trunk of the grove/tree had to go due to the powerful pull of the technique, ripping it from its ground-like roots above the water, "Sorry tree... but some evil stuff happened on you and I can't let that stand." Naruto said, apologizing to what he believed to be quite an amazing bit of nature, the Yarukiman Groves that comprised the landmark town.

Now all he had to do was find something to throw it at. The stupid tree canopies kept him from seeing what he needed to in the multiple groves.

So he didn't see the multiple volleys of light blasts that pulverized the Chibaku Tensei ball out of the air. And due to the all-attracting properties of the jutsu, each one of them hit the compressed ball and forced it to fall apart from the force.

Naruto fell back to the ground, using the debris and jumping off of the bits and pieces on the way down to keep his falling speed low for safety until he could reach the trunk of another Yarukiman Tree to slide down the trunk. Upon landing he stood in the middle of the falling rifles, cannons, pieces of building, chunks of tree, and other random things that were coming down through the top of the tree leaves.

"Impressive as… always." In the dust of the currently catastrophically embattled area, a tall figure walked through the shroud, making himself and his loud striped yellow suit known, "You sure don't know much how to hold back at times like this… Uzumaki Naruto."

Crap. Well logic said that it wasn't going to be Aokiji that was sent. After what had occurred at Enies Lobby, he was probably still getting his butt chewed out about that, and Naruto didn't know the other admiral, so why wouldn't it be Kizaru that was sent?

The same trick he pulled in Alabasta wasn't going to work twice.

But maybe he didn't even have to try anything.

"Um… bye monkey-boy." Naruto said, waving at Kizaru before vanishing in a yellow flash.

As things still fell from the sky, Kizaru only stared at the place where Naruto had just been standing moments before. He shot the bastard's huge floating ball of crud out of the air and he just disappeared on him, "I almost forgot how annoying you were. You won't get away no matter how fast you think you are." Kuma let the Straw Hat Pirates escape with his technique to transport them away. He wasn't going to let the biggest bounty on the island escape as well since he fought to a draw with Silvers Rayleigh.

Even if Naruto could teleport himself too, his underlings couldn't. They had a ship, and the Marine battleships dispatched to Sabaody Archipelago were still keeping the north and east side of the place on watch.

So all he had to do was wait for them to try and leave, and there he'd have his target in a fix. And with that in mind, he moved in a series of flashes of light towards the closest warship.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

The door to the main room of the ship was thrust open with Naruto running outside onto the deck. To his relief the crew were already moving around, preparing for the worst as the ship was slowly moving through the groves trying to leave Sabaody Archipelago, and the open ocean was in sight.

"Did we get away?" Naruto asked aloud before realizing that there was no seafaring battle going on, getting him to sigh in relief, "Yes, we got away. Cool." He quickly made his way to the helm where Vivi who had recently taken on the responsibility of steering the ship in his absence was manning the wheel, "Vivi-hime…"

"I'm sorry." Vivi said preemptively, trying to keep Naruto from saying what she already expected him to, "I was scared. I did it to try and keep the worst from happening to you guys… but it wound up happening anyway." She finished flatly. Once again she had sorely underestimated how far south things could go with her friends… all of them.

Naruto sighed and sat down on the bench beside Vivi who was standing up to see better while steering, "Even if Luffy hadn't knocked that guy's block off for whatever reason he did it the minute I found out that you'd done something as stupid as you did I would have just taken you back anyway." He grabbed Vivi's hand and prompted her to sit down next to him so that she would listen for certain, "If it had been you instead of Robin-chan that had been in her position at Enies Lobby I would have been the first one kicking that place's gates down to get you out."

"Against these people that's really dumb. You can't win a war against the people who created the World Government. That's a war with the entire world itself."

"I've always been kind of dumb. Some things you don't grow out of."

"That's self-sacrificial and stupid. Worry about yourself sometime."

Apparently in Alabasta Vivi had been more than willing to give up her life to protect her country from Crocodile and Baroque Works. Well here she was willing to lose her freedom so that the rest of the crew didn't suffer the wrath of the World Nobles. She was brave, but she liked to take her problems onto her own shoulders too much. Naruto was sort of the opposite; he seemed to take on the problems of others too much.

He still hadn't grown up out of that even after decades of it. Always trying to be a problem-solver, "You should listen to your own advice too you know." Naruto said in response, getting Vivi to roll her eyes, "I know you're tough but just remember, as long as you're with us you don't have to do things by yourself. And even when you go home, if Alabasta needs help that you can't fix on your own maybe we can help you out. I'll always be one move away… when I get more special kunai. Alright?"

"Alright." Vivi nodded, smiling at that thought with some reddening of her cheeks. She had heard that much before, from Luffy and his crew as well, but to know that eventually if she needed the help it would be one quick throw of a weapon away it made her feel rather safe, even though the person assuring her of this fact was probably the least safe person alive.

"Hey, dumb blonde captain, I need you to come with me to the wading pool to check something out. I think you need to see it."

Grumbling at being called dumb blonde captain by Paulie and his full-on rudeness, Naruto got up to head back inside and check the hold of the ship in the location at the back where he was requested to go, "Yeah, yeah. I'm on the way you jerk. You can call me by my name you know."

Watching him leave for a moment before he disappeared inside from her sight, Vivi went right back to steering the ship when she saw Nojiko walk in front of her and the wheel, leaning on the front of it with a sly smirk on her face, "With a sniper like me I see everything you know. You and our fearless captain are getting kind of close aren't you?"

"What are you saying Nojiko? I can't feel like that about a pirate, even one like Naruto… I'm a princess of a nation of the World Government." Vivi defended with a huff at Nojiko's implication, pausing for a moment when they both heard a loud shout from the inside that sounded like 'I'm not a pirate' before she continued, "I'm not like the rest of you. You and Miss Valentine can do this forever, I can't. Eventually I have to go home and move on from all of this, no matter how much fun it is."

"Uh huh…" Nojiko said in a disbelieving tone of voice before poking Vivi right in the middle of her forehead, "Whatever you say, but you know you don't believe that." She then turned towards the front of the ship to keep looking out for trouble, "…Geez, you act like we haven't seen like three other kingdoms with ties to pirates before."

Vivi stuck her tongue out at Nojiko behind her back and turned her attention back to keeping the ship on track to get away from Sabaody Archipelago as soon as possible until she heard a very loud expletive from Soren's position in the crow's nest, "What? What's the matter?"

"Oh shit…" Nojiko said with a frown on her face as she saw the source of Soren's vulgar outburst, "Yeah, there's a warship trying to head us off at the pass." Failure was apparently not an option if they were actually pursuing them with one lone ship. Either that or they didn't know that it was the Natural Disaster that they were about to face off with, "Cannons?"

"Ready!" Both Johnny and Yosaku chimed in unison as they had them loaded and turned in the proper direction, Nojiko moving between them, adjusting them to make sure they really were ready to fire, "Come on new guy, lend us a hand here."

As requested, Byron was manning the heaviest cannon, prepared to fire that one first and foremost, "This might not be the best time to bring this up, but I can't say how good it feels to be out and doing this again." Freedom certainly was sweet, and if he were caught he'd be sent right back to the people that had bought him. That was not a choice as far as he was concerned.

"They fired a shot!" Nojiko shouted after hearing the blast of a cannon from the enemy ship, "But there's no way their guns are in range of us if _we_ can't even hit _them_ yet." Was it a warning shot? It didn't seem likely, "Whatever, Vivi, go around wide. It's just the one ship, we don't have to fight it. It won't catch us if we can just get our back to it."

XxX

(Onboard the Marine Ship)

"We can't hit them from this range sir!" A Marine captain said, saluting Kizaru who was standing casually with his hands in his pockets, "I'm sorry, but we need to risk getting closer to their ship." He knew that much was dangerous as the Natural Disaster ship was vicious in close-quarters and could pick up speed suddenly among other things.

"Yaah, that's okay." Kizaru replied smoothly before standing on the top of the cannon that had just fired. He made a flippant, non-chalant hand gesture as he looked out towards the Foxhound Pirate ship, "Reload it and fire again. This is good enough actually. Keep moving toward it though. I'll need you there to pick me back up."

According to Kizaru's orders, the cannon was reloaded and quickly fired, sending a cannonball into the air that Kizaru timed with his light powers to wind up standing on the ball as it flew through the air. From there right before the cannonball began descending, Kizaru jumped off, hanging in the air over the ship before landing atop one of the tree-like masts, "You know, I have to say that this ship is… interesting." He took a step off of the mast and started to fall before turning his body to light and flashing his way to the deck where he reappeared, looking around down there as well, "Hmm, grass on the deck too? Strange."

Every single member of the crew froze in place with looks of horror on their faces. There was an admiral, right there on their ship. Close enough to see, close enough to hear, almost close enough to touch.

Though there were seven of them and one of him, not a single one of the rogue crew dared to move to try and take advantage of it. And Kizaru seemingly didn't have any problems with that as he just stood there observing them all, "Another rookie crew. But I don't see either of your top two. That's kind of a letdown. Did I make a mistake in believing that Uzumaki would arrive here by now?"

'What are we going to do now?' Nojiko thought to herself. She didn't dare risk reaching for one of her guns. Not that she wasn't confident in her quickdraw, but not against an admiral. At the moment, her raw untrained precognitive Haki was doing nothing but flashing sights of their own violent demises in front of her eyes if she tried any kind of move, 'Nothing about this is going to end well. There's no move to make.'

The thing about being afraid is; your brain will at times work down to a reaction that isn't always the best course of action to take. Usually this manifests itself as an act of overt aggression in the hopes that you'll catch the source of your fear off-guard and enable an opportunity that you otherwise wouldn't have had.

This usually occurs in the minds of the simpler creatures of the world when they find themselves seemingly cornered.

Which would explain why Johnny and Yosaku took the initiative to attempt to attack, with the latter following up on the former's quickdraw slash that cut right through Kizaru's waist. Of course he simply reverted to light before reforming himself as if he were never injured at all.

Feeling their swords pass through nothing, Johnny and Yosaku didn't even have the time for true panic to set in before Johnny was kicked in the face hard enough to be sent flying into the mast where he peeled off of it like a bug and fell to the deck.

Almost instinctively at having such a threat still right in front of him, Yosaku drove his Kubikiribouchou into the ground and planned to hide behind the flat of his blade to block any other attack from Kizaru, but that was not enough, as a thin beam of light passed through his body from the side, all the way through, dropping him to his knees with a desperate gasp, 'How can he-?' Yosaku thought to himself as he turned his head to the side and saw Kizaru, still aiming his index finger right at him, 'How can someone be that fast?'

"Down boy…" Kizaru said mockingly towards his wounded quarry, preparing to finish the job with similar attack until a series of shots rang out and bullets passed through his body with specks of light representing where he should have been wounded, "Well you certainly don't give up… do you?" And then a barrage of acidic projectiles flew through his body much in the same manner, "Acid? What a scary power." He said calmly and cheerfully.

A shadow appeared above him and from the sky Miss Valentine dropped down with her umbrella at the ready to smash Kizaru, 'He might use a Logia fruit like Crocodile, but with this it doesn't matter! I can still hit him!'

"Too slow." Kizaru said disappointedly, throwing a jumping kick into the air that fired off a laser blast that hit the falling and mostly vulnerable woman, causing an explosion and forcing her to fall right back onto the deck, her attack thwarted, "With an opening like that there was no way I was going to let you finish whatever you had planned."

Miss Valentine let out a cough before laughing weakly, trying to get back up with little success. That blast hit her while she was wide open with nowhere to go, and the fall to the deck wasn't exactly gentle either, "Not my best idea, but I couldn't let you kill Yosaku like that."

"So now you'll both die instead?" Kizaru asked, ignoring the fact that Soren was skulking and lurking around somewhere looking for an opening. He would never find one that could actually harm him so it didn't matter, "You're right, that idea wasn't that smart… at all." He looked around for anyone else on the ship only to see a rather rattled Vivi still manning the helm, "Ah, Nefertari Vivi. I'm going to need you to come with me." Vivi didn't move and just shook her head slowly, "No? Well I'll just finish up here and take you anyway. There are some concerns that we have with your actions over the past year that maybe you can clear up for us. Say, where is the other woman? The one with the guns?"

Once again, it was of no consequence since Nojiko couldn't harm him with her weapons, but losing sight of one of the enemy members was a little embarrassing.

"That is of no importance to you Admiral Kizaru, I will gladly be your opponent instead!"

The ragged-looking tagalong of the crew, Byron, stepped into the space between Kizaru on the deck and Vivi at the front of the ship where she was still steering. The ever-present calm smile of Kizaru didn't change a bit, "And you would be? I didn't know that this crew had any new people on it at all."

"I owe these people a debt that I cannot repay if you kill or capture them." Byron said, casting his dirty black jacket aside to leave him in his tattered white ruffled shirt as he rolled his sleeves up to his elbows in preparation for a fight, "And you won't capture me either. I would rather die than go back."

"As you wish then." Kizaru said as calmly as ever, raising an eyebrow in interest as he saw Byron's hair begin to grow out wider and down his back like a mane, "Another Devil Fruit user? These people just seem to get stranger and stranger all the time." A barrage of quills then flew through his body, "…They don't seem to get much smarter though."

"I knew that wouldn't work." Byron said, his hair standing up on end from the position that they had fired the hair follicles from, "But I just had to try anyway. Very well then." At this point he was merely stalling for Nojiko to get to whatever she ran off inside of the ship for, "You think my Devil Fruit is interesting? I'll show you the power of the Ke Ke no Mi (Hair Hair Fruit)."

Even if Byron fought, it wouldn't do any good. He beat everyone else that tried and direct attacks weren't hurting him at all, 'How is anyone supposed to beat a Logia user like this? How did Naruto live through this?'

Before they could start fighting though, the deck right by the steering wheel and Vivi burst open with Naruto landing there. The spot had been right beneath his room on the ship so he could ruin it if he wanted to. It was the second time that someone broke through it so why not him this time?

"Hi." Naruto said, Rinnegan eyes locked firmly on Kizaru. That was certainly the quietest fight with someone that strong that had ever happened on the Natural Disaster. Training was usually louder than that battle had been.

"Hello." Kizaru replied amicably before lifting his leg and shooting a laser blast at Naruto with a kick.

With the reflexes given to him in Sage Mode, Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash, forcing the blast to miss and hit the waters of the ocean a ways away instead of hitting him. He then hopped back out of the hole in the deck, having used Hiraishin to quickly avoid the move. So Kizaru was still as fast as ever.

What a pain…

"Vivi-hime, keep steering the ship." Naruto told her, setting a hand on her shoulder as a form of reassurance that everything was going to be okay, "Muret's on her way to make sure everyone that got hurt is going to be alright." As he said that, his awareness while in Sage Mode allowed him to pull Vivi down with him to duck a kick from Kizaru aimed at him, 'This is too dangerous to fight on the ship!'

He drew a Hiraishin kunai and threw it into the skies above the ocean, grabbing the weapon as his descent began only for Kizaru to appear in the air with him. The admiral delivered a speedy kick once he saw Naruto immediately retaliate to his presence with a punch that had them clash in midair.

"Oh, so you can keep pace a little better this time." Kizaru said in amusement from behind his gold-tinted sunglasses, "Good to see that you could learn something… new."

"And you didn't just jump right at me this time at light-speed." Naruto replied in turn with determination in his gaze, "I was hoping I could time you and reflect you away again like the last time." When Kizaru had attacked him by Vivi, he had merely picked a spot right by Naruto on the deck of the ship and stopped short instead of attacking him directly.

"No such luck I'm afraid."

"I thought so."

With that, the two pushed away from each other and seemed to vanish in the air.

* * *

**Whoo! I've got a cabinet full of beef jerky and a full bank account, it's a good time to be me right now! Anyway, I was waiting for some new materials of substance to be revealed in One Piece, but I figured that it was more than long enough to have waited since even if I did stumble across anything it wouldn't be used yet anyway. I just scrapped that plan and decided to finish writing the chapter.**

**Ah well, whatever. **

**So there's danger afoot and people have been hurt quickly by the seemingly untouchable Logia user with no overt weakness. What will happen next? I don't know. Why are you asking me?**

**Later everyone, Kenchi out.**


	40. Night of Recourse

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I'm so tired. So very, very tired.

**Chapter 40: Night of Recourse**

* * *

Kizaru was ballsy to fight Naruto on the water, there was no question about it. He had to know just how much of a disadvantage he was at, even with the fact that he had a marked speed advantage. All Naruto had to do was drench him with seawater and that would be that, he would be all but useless in a battle against him.

He obviously knew that, because he was merely hanging high in the air looking down on Naruto who stood on the surface of the water between the ship of the Foxhound Pirate crew and the Marine battleship that Kizaru had taken to reach them.

'He can do that?' Naruto thought to himself, the water of the waves brushing against his face. Even if he wasn't in Sage Mode at the moment, with his body soaking wet he could have punched Kizaru right in the face as he was, 'How in the world can he-? Why didn't he ever do that the last time we fought?'

"You… don't live long on the seas with such an obvious weakness if you don't know how to circumvent it." Kizaru said casually as he continued to just stand on the air as if it were nothing at all, "So what are you going to do now with your vaunted control of the seas being useless to you. I doubt you can make a wave… over one hundred feet high. That would be _really_ scary."

Glaring up at the man that never seemed to take him seriously no matter what he pulled out combat-wise, Naruto growled to himself and on his Rinnegan eyes went, "You're not the only one that's got some extra moves up your sleeve that you didn't use last time around."

"Oh… really?" Kizaru drawled out, still looking very amused, "So you've got more magic tricks up your sleeve do you? Well by all means, perform." Kizaru made a motion to look at a nonexistent wristwatch on his arm, "…I'll give you five minutes. Five minutes and I'll finish my job to destroy your ship and your crew. You could be strong enough to keep yourself safe, but could you keep them safe as well? And if you can't, then if you still feel like it we can keep on fighting."

"This isn't going to take five minutes!" Naruto bit his thumb and quickly made a few hand-seals before slamming his hand onto the surface of the water, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!"

Kizaru looked on in a bit of interested surprise as from the smoke that appeared via Naruto's jutsu, a large, ugly bird with a drill-like beak and three legs. It also shared Naruto's ripple-pattern Rinnegan eyes which meant it shared his field of vision and Naruto shared its own as well, "Oh, that's interesting." He said as he saw it flying up directly at him at an absurd speed, but not fast enough as he moved right out of its way, "Not really a good idea to try and attack with anything that large though."

"Senpou: Rasentaihou (Sage Art: Spiraling Cannon)!"

The sound of a rifle-crack rang out and a fist-sized bullet of chakra flew up from the surface of the water right at Kizaru faster than the naked eye could see. He expected the attack to phase right through him and was prepared with a sarcastic comment to remark on it, but instead the attack smashed right into his belly and propelled him high into the air.

A smirking Naruto stood on the water where the smoke from his summoning had cleared, his fist still outstretched from firing his Rasentaihou, "Oh the bird wasn't the attack." In a flash of yellow, Naruto reappeared in the sky on his freaky bird's back as there was a Hiraishin kunai gripped tightly in one of its feet, "It's my ride!" Now Naruto was aerially mobile. And it was his fastest summon creature. Not as fast as Kizaru's light, but it didn't need to be. It was fast enough for what he needed it for, transportation around the battlefield.

He'd handle the rest when it came to dealing with the speedy bastard.

And he was still grinning all the while, because he had finally managed to hit Kizaru. So it definitely wasn't impossible for him. He just needed to be fast. Faster than fast even. Even if Kizaru could move at purely inhuman speeds even past that of the fastest enemies Naruto had ever faced, he still had very human reflexes and while his were still extremely impressive Naruto could outwork those reflexes.

Kizaru eventually stopped spiraling through the air, drawing to a halt in the skies to look down at Naruto again, flying about on his bird, "You… hit me." He said, patting down the smouldering spiral-shaped burn on the front of his suit that was still producing smoke, "How in the world did you-? Ah, Haki."

"Sure, we can call it that." Naruto said, sick of explaining the properties of Sage Mode. If that was what they wanted to call the effect that let Naruto hit Logia users then he would simply roll with it. No need to correct anyone, especially when they were wrong, "Now shut up and get your ass kicked like a good boy."

Kizaru just looked at his watch and his lips quirked. That had barely taken any time at all, "Four minutes, thirty-seven seconds left." By the time he looked back up Naruto on his drill-beaked bird was already flying towards him again, "Time's a wasting."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Muret had made it onto the deck and had begun the healing process of assisting Johnny, Miss Valentine, and Yosaku who was dealing with the worst wounds after Kizaru's systematic decimation of the fighters.

"I can't see anything." Byron remarked in regards to the battle between Naruto and Kizaru. They could hear it of course, the booms in the air sounded like thunder, but seeing it was entirely different altogether, "What is happening to Naruto-sama?"

"He's in a fight quill-brain." Soren remarked to the recently freed slave in an antsy, irritated way, "If you can still hear it, it ain't close to being over yet."

The reason for Soren's irritable attitude? He had attacked Kizaru several times and the bastard just let them pass on through him. He had gotten so much stronger since stepping onto that crew, but he still seemed to be out of his league when it came to the admiral-class Marines. And three of his friends had been injured while he had been trying to figure a way to attack and harm Kizaru.

Whoa, friends? Yeah, friends. Damn it, there was not a chance in hell he could deny it now. Each bastard on that ship was a friend of his, and being useless despite the fact that he fancied himself the second strongest of them hurt.

Meanwhile, Vivi was not really concerned with the fight in the sky, even though she'd shake a little every time she heard a loud 'boom' from the clashes or the trading of blows. She was more worried about steering the ship out of harm's way, but the Marine warship was not keen on letting them get away, "It's sticking with us. We can outrun it, but it'll take a while."

If Naruto were there behind the helm he could simply power the wind seals in the sail and off they'd be. But as it was, without such they were no faster than a regular Marine vessel of their size, which was coincidentally what they were being chased by.

Hearing that got Soren to let out a groan, "Where the hell is Paulie? If anyone knows how to make this tub go faster without Uzumaki playing a living battery to it it'd be him."

"He never came up. He's in the common area on the Den Den Mushi for some reason." Muret said, continuing to patch up her friends and crewmates while trying to block out the sounds of the fighting, "I really hope it's a _good_ reason." If that prude of a shipwright wasn't doing something important on the damn phone she'd have Funkfreed crush him, "Perona's down in the hold, as far away from Kizaru as she can get."

For someone that could fight as well as Perona could with her Devil Fruit powers she was clearly shaken by those that she knew without a shadow of a doubt were stronger than her. In this case she was probably far smarter than any of them.

None of this was being paid much mind by Nojiko who was sitting on the stairs leading to the helm holding her head, images of Naruto and Kizaru's ongoing fight flashing through her skull as clear as day as they were making their every move. And since they were moving faster than the normal eye could see the images were slowed down and shoved into her mind at a rate she could understand… at the normal speed of processing thought.

The sharpshooting bluenette's pretty little head didn't know how to take it. It was like the ultimate migraine from hell.

Goodness, why did she have to get the precognitive Haki? And why didn't anyone tell her it hurt this damn badly the first time she started using new aspects of it?

XxX

(Skies Above the Natural Disaster and Marine Battleship – Naruto vs. Kizaru)

Naruto's drill-beaked bird was a moving platform that he always retreated to, using his Hiraishin technique to quickly flash back after leaving it to attack his enemy. It was a very pestering style of offense even if Kizaru hadn't let Naruto land any clean hits after it had been confirmed that Naruto could knock his lights out (literally) given the opportunity.

But there was something about Naruto that was beginning to piss Kizaru off as well.

The bird that the blonde shinobi/captain was riding could dodge his attacks without even looking his way. It was fast, but to be able to sense an attack coming as fast as his own? Impossible.

Of course he didn't know that both Naruto and the bird shared the same field of vision, thus what Naruto saw the bird saw and vice versa, but then again that wasn't really a question that one brought up in the middle of a fight against said person or bird.

"As far as parlor tricks go…" Kizaru started to say, preparing to fire another blast at Naruto's bird, "…Yours are actually very good." He threw a kick that shot an explosive beam of light at the bird only to hit nothing despite the fact that the bird wasn't facing him, 'How is it dodging me?'

A sharp whistle echoed out from Naruto's place on the bird and from the water like a guided missile, Samehada flew out directly at Kizaru tip first, which meant that the smirking mouth and jagged teeth were clearly visible on the sentient weapon.

Kizaru was able to move out of the way, hearing from Aokiji that Naruto's odd sword could harm Logia users. It was a good thing that he managed to avoid it so well during their first encounter in Alabasta then, "You brought that creepy sword to fight me once again?"

As the shark-skin sword was high in the air above Kizaru's head, it diverted its trajectory to fly directly into Naruto's hands atop his bird, "Gigigigigigi (Samehada is not creepy! Samehada is the strongest sword in the world! Master knows this!)!" The sword chattered angrily, vibrating in Naruto's grasp.

"I know that." Naruto said to calm the sword down, "But he doesn't. And to be honest you are kind of creepy. I thought that myself whenever people used you against me." The sword angrily chattered again and Naruto's eye twitched in response to what was said, "Yeah whatever, let's do this."

Kizaru meanwhile was taking aim at Naruto atop the bird with his fingers before finally finding his moment to fire, which he did, only for Naruto to jump from his summon creature as it dove to avoid the attack, "Hmm… how does he keep anticipating my attacks the way he does?" The admiral said to himself as he saw Naruto soar through the air towards him.

"Enough with this crap!" Naruto shouted aloud, charging Samehada full of chakra, "If I can't stop him and hit him I'll just take away anywhere for him to run to! Yajirushi Misairu-en (Flaming Arrow Missiles!" Samehada's scaly skin stood up on end before multiple spines began to be fired from the weapon. Dozens upon dozens of miniature missiles filled the air all over, seemingly homed in on Kizaru.

Kizaru just peered into the sky at all of the missiles that were surrounding him on all sides, or so it appeared, "Oh… and he was kind enough to leave me an escape route as well. I sure hope he isn't trying to trap me the moment I escape in that direction. That would be a shame." He said sarcastically before holding his arms out, "Yasakani no Magatama (Eight Shaku Curved Jewel)!"

From his hands a rapid-fire torrent of light particles flew outward to blow up all of Naruto's missiles in the air. It was a veritable lights and fireworks show. If it wasn't so terrifying to think about what was happening so close to all of them below it would have been beautiful.

The view was clearly visible from Sabaody Archipelago, and much attention would have been paid to it were it not for the fact that there was chaos rampant all over the island at the moment. However anyone with sense observing the scene would stay far away instead of thinking of venturing closer for a better look.

Naruto cursed mentally at seeing his Asura Path attack fail. So Kizaru had large-scale attacks along with the ridiculous speed and precise laser-like maneuvers? Of course he did. He had to have all of his bases covered in battle didn't he? Even Naruto's Asura Path missile attack didn't cover enough air.

A smirk came over Kizaru's face as he held out his hands again and formed a sword that seemed to be made of pure light before disappearing right in front of Naruto's eyes who knew what was coming before it even happened, "Crap." He jumped off of his summoned bird just as it was slashed by Kizaru's sword. The bird let out a screech of pain and returned from whence it came in a puff of smoke as Naruto fell towards the water from the sky.

"Let's see how indestructible you are." Kizaru commented as he watched Naruto fall towards the ocean, "Falling from this height, it doesn't matter who you are." But Naruto never hit the water. What he did in order to avoid such actually got the yellow-clad admiral's eye to twitch, "You are truly the most annoying man in the world."

Instead of falling from the sky, Naruto was instead standing on the tip of Samehada's handle as the large sword hovered upside down in the sky, chakra ejecting from the weapon's mouth at its top like afterburners, "Sorry buddy. I know you hate it when I use you as my medium for the Asura Path techniques because you've got to waste so much of your chakra, but I'll put back however much you use."

"Gigigigigi (You'd better! You're too much of a slowpoke to let me taste this man's chakra without blocking his attacks!)!"

There was no time to mess around and Naruto stepped forward on the sword's handle while planting his other foot on the scaly flat of Samehada, using it like a surfboard to rocket through the air even faster than the bird had been going, and as a far harder target to hit due to the size.

Kizaru started firing blasts at Naruto atop Samehada, but Naruto merely maneuvered the sword so that it would take the shots, absorbing the energy behind them all the while. In return for that, Kizaru quickly appeared at Narutos side with his light sword ready to swing.

A quickdraw motion from a pocket of his flak jacket put a Hiraishin kunai into Naruto's hand that he used to block the sword slash.

Once again, the two started clashing all across the skies in flashes of light and afterburners with Kizaru trying to cut Naruto down in vain. He had to stop his absurd speed in order to take a swing at Naruto, and his awareness while in Sage Mode made it so that he had enough reaction time to counter accordingly.

Kizaru had honestly not expected this kind of a fight to be put up by Naruto, bounty notwithstanding. The first time they had fought, Naruto had managed to send him away with a lucky break that would not be repeated. And with Naruto's advantage of his 'control over the seas' taken out of play he expected to take Naruto down well within his five minute window that he had made for himself.

Wait. Five minutes?

"Oh… it looks like I've gotten carried away again." Kizaru said, acting as if he were mortified by a lack of professionalism or something along those lines. He checked his nonexistent watch again with his usual unreadable expression on his face, "It's been closer to ten minutes now… I only gave you five and then I said I would destroy your ship… and with all of those Devil Fruit users on it… well you don't have to be brilliant to figure out what's going to happen next."

Naruto's eyes widened and he turned to see that the Natural Disaster was still well within sight, even if it seemed very small due to its distance from them, "If you take a single shot at my ship that's all the time I'll need to kill you in one move." Naruto threatened in return, knowing that one of Kizaru's accurate exploding kick blasts had a very good chance of sinking the vessel, not even to say if he fired that volume attack from before.

"Kill me in one move? Oh no." That deadpan sarcasm that Kizaru kept throwing his way was really annoying in Naruto's opinion, "Well it all depends on how lucky you feel. Do you think you can hit me before I can do what I want? I am light you know. I don't have to shoot your ship from here, I can just travel there as light. From here to there I'm faster than your little teleportation technique and you know it."

This time, Naruto didn't say a word, just staring Kizaru down as the two of them faced off in the air. All of a sudden Naruto disappeared in a yellow flash and Kizaru followed suit in a burst of light.

XxX

(Moments Earlier – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"Get the hell out of the way or help me!" Nojiko wailed desperately from inside the ship itself before she came rocketing out on her Waver Skates, holding a full-length body mirror she had taken from Miss Valentine's room.

Vivi moved aside for the seeming benefit of her fellow bluenette as Nojiko came to a stop right next to her at the helm and placed the mirror where she had been standing, facing towards the back of the ship, "Nojiko what are you doing?"

Nojiko didn't answer, instead nervously waiting, looking off in the direction where she and the others had left Naruto and Kizaru to fight in the sky while they tried to get away. In her head she had heard the conversation between Naruto and Kizaru, and she had then seen a vision of the entire ship going up in a fiery explosion. Beginning with Kizaru appearing onboard the ship again, standing right on the steering wheel facing them all to be a dramatic douche about the whole thing before killing them.

She was so nervous she didn't even notice the glare of light reflecting off of the mirror, as she had been fearing the worst the entire time.

At that moment, a still in Sage Mode Naruto hopped out of the hole under the deck by the helm that he had smashed to get to Kizaru quickly at first, "Where is he? There's no way I beat him here!" Naruto exclaimed suddenly as he looked around for any sign of Kizaru, "There's no way he'd have let me come back if he was planning on destroying the ship. I can defend it from here." The admiral should have known that.

Seconds passed by and still no Kizaru in sight.

Nojiko eventually let out a sigh of relief and Naruto noticed the gigantic mirror in front of the helm that Nojiko was leaning against. He raised an eyebrow in interest at what he was seeing before it became quite clear as to what the first lady of the Foxhound Pirates had managed to pull off. Naruto gave her a grin and outstretched his arms wide. A sly looking Nojiko sauntered her way right into his arms and wrapped her arms around his neck before sharing a kiss with him.

Vivi just stared at them with a blush staining her cheeks at the public display of affection from Nojiko and her captain, "Uh…" She said lamely trying to get their attention while Naruto picked Nojiko up and spun her around as they continued to kiss, "You were just freaking out a minute ago and now you two are-!" She tried to get out before her blush came back full force, "Stop it and tell me what's going on!" Vivi ordered.

Hearing the young princess snap at them actually got Naruto and Nojiko to stop kissing in order to look at her owlishly. In order to explain, Naruto let his Sage Mode and Rinnegan fade and pointed at the mirror, "Kizaru can turn into light."

Nojiko then picked up in the explanation, "I saw how he was going to come here and torch the ship, so I put a mirror where I visualized he was going to stand once he got here. I remember Naruto-kun saying something about that before…"

Vivi made a 'oh' face before taking a minute to think about something else, "Wait. So where did Admiral Kizaru go?"

XxX

(Red Line)

Once again, a simple household mirror was his downfall. What an embarrassing way to be forced to retreat, not once but twice. It had to be a mirror, because there was no way he ended up that far from the mark. No way at all. How in the world did this happen twice? It made no sense at all. How in the world did he hit a mirror?

At least this time it didn't send him whipping all over the world. This time the angle he hit the mirror at couldn't send him that high into the air. It actually made him travel low enough to the surface to hit something solid this time to stop him.

God, seriously. _That guy_ had to be the one to come up with a way to stop him? Really? It couldn't have been someone like Shanks or Whitebeard? Hell, any one of the Yonkou he would have been better with them eventually brute forcing him into defeat rather than someone finding out a clever way to negate his direct speed like with Uzumaki Naruto.

Sitting in a cave-sized fissure that he had pulverized into the titanic rock wall that wrapped around the entire world with his body, Kizaru adjusted his sunglasses on his relaxed face and sighed, "I think I hate him. I think I rather dislike them all actually." He said in his usual nonchalant voice, "I really think this is my least favorite pirate crew in the entire world." He was very tempted to neglect returning to Marineford for the encounter with Whitebeard just so he could chase Naruto and his crew down and deal with them accordingly.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"Ha!" Naruto shouted in a victorious manner, looking in no particular direction really as he didn't know which way Kizaru had been shot off towards, "Twice! That's twice now that we got you with the same damn thing you arrogant, dull-faced bastard! That's what you get for underestimating my crew! I bet you didn't know Noji-chan had that Haki stuff did you?" Oh that felt good.

The first time Kizaru had underestimated Naruto due to his own speed advantage, a hard lesson he had learned from and improved upon the second time around as Naruto had only gotten him once after he had distanced himself from the ocean. This time he thought he had all his bases covered in the mounting battle against his rival in speed, but in trying to be a jerk and pick on the Natural Disaster's crew to get to Naruto and force the blonde into making a snap-decision mistake he had sorely underestimated the abilities of the remaining conscious crewmembers on it due to his quick and danger-free dealings with them the first time he got aboard the ship.

And Nojiko of all people had sent him packing.

Having heard the information of just what had sent Kizaru packing (again), Byron, the former slave that he was, showed great excitement at the fact that he might actually get away, after surviving an attack from an admiral to boot, "Oh, good show!" He exclaimed, "If I wasn't indebted to Naruto-sama before I most certainly would have to be now!"

He tried to bow only to be hoisted back up to his feet by Soren who rolled his eyes at Byron's ingrained tendencies, "Seriously, you're not a slave anymore, you don't bow to people. And you definitely don't call _that_ scrub of a pirate with an honorific like that." He remarked, getting a tick mark to appear on Naruto's forehead.

Still, Byron was simply happy to be alive and freed of his bonds. Thus he stood before them all and humbly bowed, clearing his throat to speak quite formally, "Ahem… I believe formal introductions from myself would be appropriate to those that took it upon themselves to allow me passage on their ship. My name is Byron, hailing from the town of Toroa in the West Blue. I set out on a Grand Line quest to see the world and earn fame as a legendary pirate! I am a proud descendant of a long line of talented musicians from which I have inherited skill."

"Which instrument?" Vivi queried, quite interested in the fact that they had someone seemingly of refined culture onboard. Not that she minded the usual ruffian atmosphere of things, but hey, she was a princess. She still liked nice and sophisticated things.

Byron took a moment to think before answering, "Well, there are many to be honest. Although I am personally partial to the piano." He admitted before continuing with his introduction, "I am also a quite skilled maker of wine if I do say so myself." He added on as an afterthought

That almost got one of the present crewmembers who had barely been paying attention beforehand to stop the introduction right in its tracks.

Soren just blinked and pointed a finger at the hair-manipulating pirate, "So you're telling me that you can make us wine to get drunk off of as long as we have the stuff to do it?" Byron nodded and this put a massive grin on Soren's face. Hell, he could probably make Uzumaki learn how to grow grapes. He put an arm around the man's shoulder in a friendly manner, "I think you and I are going to be very good friends. Forget about Uzumaki. As a pirate he's totally lame. Stick with me yeah?"

"I will tie you to the front of the ship! I'm not a pira-!" Naruto was about to shout at Soren before Nojiko locked lips with him again to ensure he shut up at least momentarily. It worked as when they broke off again he was no longer shouting about such a thing, "What happened to Johnny, Yosaku, and Miss Valentine?" He said, now noticeably more reserved in his tone of voice.

"They're fine." Soren told him, pointing down into the ship, "Muret got them inside and she's taking care of them now. Yosaku took it the worst. That laser-light show bastard shot a hole right through him, but she says she can fix him."

"Good." Naruto said, sighing in relief as he sat behind the helm and channeled his chakra to the ship to power the wind seals in the sails and allow it to begin truly escaping the still pursuing Marine warship, "So where to next? I'm not the navigator here."

Nojiko turned and pointed back towards where the Log Pose was pointing, "We could try crossing the Red Line through Fishman Island, but we'd have to go back towards Sabaody Archipelago." Everyone within earshot, Byron especially, cringed and shook their heads at that prospect, "I thought so. In that case we're just waiting for the heat to die down… however long that'll take."

"So now what?" Vivi asked aloud with a hapless shrug of her shoulders, "I'm not setting foot in that place again, but what are we going to do until things calm? Those waters are going to be swimming with Marine ships looking for the people that messed with the World Nobles."

A resolute Soren crossed his arms over his chest and took up a rock solid stance, "Well I'm not backtracking damn it. This is as far as I've ever come on the Grand Line by a long shot. If I go back I'll lose my nerve at going forward and I'll never get my shot at Doflamingo." For all of his thoughts of revenge in the past he had grown stagnant in the beginning portion of the Grand Line for two years after receiving his original massive bounty.

He didn't want to be one of those kinds of guys on the Grand Line that just hung around one place where they were a big fish in a small pond, only to get themselves smacked around when an even bigger fish came passing through; a gatekeeper. No, he wanted to go further, and if he got stopped and killed in doing so then maybe he just wasn't meant to find and kill Doflamingo after all.

Speaking of Doflamingo… he remembered something from the Human Auction House of importance, "Hey guys, I don't think the Marines that were sent out will be hanging around Sabaody too long anyway. I heard that there's something big going down, like a war with the Whitebeard Pirates."

Jaws all over the deck dropped before Vivi spoke up, "What? Whitebeard's going to war with the Marines? That's… that's just."

"Scary." Nojiko finished for her, taking a moment to shiver while thinking about it, "What in God's name did they do to piss him off? I seriously don't want to be anywhere near that little showdown." She turned towards Soren, "How did you even hear about that?"

"Doflamingo and I had a nice little chat on a Den Den Mushi in the Human Auction House before the place got ripped to shreds." The acid-generating fighter stated in a gruff tone, "The Shichibukai and the Marines are getting ready for a fight with the Whitebeard Pirates. I don't know anything more than that. He wasn't very informative." The only reason the arrogant and twisted man even told him that much was just to get across the point that he found Soren's desire for revenge boring to him.

Still, having never heard any of the stories about Whitebeard or his crew, all Naruto cared about was the prospect of a war. One he wasn't going to be able to prevent having known nothing about it. During the last war he ended at least he was at the center of it all. Here he was just an outsider looking in, 'I still don't know anything about this world…' It was something really disheartening if he were to be honest.

"Uzumaki!"

Naruto's attention was obtained by Paulie running out of the ship interior, bumping him out of the way of the wheel so that he could steer himself.

An on the ground Naruto looked up at the shipwright in alarm, noticing that Paulie hadn't tapped the ashes from his lit cigar in his mouth in quite some time, "Paulie? What the hell? Where's the fire?"

"Apparently we've got a meeting with some important folks. I've been on the Den Den Mushi with them since before we left and it turns out that they were in the area." Paulie explained, maneuvering the ship in the appropriate direction indicated by his phone call, "They said Uzumaki made them an offer that they're taking him up on. We'll we're heading to meet them unless anyone else has any better ideas."

'An offer?' Naruto thought to himself, trying to remember just what Paulie was talking about until he remembered a certain group of people he had tried to get into contact with after the whole major mess at Enies Lobby, "Oh! Those guys!" He eventually exclaimed, remembering who he was talking about and snapping his fingers in realization, "Yeah, let's go do that. The others aren't healed up either so we should wait for them to get better before planning any forward moves anyway."

XxX

(Sometime Later – Kwai Island)

It turned out that the meeting place really wasn't that far from Sabaody Archipelago, just a half a day away. So by sunset they had managed to reach the instructed locale. Miss Valentine, Yosaku, and Johnny were still hurt from Kizaru's attack so they weren't going ashore, and they couldn't really be left alone.

There needed to be a guard to watch over the ship and Byron was still green as to how things would work, thus this left Soren aboard when it was time to search for the meeting place.

The entire island seemed to be foggy, thus Nojiko was at a marked disadvantage due to her reliability on her vision to be of use in battle. For this reason she stayed behind as well.

Perona… was not going to be joining anyone going anywhere she didn't have to or want to go. That was her right. Besides, she was still technically their prisoner anyway and prisoners should stay on the ship. They seemed to have never followed that rule from day one, and now their prisoner was actually _making_ them do it? Odd.

So this left three to go ashore, and two of them were sitting in a rowboat in cloaks as the rain fell gently on the foggy waters of a river inlet.

Thus far the island seemed to be a lot of jungle, with quite a few rivers that were turned into the main transportation method of the place. Every house seemed to be built along the riverside with thatched roofs, some stacked onto others so that none were really built into the jungle, a jungle that looked mostly untouched.

One of the two figures in the rowboat happened to be rowing, while the other simply seemed to be sitting with a hat on their head to cover their head from the rain in addition to their hood. From the other hooded figure smoke could be seen emitting from the front of their cloak as they kept rowing.

A female voice was singing softly, though her voice was able to echo out clearly as the boat kept traversing the river, passing underneath a bridge until on the other side a third person was sitting in the boat with them, getting the woman to stop.

The man that had taken up a seat so suddenly on their boat had long hair in a thick dark braid down his back, a Fu Manchu moustache and a goatee, and a pair of sunglasses on his forehead. He wore an open black kung fu shirt with black pants that had a red sash and black martial artist shoes. Sitting on the boat calmly with one leg crossed over the other, he addressed the now silent woman, "That song that you were singing is from Alabasta in its origin. Now who do we know with someone from Alabasta onboard their ship?"

In response to this, the woman took off her hat, still keeping her hood on due to the rain, but it was enough to reveal the soft eyes and blue bangs of Vivi, "Hello CP9-san." She said calmly, "I am-."

"Yes, I know. Nefertari Vivi." He said before grinning at the girl almost like a wolf, "There wasn't much time for introductions at Enies Lobby what with all of the running and the fighting and the Buster Call and whatnot. However for the purpose of identification you can call me Jyabura."

"Oi, stop messing with the girl." The oarsman of the boat said gruffly as smoke plumed out from underneath his cloak hood as the fog got thicker for a bit, "She's not even indecently dressed here, so there's no reason to be drooling all over her. Show some class."

Jyabura turned around towards the man and let out a few chuckles, "And you must be Paulie." His amusement then faded, "But you're not Uzumaki. I thought that he would be here… this is what you told us over the Den Den Mushi. Where is he?"

The fog faded out a bit and sitting right next to Jyabura was Naruto, just as comfortably as the CP9 member was. When he realized that Naruto was sitting right next to him he almost jumped away with a bit of a start, "Grr… how did you get that close to me?"

A shrug came from Naruto who was also wearing a cloak, just with the hood down to expose his facial features and his bright blonde hair, "With all the fog you didn't notice a Shunshin." Seriously, the air had the consistency of soup on this island, "So we're here. What do you want?"

Nodding in agreement, Paulie puffed out some cigar smoke before placing it back in his mouth, "Yeah, what exactly did you want that you couldn't say over the phone?"

Jyabura growled at the two males of the Foxhound Pirate crew in attendance before answering, "You idiots. Who knew if the Marines could have been listening in? They _can_ break into Den Den Mushi transmissions." He let out a sigh and snatched the oar from Paulie before deciding to steer the boat himself.

XxX

Naruto, Vivi, and Paulie were taken to a house at the far end of a branching river away from the main waterways of the island, with more overgrowth over the water that seemed a more treacherous spot for people to take up residence.

No wonder it was where CP9 chose to hide out on this island.

Underneath an awning sitting on the front porch of the place as the boat of the visitors floated up, the long nosed, black cap and black suit wearing Kaku stopped sharpening his four swords and stood up to get a better look through the fog until he could identify just who it was coming his way.

"Here." Jyabura said as they reached the house and tied the boat to the sturdy frame that sat in the water and held the house up over the edge of the river, "This is where we're staying for the duration of our time on this island."

While Vivi and Paulie climbed up the ladder presented to them to reach the porch of the house, Naruto just jumped up it, "Wow. You guys built this place?"

"Half of us were considered some of the best shipwrights in the world at one time." Kaku said, crossing his arms over his chest as he observed Naruto looking around the scenery of the area, "We can learn how to build a house."

Of course he was then punched across the face by Paulie once he reached Kaku, hard enough to get the man to stumble back a few steps before turning to look at his former fellow shipwright as dispassionately as ever, "I expected that."

"I told you I was going to do it." Paulie said, shaking his hand out from the punch, "Oh, and you're fired."

"I know." Kaku deadpanned, "The green-haired swordsman Zoro told me after he beat me." He then motioned for them to follow him inside, "Come with me. The others are waiting."

Upon entering the house the eyes of the remaining CP9 members Kalifa, Blueno, Kumadori, Fukurou, Blueno, and Rob Lucci locked onto the visiting Foxhound Pirates while they were lounging about around the room.

Even though she had gotten stronger, Vivi was still quite unnerved to be in a room with a group of noted assassins that had almost managed to kill her friends in the past. On the other hand, Paulie just looked around and pointed out at Kalifa and Lucci, "You're fired, and you're fired." He stated bluntly, getting Naruto to palm his face.

"Yes… we know." Kalifa responded, adjusting her glasses on her face as she stood up with her hands on her hips, "But we no longer have any problems with your crew or with Nico Robin. Your captain knows this."

"Call me Naruto." Naruto chimed in, sick of not being referred to by his name or by people saying 'captain' when speaking of him. If they were going to do that then they had to say his whole name to go with it.

He then noticed that Rob Lucci hadn't taken his eyes off of him in particular since he had walked in the door. Of course, when Naruto spoke with the CP9 members after their escape from Enies Lobby, Lucci had seemed the most suspicious of him out of the group. There was no expression on the man's face as he seemed to be staring him down to look for something. Naruto narrowed his eyes and started staring right back.

Vivi tugged on Naruto's poncho after she realized that the killing intent smoldering in the room happened to be coming from the two of them. His attention obtained by the desert-dwelling princess who was giving him one of those looks of hers with her big brown eyes, Naruto let his little pissing contest with Rob Lucci end with a sigh, "Alright… so what did you guys call me for?"

The large and rotund Fukurou unzipped his wide mouth and began to speak, "We wish for your help, chapapa."

"Help?" Paulie lit a new cigar and placed it in his mouth with a scoff, "You're actually asking for help? You've got a lot of nerve don't you? What in the world do you need help with anyway?"

"We want your help to find Spandam." Lucci stated bluntly, not taking his eyes off of Naruto, "Our old leader. He's been sending Marines to try and exterminate us. We can't accept that."

'Leader… leader… leader.' Vivi then remembered the guy in the leather mask that she saw on the Tower of Justice, only having seen him once. He was the only one of CP9 that wasn't currently there, and she also remembered the last time she saw him, "There's no way your old leader's still alive." She said with a bit of a distasteful frown, "Soren kind of made a tidal wave of acid and hit him with it when he was trying to escape."

"He's alive." Lucci replied a bit defensively, switching his rather cold gaze over to Vivi who froze like a small animal being stared at by a predator. Naruto moved in between them, breaking Lucci's vision of Vivi, prompting him to continue, "We know this for a fact. He has pinned the blame for activating the Buster Call on Enies Lobby on us. The fool mistakenly triggered it while we were transporting Nico Robin to the Gates of Justice."

Huh. Well someone Soren actually got a better than decent shot at killing survived? That was new. It would probably be better to not let him know that though, because he might take that as a personal challenge, "So…" Paulie said, sort of lost as to what was being asked of them, "What do you want from us? We don't know where he is."

"Neither do we." Blueno stated, just as lost as the shipwright, "But we know where a man who does know is. And we want your help in capturing and interrogating him. To do this we'll need to attack a Marine base-."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa." Naruto cut him off, waving his hands in front of himself, "You want me to take my crew and start a fight on purpose for no reason with the Marines? At a Marine base?" He let out a skeptical laugh, "I'm not picking a fight with the Marines for no reason. If I'm doing this there had better be a way to get it done without my people getting hurt and me having to take out a whole base full of people."

He was down with a fight, most certainly he was. Anyone that had been around him for longer than an hour would know that. But a real, true-blue battle just for the chaos, just because he wanted to antagonize a fighting force, it wasn't his thing. Not at all.

"You and your fake bleeding heart." Lucci said right out, standing up to Naruto in his tall, black-suit frame and walking right over to him, "You killed how many Marines during the Buster Call? And you have a problem with this, taking down less? It has to be you. If we were to take him they would know that it was us, even if it went off without a hitch."

Narrowing his eyes at Lucci, Naruto let out a bit of a growl, "You want me to kidnap some guy and interrogate him? I want Spandam gone too for what he did to Robin-chan and so many other people, but taking out innocent people is stepping over the line."

At this point Kalifa interjected again, "What makes you think we're asking you to take an innocent man? If anything this man is more responsible for Nico Robin's original woes than anyone else in the world. He called in the original Buster Call attack that massacred everyone on her home island of Ohara; a land of unarmed scholars."

"What?" That little bit of info got Naruto's clear and undivided attention, "Seriously?" Oh, they knew they were messing with his propensity to want to set certain things right, and it was getting really tempting.

"Yes." Kalifa confirmed with a terse nod, "Spandam's father Spandine, this is the man we wish for you to obtain for our interrogation benefit."

"I'll interrogate him too." That little added assignment to his own request got everyone in the room to look at him strangely, "What? If I let you CP9 guys do it you'll tear him apart if he doesn't tell you what you want. I don't have to do that. At least I can leave him in one piece." And as long as he was adding things on, "…And Spandam too. You guys can't look for Spandam just to murder him. If you do that-."

Before he could finish his statement he was cut off by a feral sounding snarl from Lucci, "I've had it up to here with you. You're just like us, but you try to insist to be something you're not. You'll tell us not to kill the man that wronged us, but what have you done? The first thing you did to net yourself any infamy was to destroy the Arlong Pirates of the East Blue. Where was your no murdering policy then?"

"That was a battle." Naruto stated firmly, "I told Arlong to leave Nami and Commi Island alone, he and his crew fought me. I didn't assassinate him. I don't do those. He came at me until the very end. And I didn't kill them all. I've seen one of them that survived and I know that others did too. It's not like I can drown a fishman." Now what he did to that Nezumi guy afterwards was something else entirely for letting it all happen for so many years.

"A kill is a kill in the end." At this point Lucci was as close to face-to-face with Naruto as he could be since he was taller than Naruto by a few inches, "I don't think it matters to the men you killed that you did it with honor. If you're saying that you won't help us get the information that we need then we'll get it ourselves."

"It's not smart…" Naruto tried to insist, "I can help you get the dispatch to take you down taken away. I'll do that. But I'm not helping you just murder somebody. That'll only make things worse for you."

"Then we'll deal with it." There just wasn't any breaking Rob Lucci of what he wanted, "You're not responsible for us." Probably the mark of someone that hadn't had to follow anyone else's orders for a long time finally getting a taste of doing what he really wanted.

But the responsibility thing wasn't true at all. Naruto was the one that let them go on St. Poplar after the battle at Enies Lobby. If he simply let them go and run amok just to find Spandam a lot of Marines would die. It wasn't just about Spandam. Once his father got pinched he'd know they were coming, and once that happened he'd put every bit of manpower he had behind keeping himself safe.

But they were adults. And he was done trying to circumvent someone's need for vengeance directly. It never really ended that well for him or the others. He'd try to coax them off of it the way he was trying to do with Soren, but in the end it was their choice. All he could do was run damage control. And that meant he'd be getting and interrogating Spandine. At least that way he could make sure the body count stayed as low as possible and didn't turn into a massacre.

"Fine." Naruto eventually conceded, throwing his hands in the air and walking away from Lucci, "I'll do it. I'll grab the old guy, find out what he knows, and then I'll tell you. Do what you want from there. _But_ I want a favor from you jerks in return, understood? Are we good?"

It took a moment, but CP9 gave him nods all around. With that, Kalifa walked forward and handed Naruto an Eternal Pose, "This will lead you to the G-3 Marine Base where Spandine is stationed. He would normally be at G-1… Marineford, but the coward doesn't want to be anywhere near there these days. For the same reason he's there, you won't find anyone powerful there in case you are discovered."

No one strong? Not even the guy running the base? What kind of weird crap was that? It was senseless, and Vivi pointed this out, "Why wouldn't there be anyone strong there? It's a Marine base on the Grand Line."

Jyabura stroked his beard thoughtfully while answering the lovely young princess, "Every officer in the Marines has been called to Marineford to fight the Whitebeard Pirates. There's no one worth a damn watching these bases now. From here we were able to spy on the ships leaving for G-1. Spandine is there to take over for the duration of the war, planning to head back to HQ once the trouble is over."

"So we have a window." Naruto said with a sigh, running his hand through his hair before motioning for Vivi and Paulie to head to the door, "Fine. I'll get it done. But remember that you all owe me one later." As his other two crew members left, Naruto himself stopped at the door and turned back around after gathering enough nature chakra for a Sage Mode show of force, "Lucci, if you ever try picking a fight with me again I'll drag you out and dunk your head under the water until you realize who I am. Even if you're stronger than you were when you fought Luffy you aren't stronger than me. I promise." With that he slammed the door shut and left.

Lucci's fists tightened until he had drawn blood from his palms. He eventually simply returned to his seat as if nothing had ever happened in the first place, as if his hands weren't bleeding down his arms and on his sleeves. Good thing he was wearing black fabric.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster – Common Area)

Things were calm onboard the ship that was just offshore from Kwai Island, something that was very necessary after the whole breakdown at Sabaody Archipelago and then the events which had taken place on their ship during their escape.

Yosaku, Johnny, and Miss Valentine were on the mend, with Johnny suffering the lightest amount of injuries. Muret was exhausted from working on them for hours and was sleeping in her room next to the medic bay.

Perona had finally decided to come back up and hang around the common area along with Nojiko, Soren, and Byron, who was still getting used to the way things were around the ship, "Is this all that you do when there's nothing else going on?" He asked, now changed out of his ragged older clothes into a fresher white dress shirt with a ruffled collar and sleeves and black dress pants, given to him courtesy of the other crew members, "How maddening."

"You should take up recreational drinking." Soren remarked from the kitchen where he was grabbing a snack that could go well enough with pure lemon juice, "It does wonders for me. Sometimes I can't tell if the sun is up or not. Now that's interesting."

Off to the side, sitting on her own couch, Nojiko was busying herself reading a newspaper that had been delivered onto the ship before they had disembarked from the ship coating facility that she hadn't had the time to thumb through beforehand due to all of the running and the fighting and whatnot.

"Crap." Nojiko said after reading a particular bit of news in the paper, "Well I know why Whitebeard's coming after the Marines right at Marineford now." She said, choosing to recant the news right to them, "Somehow they got Portgas D. Ace. 'Fire Fist' Ace. Whitebeard's 2nd Division Commander."

That managed to startle Soren out of the kitchen, "What? Who managed to get that guy?" He remembered actually meeting Ace in Alabasta with Naruto when the two were schlepping across the desert to catch up with the others, "Fire Fist Ace is fucking powerful. Who beat him?"

"The new Shichibukai." Nojiko said with a frown as she kept reading, "And it says he's supposed to be executed publicly at Marineford. God, that's just… wow. Poor Luffy." And they weren't answering any calls on their Den Den Mushi either so Luffy must have been feeling it. She'd called three times to make sure that they were alright, but no one was throwing a Hiraishin kunai for Naruto either so that meant something positive, didn't it?

"Whitebeard's gonna rip that place to shreds." Perona commented idly from her spot where she was sitting, near the hall leading further into the ship, "You know about the people on Whitebeard's crews don't you? It's like a gathering of boogeymen all in one place when you throw that in with the top brass of the Marines and the Shichibukai."

Wait, but Perona's captain was a Shichibukai. That was supposed to mean something that Nojiko pointed out, "Don't you want to go back with your captain now? If you think the Shichibukai are going to be there-."

"There's no chance I'm walking into ground zero of _that_!" Perona snapped in return, looking affronted at the suggestion, "Even if I could survive that hell of a mess long enough to get back to Moriah-sama, the Marines don't treat Shichibukai crews like the rest of the Shichibukai. They see me as a normal pirate, or didn't you notice that on Constellation Island? They'd go right at me!"

"Shut! Up!" A muffled yell of irritation from Muret echoed out from the walls, "I've got sleeping patients and a sleeping me! You all didn't spend the last six hours running all over the place trying to treat any wounded so shush!"

For some reason the least dangerous person on the ship seemed to scare the rest of them into silence and stillness until the walls settled down again. Looking around as if it would reveal that things were all clear, Byron ventured a comment, "So… what now?"

Everyone looked at each other shrugging haplessly until the door to the captain's quarters was opened as Vivi and Paulie walked out, a little overwhelmed it seemed after travelling in Naruto's Hiraishin no Jutsu because they were stumbling down the hall back to their own rooms, "Alright people, tomorrow morning we're setting out on a quick mission. Get some sleep. I've got to talk to some important folks about something." With that he shut his door.

Well that was abrupt.

Soren blinked before downing his mug of pure lemon juice as if it were nothing, "Well you heard the man. There's your answer." With that he walked back down towards his own room, but stopped short at Nojiko, "Was it just me or did Uzumaki seem… I don't know, aggravated?" They didn't notice the plume of smoke that blew out from underneath Naruto's door.

SMACK!

"Ow! Fuck!"

SMACK!

"**Serves ya right for not thinkin' ta summon us for so long Naruto-chan! Ya summoned those tadpoles Gamakichi and Gamatatsu but not us? You've got some nerve! And watch yer mouth!"**

"Kami, why does that still hurt so much? Pa, make her stop!"

"**I'd help ya out Naruto-chan… but you kinda had this comin' for a while."**

All of the crew members just stared at the door where it sounded like Naruto was being beaten up and scolded by an old lady while failing miserably to plead his own case in the process, though no one decided to get up and intervene, instead all choosing to get up and scatter to their own rooms to retire for the evening.

Just when they thought that Naruto was as weird as he was going to get…

"Damn it, stop hitting me! I'm an adult, dattebayo!"

SMACK!

"**Not ta us ya ain't!"**

Yeah, they weren't going anywhere near that.

* * *

**Chapter complete. Yeah, I've got a lot of explaining to do on where I've been for this story, but I've been trying to wait for more to come up about the One Piece world in the manga before stepping much further ahead. Nobody still knows anything really about how admirals fight under stress, much about the Yonkou, and none of them are going to be seen for a long, long time.**

**Add that on to the fact that another site I got the manga from doesn't run Naruto or One Piece anymore due to licensing… and there was no reason to slow this one down anymore. It's not like I can read jack to learn more now anyway.**

**Whatever… you don't care.**

**Kenchi out.**


	41. Nostalgia Kills

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. If I could get superpowers from eating a nasty fruit that would make it so that I could never swim I'd still do it… because I can't swim anyway, so what exactly would I be losing here?

**Chapter 41: Nostalgia Kills**

* * *

The cursing and yelling that had occurred from Naruto's quarters all night long had been thoroughly ignored by his loyal, faithful crew. Mostly because many of the shouts were from Naruto and they were cries of pain occurring after sounds of a blow landing happened.

Even a ways down the hall in the rooms of the others they could all hear it. But curiosity was not going to kill any of these cats. No way, no how. Naruto was weird, and if he was okay with letting something beat him up there was no way any of them were going to get involved.

Thus it was of no surprise the next morning when the awakened Foxhound Pirate crew found Naruto sitting in something of a pouting position on a couch in the common area, face covered in bruises and bandages and a perturbed look on his face as if he were merely tolerating the beatdown that had given him his light, yet still annoying, flesh wounds.

Yosaku was still asleep and resting at Muret's behest due to his injuries suffered during the battle with Kizaru the previous day, but other than that the whole crew eventually made their way in the room where their captain was being unusually quiet, at least until they all got there and got comfortable.

Eventually everyone had made it in the room, including Carue who wasn't missing this for the world. Taking note of the uncharacteristic morning silence where it was usually pretty rowdy, Naruto looked around and let out a sigh before speaking up, "Okay… go ahead."

Immediately, everyone's hand shot up as if they were schoolchildren being asked to answer a question by their teacher. Even Carue raised a wing up.

Rolling his eyes at how they could get excited over yet another weird thing that seemed to happen to them almost daily, Naruto pointed at his first mate to ask the inaugural question of this impromptu Q&A session, something that Soren did without beating around the bush at all, "What the hell was going on in your room last night? If you're into getting your kicks by getting beaten up you could at least have a girl do it."

"Thinking about what you'd like Tashigi to do to you Soren?"

"I will melt a woman Valentine…"

Ignoring the usual teasing banter between the sunny blonde woman and the angry tattoo-faced borderline sociopath, Naruto decided to break it up and get down to business, "That was… a greeting? Yeah, a greeting from some friends I haven't seen in a while."

Perona raised an eyebrow as the bored ghost princess had her ghosts floating around the room for random kicks, "What kind of greeting has you getting a butt-kicking and takes six hours to finish?"

"You're seriously underestimating just how long it's been since I've seen these friends of mine." Naruto deadpanned. He hadn't been to Mt. Myouboku in over ten years he was certain. But that was right, Perona didn't know that he was old as dirt yet. Well what she didn't know wasn't important as far as that went.

"What friends?" Vivi queried aloud from her seat, "We came back with you and we didn't bring anyone from Kwai Island." Naruto had never even been that far on the Grand Line before anyway, so what friends could he have possibly been talking about.

Well it was time to introduce his crew to a new cavern of weirdness in the mountain of odd that was Uzumaki Naruto. Naruto cupped his hands to his mouth and turned around to the closed door of his quarters before yelling, "Ma! Pa! Wake up already!" He hadn't slept all night because after the beatdown the toad couple had commandeered his bed for the remainder of the evening.

It took a moment before a series of clomps emanated from Naruto's room along with some elderly male and female muttering and everyone's jaw dropped because of what Naruto had called them. Ma and Pa? Naruto had parents? Naruto had parents that were alive? God, how old were _they_?

Nojiko started freaking out quietly in her own mind, 'Naruto-kun's parents? I'm going to meet his parents? Oh no… what if they don't like me? What if they think I'm not good enough or smart enough or strong enough to be his girlfriend?' She was silently throwing a nervous fit at coming face-to-face with them, 'No, they'll probably think I'm too young before anything else because Naruto-kun's super-old.'

The door swung open and a small blur flew across the room to smack against the back of Naruto's head hard enough to jerk his entire body forward in a violent lurch, **"Me an' Pa ain't as young and as spry as you ya tadpole! We can't operate offa two hours a' sleep!"**

Naruto growled as upon getting hit his hand had immediately flown up to catch the blur that had hit him before it could get away, "Well maybe if you hadn't spent the entire night beating my ass you could have gotten more sleep! Where's Pa?"

"**He's right there lookin' at yer little friends. What are ya', blind?"**

Immediately Naruto looked down on the floor in front of where his crew was sitting assembly style and blinked, "Oh."

The rest of his crew followed suit and saw a clothed and very old looking toad carrying a staff looking up at them appraisingly, as if looking for merit in each of them. It was weird, so the lot of them just stared back, no one really blinking until the toad smiled at them and turned towards Naruto, **"Naruto-chan you've got a good set of friends here. I'm glad you're finally keeping around people again. Bein' a real hermit wasn't really right fer ya. You were too young to be considerin' such a thing. "**

"Young?" Soren whispered in disbelief, "Didn't Uzumaki say he was like 120 or somethin'?"

*Whack*

"Ow! What was that for this time?" Naruto complained and whined when Shima hit him again, "I didn't even do anything!"

"**What did I tell ya about keepin' track of time?"** Shima scolded at the glaring Naruto, **"Don't give me that look, yer not 120 or did ya forget?"**

"…I was rounding?"

"**To what?"**

"…To whatever sounded coolest? I told everybody I stopped counting my age."

*Whack*

"Hit me again and I'm dismissing you Ma."

Shaking his head at his wife's 'loving' discipline of Naruto, Fukasaku turned towards the confused crew and explained what the problem was,** "He's not even one hundred years old. It hasn't been that long, he just doesn't keep track of the years anymore. He's more like… ninety at the most."**

"Keeping track of time is useless if I can't die of old age. I forgot." Naruto defended weakly, "I might as well be older. It doesn't matter, what's the difference? Old is old." Keeping track of years for no reason when he wasn't doing anything was boring. It would have only served to bum him out after his friends died, so why do it at all? He was then forced to dodge a gunshot from Nojiko who was looking at him with a perturbed expression on his face, "What? You're mad?" He asked, hiding behind his chair that now had a bullet hole in it.

"Thirty years is something significant Naruto!" Nojiko snapped at him, spinning her pistol around on her finger to try and calm down. God, why did he have to be such a dumbass about certain things? "How do you forget how old you are?"

"**It's actually harder than ya think after ya get past 500 years old."** Fukasaku chimed in, attempting to defend Naruto at least a little bit, **"Things just start smashin' together."**

Naruto smirked and set his chin on the top of the chair as he looked at everyone else in the room, "The senility doesn't help either I'm sure." A staff smacked him right in the face and knocked him to the floor, "It was still worth it."

Seeing an opening that she just couldn't pass up because she never got the chance to do so, Muret interjected calmly with a falsely curious tone in her voice, "Naruto-sama, does that mean you're senile then? You're certainly old enough to show the symptoms."

"Ha!" Paulie barked with a laugh from his place by the open window as he smoked a cigar, "I like it."

"Oi!" Naruto jumped back up in a bit of a fuss, "I keep my mental mind extra-secure. No problems here. You better watch yourself pretty lady." He warned with a point in Muret's direction only to get her sticking out her tongue at him in response, "Where'd the respect go?"

Before things could spiral more out of control and further the lunacy of the lot of them, Vivi put a stop to it and got things back on track by stooping down by the pair of elderly toads, looking at them curiously, "Are you really Naruto's parents?" It seemed like a dumb question, but at this point she wasn't going to say that nothing was possible anymore, "…How does that work?"

Naruto answered that question for her benefit, "Ma and Pa aren't my parents Vivi-hime… they're the elder toads of the clan that I can summon. Everyone just calls them that out of respect. I called them here because I needed their advice on something. So they're probably going to be here for a while until I get it sorted out."

Fukasaku extended a small hand Vivi's way with a smile on his face, **"It's nice to meet ya dear. Good to see Naruto-chan's friends are such nice people. An' such a cute little thing too."** He ignored Soren's scoff at them being nice people as the princess of Alabasta shook his hand and blushed at being complimented by a toad.

"**Gotta flirt with the pretty young girl don'cha?"** Shima said, getting Fukasaku to freeze up before letting go of Vivi's hand and backing away. A few seconds later two summons were rushing all over the ship, one chasing the other with intent to harm.

"Yeah…" Naruto said with a dry look on his face as he peered over his crew, "So just don't make either of them mad, especially Ma, and they won't hit you. They're actually really nice. Now let's go. We've got a mission to do today. Come on Soren, we've got plans to make."

With a shrug, Soren hopped up from his seat and followed the blonde man outside towards the helm so he could start breaking down what they were going to do that day.

As Naruto left the room, Miss Valentine got up to begin making breakfast for everyone onboard as she asked a question that more than a few of them had been wondering since the previous night, "So… what's this mission supposed to be anyway?"

XxX

(Later That Day – G-3 Marine Base)

G-3's base sat on an island right by a small town. It consisted of a large fortress with several blue camouflaged towers surrounding one larger tower in the middle, each tower with all kinds of artillery pointed out towards the ocean with varying destructive power.

Waiting at the front docks were the usual cadre of Marines that would oversee the arrival of any ship that would be docking at their base. As they had seen a ship on the horizon on their way flying the World Government insignia on their sail it was curious as to why a call wasn't given from the vessel letting them know of their arrival.

The routine looking Marine vessel had landed and off of the ship came several regularly uniformed Marines that lined up at the end of the gangplank, "Routine surprise inspection of the G-3 Marine Base. If you could go and inform your highest ranking officer of this, we can begin."

The gathered Marines of the G-3 base looked confused, "An inspection? Now? Shouldn't resources be shifted to something more useful, like going to Marineford? Things are getting crazy nowadays."

"What better time to conduct an inspection than a time like this?" Queried one of the visiting Marines that had stepped off of the ship. And the others just didn't have the answer for that, "Our captain will be inside soon enough. I would inform the other Marines here to be prepared for an inspection as well."

With a nod, the G-3 Marines walked off to head towards the office of the commander of the base, leaving the visitors behind. An inspection at a time when Whitebeard was just about to take on Marineford itself to get Fire Fist Ace free? That was certainly unexpected to say the least.

Kind of a jerk move too to do something like that when everyone was nervous that the Marines could possibly lose to the Whitebeard Fleet. No one wasn't on edge at that point in time. But whether it was cool or not it was still happening.

Once they were out of sight, the several visitors all shared the same toothy, roguish grin between themselves, "Oh, I can't believe that actually worked."

"I know right?" One of the other visiting 'Marines' said as he pointed his thumb back at their ship, "I wonder how long a clone can hold a Henge on something as big as the whole ship. If we hadn't done that we'd have had to fight our way through a thousand Marines or something."

Another 'Marine' let out a loud whistle with a particular cadence that prompted two blurs to leap from the deck onto the docks where they began quickly streaking towards the G-3 main building.

XxX

(Inside the G-3 Marine Base Main Tower)

"An inspection?" A man with hair that was grey and balding on the top and black and lush in the back said. He had a square jaw with a long goatee and wore a black suit with a white coat over it, "Hah, that's not bad Sengoku… send out inspections to make sure no one's slacking."

He bore a similar but more elderly appearance to Spandam if one had seen both of them before.

The prospect of an inspection didn't seem like a problem at all though. If anything, he seemed excited at the thought of some government representative checking over the base while he was there. While he had no actual permanent authority over the base, he was the highest ranking person there for as long as he was, thus if G-3 performed well during the inspection he would get a good word in about his ability to lead, and that would probably lead to a promotion.

"Send the men back to their quarters to prepare for inspection!" Spandine ordered the Marines that had come to his office to inform him of the current situation, "I want everything picture-perfect, my promotion depends on it!" He rubbed his hands together in gleeful anticipation. G-3 always did great during inspections, so he could grab some credit without even having done anything.

XxX

(Elsewhere Inside of the G-3 Marine Base)

"I'm gonna burn this outfit when this is over." Soren said with a very angry, seething voice. He was wearing a normal Marine uniform that consisted of navy blue pants, a white sleeveless button-up shirt, and a white cap on his head. To cover up the red tribal tattoo that ran down the side of his face and corresponding arm, Soren was also wearing some of Miss Valentine's makeup, "I'm gonna burn you too for making me wear makeup Uzumaki."

"Blah, blah, blah. It's so no one can tell that it's you." Naruto said, makeup on his own whisker-marks and wearing his own complete Marine uniform with an additional white Marine's coat, "All I know is I've got this kickass jacket on. If it survives the day I'm keeping it. Every captain needs a good coat like this." Thank goodness there was still tons of Marine clothing onboard the Natural Disaster left over from when Naruto first salvaged the ship. Perfect for disguises for everyone on his crew. He was the only one that could Henge.

Soren gave Naruto a distasteful look as he eyed the sage ninja's extra clothing, "You'd wear a Marine coat?"

"I'll get rid of the Marine emblem on the back." Naruto replied as if it were obvious.

"It's the principle of the matter… I'd rather wade through a sewer than wear this crap."

"I'll remember that."

They walked along until their pathways in the hall were impeded by two men wearing suits underneath open Marine coats that were draped over their shoulders like capes. One of them had a yellow and black striped suit and had combed back black hair and a handlebar mustache. The other wore a solid white suit and had slicked back grey hair. He had a scar over one eye and wore sunglasses while chomping on a cigar.

Naruto immediately snapped to a salute and elbowed Soren in the ribs to make him do the same, though a low growl was eliciting from the Foxhound Pirates first-mate's throat at having to salute anyone, especially a damned Marine.

This was thankfully ignored as Naruto was composed enough to save some face for the two of them, "Sir."

"Ah." The scar-faced Marine elite said, observing Naruto with a casual smile on his face, "The word on your inspection has already spread across the base. The men are ready for the primary inspection of their quarters anytime captain. No rush."

"Well then we'll get right on that as soon as possible." Naruto looked towards Soren and gestured in a separate direction, "We should split up. The two of us checking a single barrack would be a waste of time and resources." Soren nodded and the two prepared to walk away but not before sparing one last salute to both men that were clearly higher than Naruto's fake rank of captain.

With a nod of dismissal from the handlebar mustache having Marine, both Naruto and Soren took different hallways away from each other and from the real Marine elites. As the two faker Marines got further away, both of the real ones nodded to each other before suddenly vanishing from sight in blurs and rushing at both Naruto and Soren respectively while their backs were turned with intent to attack.

Both Naruto and Soren had saluted with the wrong hand the second time.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Tons of Henged Naruto clones littered the decks doing sailor things to make it look like they were a legitimate Marine vessel to those that could observe them from the G-3 base. The main Naruto clone that was holding the major transformation on the ship was sitting at the helm's bench and focusing to make sure the ship's true form didn't slip.

Thank goodness the ship was wired with arrays that allowed him to generate chakra on the ship's behalf. This whole thing could have turned into a smaller scale Enies Lobby situation had that not been the case.

Much of the Foxhound Pirate crew was allowed to walk around because they had Marine disguises on, but for some people like one Nefertari Vivi, it was too dangerous for her to be out even in false uniform. If the Marines knew who any of them would be on sight it would definitely be the 'kidnapped' and 'brainwashed' princess of Alabasta.

So she simply sat around on her bed in her room accompanied by Carue as usual, but this time also with Shima as well. Perhaps to keep Fukasaku from spending his free time with the beautiful young princess, but then again that would be a losing battle anyway because there was still Miss Valentine and Nojiko elsewhere onboard. Perona too, but she was the most disengaged of the lot, possibly because she was still technically a prisoner of sorts and had no connection to any of them.

But Shima was at least regaling her with things about the Elemental Nations when she had asked about what Naruto's home had been like. The captain of the crew was still a pretty big mystery background-wise.

"So there are thousands of people that can do the things that Naruto can do?" She was quite certain that she'd heard it from the mouth of the man directly, but it was still shocking to hear that fact more or less confirmed, "That's… terrifying."

"**Not quite dear."** It was quite nice for Shima to meet new people, especially ones as nice as the people on Naruto's crew. She wasn't sure about the angry bald one with the tattoo going down his face and arm because he looked like a hoodlum, nor about the blonde shipwright that smoked all the time, and not really about the pink-haired girl that dressed so strangely, but everyone else was just fine, **"Naruto-chan's kinda the strongest ninja yer gonna see, especially these days. Maybe back in the old days it'd be scarier, but it's a pretty peaceful land nowadays. No wars in over eighty years and none in sight."**

"Because of Naruto." Vivi stated, as apparently Naruto had kept the peace by overseeing things with no allegiance to any one ninja village.

A sigh came from Shima as she nodded and hopped to Vivi's side on her bed, **"Well he had a big enough hand in keepin' it that way. It was a tough shake for him when he started, especially when the next generations started feelin' entitled. Couldn't go to any hidden village, and he'd made so many good friends in more than a few of 'em too. He had us, and he still saw a few of 'em every decade or so, but that wasn't the same."**

He stayed on the mountain amongst the toads a lot, for years at a time, and then he would go out and venture about to make sure everything was still fine in the Elemental Nations before returning after a few more years. During the most recent of these ventures he apparently got bored of the monotony and went out to sea.

And good for him for doing so. For the first time in a long time he actually had some life back in those eyes of his. Before leaving he only really trained so that his skills didn't atrophy. He honestly didn't have any reason to keep trudging on. But now he found something that he was looking for, and he just so happened to find more people to care about.

Speaking of which, Miss Valentine walked directly into Vivi's room, also dressed in a normal Marine's outfit as if she were showing it off, "I really hate these clothes, but I make even this look good, right?" She said before letting out a bit of a laugh and calming down, "So what exactly are you two doing in here?" Miss Valentine knew that Vivi was bored to death just sitting inside of her room, but it would only be a little bit before they left and she could come out again… hopefully.

"**Just here talkin' with little hime-chan here, tryin' to keep her a company a bit." **Shima said, reaching out and patting the girl on the arm, **"She's a nosy one… askin' about Naruto-chan a lot."**

"Oh really now?" Vivi averted her eyes from Miss Valentine as the blonde cook of the crew had her grin grow three times wider. Taking a seat on the other side of Vivi on her bed she wrapped an arm around Vivi's shoulder and leaned towards Shima, "Nojiko says Vivi has a crush on Naruto."

"**Does she now? That's so cute."**

Beginning to sputter indignantly, Vivi regained her composure and glared at Miss Valentine with a pout, "Why do you both keep saying that? Naruto was my teacher for a while, and he's a kind enough person to help me out of the jam he did back after Crocodile was defeated, so what's wrong with actually wanting to find out what makes him the way he is? You can't tell me you're not curious about him."

"Nope, I'm not. Kyahahahaha!" Miss Valentine shot down Vivi's point, almost getting her to fall forward off of his bed, "Who he used to be doesn't matter at all. It's who Naruto is now that ever mattered to me." She said matter-of-factly, "Just look at me. If you cared who I used to be you'd want me dead for being a part of Baroque Works. Well it's the same way for me. Whatever he did in the past is irrelevant as far as I'm concerned."

Shima nodded sagely at Miss Valentine's own viewpoint of the past before she addressed the woman, **"Naruto-chan's been with you and the Nojiko girl already hasn't he?"** Blinking in surprise at the curious question, Miss Valentine still managed to nod her head in confirmation, **"…Thought so. I'm gonna crack his head when he gets back on this ship!"** Shima muttered angrily as she hopped down off of Vivi's bed and walked out of the room to elsewhere on the vessel, **"Leadin' girls on like some kinda playboy…"**

After she left, Vivi pointed at the now empty doorway that Shima had exited through, "Naruto's just letting Shima-san beat him up right? Like how he lets Nojiko shoot at him and hit him with her pistol."

"I'm not sure really." Miss Valentine replied, "I haven't been sure about a lot of things since we started going further on the Grand Line. I just stopped caring. It does wonders for your nerves to stop worrying about what's normal or what's supposed to happen. Apparently anything's possible." Vivi swiveled around and lay down on her bed staring up at the ceiling. Feeling like getting one last jab in, she gave Vivi a few pats on the stomach before standing up to leave, "Anything including you getting the guts to try and put a move on-."

She didn't get to finish her joke before having to hightail it out of there when Vivi reached for her sharply jeweled weapon of a belt threateningly. Her laughter still echoed down the hallway

"Jerk." Vivi flatly declared, sticking out her tongue at the no longer present Miss Valentine only to get a loud quack from Carue who was giving her a rather pointed look from his own personal bed, "Oh be quiet you." She said, rather red-faced at whatever her personal pet had been implying.

XxX

(G-3 Marine Base Main Tower – Spandine's Office)

Was it just him or did he feel the ground shake?

Ah, it must have been the World Government inspectors testing one of the cannons. Spandine had no worries there. He was quite sure that they would find absolutely nothing amiss with their long-range weaponry, and that would mark up more points for him when word got back and it was time to hand out kudos.

He couldn't wait. He wasn't sure how much higher up the World Government totem pole someone like him could go, but he'd be testing that all the way. And if not him he'd have to make sure Spandam did once he recovered from his grisly injuries suffered during the Enies Lobby incident.

Another shake. Well it was none of his concern. Until the inspectors came to interview him directly the two vice-admirals there that had been planning to ship out from there to Marineford the next day could do one last simple thing like that.

XxX

(With Naruto – Southern Courtyard of G-3 Marine Base)

Everything was cool, and then all of a sudden all hell broke loose.

What went wrong?

There was no way that those two guys in the hall figured out who they were like that. They didn't even look like the same people that there were bounties on. Soren looked like completely different person with his tattoo covered and his bald head and odd ears hidden underneath his Marine cap. Naruto himself, without the whisker-marks and his own hair covered underneath a cap only had blue eyes as a distinguishable trait. How was someone that never met him going to tell who he was by his eyes?

Either way that wasn't relevant. Right now there were two options present to him. He could either cut and run and abandon the mission, or he could face off with the scar-faced, sunglasses wearing, white suit sporting man before him, kick his ass as fast as he possibly could, and find Spandine. Screw subtlety, that ship had sailed already.

On the man standing across from him in the open courtyard was a calm expression, a pair of wicked metal gloves on his hands with sharp claws that gleamed in the sunlight. The same weapons he had attacked Naruto from behind with. He wasn't a slouch either as his initial attack was forceful enough to barrel Naruto straight through a wall, which led them to being outside to begin with.

Naruto's face and the jacket that he liked were smudged with debris from the wall he had been sent through and his hat was now long gone. Upon wiping his face he revealed the whisker-marks on his cheeks and that was all that his enemy needed to see to know that he'd been right on with his suspicions, "Uzumaki Naruto… I guess we can now add impersonation of a Marine officer to your list of offenses."

"Oh come on." Naruto said with a grin as he took off the Marine captain coat and wrapped it around his waist. It would have been cumbersome to fight while wearing it if it wasn't personalized for him, which it wasn't. He first picked it up all of one hour ago, "It's not like doing something that minor would make my bounty go up anymore." And thank goodness because it wasn't like he needed it.

"No I suppose the kidnapping of a World Government nation's princess, the killing of a Marine vice-admiral, the case of your killing of over one-thousand Marines, and the rumors of you overcoming two of our current admirals that are swimming around amongst the top brass would be enough…" The man said with a careful tone, "…But for pirates nothing is ever enough."

"I'm not a-. Fuck it. Nevermind, it doesn't matter right now." Naruto said, wishing he could have brought some weapons with him, at least some kunai for using Hiraishin in battle, but that would have blown his cover even sooner, there was nowhere to hide them and scrolls would be inconvenient in case he had to fight someone that was actually good, "You know who I am clearly, so that's all I need to know."

The sound of metal sliding against metal rang out as the Marine elite flexed his fingers out in his metal gloves, "Of course I know. Anyone that isn't aware of you and yours at this point can't possibly call themselves a vice-admiral." He saw Naruto's raised eyebrow and confirmed what he had just said, "Vice-Admiral Cancer at your service."

'Shit.' Naruto thought to himself. Yes he had beaten Aokiji who was a full admiral in a battle to the finish, but that was in a fight that nearly killed him. While he figured he could beat Vice-Admiral Cancer more handily, he wanted it to be with as little collateral damage as possible so that he could just leave, 'I need to make this fast.'

Cancer carefully adjusted his sunglasses on his face with his sharp metal claw gloves before rushing towards his enemy at a high speed, taking nothing for granted against Naruto. Presuming that it was his use of Soru, because Naruto had seen Aokiji do the same thing to move at an accelerated speed.

He jumped back out of the way and was forced to keep back handspringing as far as he could go because of a long series of four claw markings being ripped into the ground that stretched outward from where Cancer had stricken the ground.

Before Naruto could even begin to appraise and break down the technique, Cancer was back on him, bravely taking swings at his head and neck as if he were trying to slice his head off and just be done with it. Even without Sage Mode Naruto still had the reflexes to dodge cleanly and respond with a kick that forced his opponent off of him.

Without missing a beat, Naruto charged forward and formed a Rasengan in between his two hands with four white blade-like protrusions of chakra from it, "Fuuton: Rasengan (Wind Release: Spiraling Sphere)!"

Cancer held his ground and struck back at Naruto with a double-handed downward slash. Both connected and a big explosion rippled through the courtyard, destroying much of the neatly paved ground and grassy landscape of it.

In a pair of small craters stood both Naruto and Cancer, both having created them from the backlash of their own mostly stalemated attacks. So vice-admirals really weren't a joke after all.

Naruto was shaking some serious tingling out of his hands while Cancer was noting that his arms had cuts on them from the wind aspect of Naruto's Rasengan attack, "So it's true. You really can punch through a person's Busoshoku Haki with your own brute force." It hadn't been what he had been expecting from it though. To defeat someone like Aokiji he would have needed to generate way more power.

On the other hand, Naruto idly wondered how tough Vice-Admiral Doberman would have been to fight during the Buster Call had he not simply obliterated the man's entire vessel with a Rasenshuriken instead of electing to fight him. There wasn't going to be any skipping the middleman this time, he was going to have to put this guy down the old-fashioned way.

With one-thirtieth of his chakra as it was split thirty ways with the clones on the Natural Disaster. Lovely.

So be it then. Time to get tricky.

"I don't see how any rumor of you defeating Admiral Aokiji started if this was all a direct attack from you could do." Cancer said, rolling his sleeves back down over his captain's coat to cover his wounds, "You're strong no doubt to injure me through my Haki, but any rank vice-admiral and above is simply another league."

Picking up a large slab of broken concrete from nearby, Naruto spun back around and hurled it at Cancer who deftly diced it into segments with his claws only to find Naruto right behind what had once been a complete segment, "Rariatto (Lariat)!" Naruto had his arm drawn back and slammed the length of it right across Cancer's upper chest with considerable force.

He knocked the man back, but once again the living armor of his Haki kept him from registering much damage as after sliding on his backside for a distance he got his feet back under himself and stood up, "That one seemed to have less kick behind it than your last move."

If there was one thing that was certain when it came to people of high ranking, it was that they hated it when that rank was disregarded, especially when they had worked their asses off for it the way Cancer more than likely had done for his entire life.

While it left a sour taste in his mouth to do something like that when he knew what it was like to work hard for recognition, it was also something Naruto could use to fight in a different way, "Tough talk from someone that only hit me once, and from behind too. Well if you think I'm going to go into Sage Mode just to deal with a vice-admiral you're kidding yourself. I only save that for _real_ challenges. If I fought you in Sage Mode you wouldn't be awake right now to even judge how hard I hit you."

'This boy has a real mouth on him.' Cancer thought irritably, chalking Naruto's words up to youthful disrespect, "We'll see if your fighting skills actually measure up to that bounty of yours or if it's just because you're a loudmouthed anarchist."

Naruto just beckoned him forward and stood in an even-legged stance, distributing his weight evenly before holding perfectly still, "Come on then. One free shot. I won't move an inch from this spot, you can do whatever you want."

"Fool." Cancer said before using Soru to try and confound Naruto to his movements, "That arrogance will get you killed if you're really going to go through with your boasting challenge." Naruto didn't move an inch from his spot though, still waiting patiently with a look of focus on his face.

Finally choosing to strike, the vice-admiral rushed at Naruto from blindspot that he felt Naruto couldn't respond to at a low-to-the-ground angle and vaulted at him, changing levels and preparing to take out Naruto's head.

To his surprise however, Naruto didn't even try to move and took the attack without flinching… before bursting into smoke.

Also to his surprise, one of the stone slabs that he had cut out of the chunk that Naruto had thrown suddenly burst into smoke as well, and out came another Naruto with strange toad-looking eyes that had orange pigment around them.

Naruto approached with a closing speed that Cancer never anticipated and he wasn't able to react and turn in time before Naruto reached him. The infamous (not) pirate slammed an open-handed strike directly in Cancer's face, sending violent ripples of natural energy directly into the point of contact, "Kawazu Tataki (Frog Strike)!"

The enhanced strength provided by Sage Mode, added to the natural energy he sent out in ripples into Cancer's body sent the man flying like a rocket, all the while he was shaking like a tuning fork as he was propelled through a wall, and another wall, and another wall, several walls in all before coming to a stop.

There was a satisfied look on Naruto's face as his Sage Mode faded and he dusted his hands off. He had only collected enough for one move when he transformed into a busted piece of concrete to give himself some free time and an opening to gather what he needed to knock his durable foe out cold.

He also then realized that Cancer barely knew what had hit him if he knew at all when his clone was defeated to signify to him that the time to attack was then. Wow, had he really done that good of a job of keeping his clones under wraps in most fights against the World Government that he could actually use just one to surprise an enemy so completely?

Gazing around the completely ruined courtyard and the obliterated walls, Naruto decided to hastily make his way elsewhere before all hell broke loose, "There. That didn't take that long. And I didn't do that much damage either."

XxX

(With Soren – Western Tower of G-3 Marine Base)

He wasn't even going to waste his energy trying to use Tekkai. It wasn't going to work at all, he was just going to get himself cut to ribbons. Damn vice-admirals and their Haki. Last time he had to fight Haoshoku Haki against Onigumo, well this time he had to deal with Busoshoku Haki. How did he know? Well when he was first attacked and Soren dodged his first attack, Soren was knocked back by the invisible force of the man's Haki.

Soren found himself strictly on the defensive from the very start as the man in the yellow and black striped suit with the dark hair and the handlebar mustache had chosen him as his target in the hallway. Being chased through the area up long spiral stairs wasn't his idea of fun, but luckily they were nowhere near the barracks or he'd be getting chased by more than just one Marine.

"You're going to run out of stairs to climb eventually!" Vice-Admiral Stainless assured Soren as he continued to pursue him with a katana in his hand, set on using it to cut pieces off of Soren should he reach him, "Any decent officer can spot a fake Marine a mile away!"

Rolling his eyes at his powerful pursuer's words, Soren turned around and pulled down his eyelid tauntingly, more or less poking the bear, "Bet you run out first. Ibi Ibi no Kawa (Rot Rot Stream)!" Instead of firing his acid at Stainless, Soren puffed his cheeks out and sprayed a steady stream of acid from his mouth directly over his shoulder onto the stairs, getting Stainless to stop lest he mistakenly step in it and harm himself.

Meanwhile Soren just kept running upstairs and melting the stairs behind him all the way. After his acid ran out he cackled to himself as he popped a quick vial of lemon juice to make sure he still had a good amount of acidic content in his body when he found himself on the roof of the tower with a large and powerful cannon nearby.

As he peered over to the main tower, his rudimentary reasoning skills told him that the most important room in any place, such as the office of the guy that was in temporary command of the base, would be the highest part of the tallest building. Looking over to another tower he had to do a double-take as he saw Naruto staring at the main tower as if he were thinking the same thing.

It took a few moments for Naruto to feel the eyes of someone else on him and he turned to see Soren standing by a cannon. The first-mate of the Foxhound crew pointed from the artillery weapon to the top of the middle tower and then to Naruto… only to get a confused and questioning tilt of the head from the ninja.

He was trying to convey the message without yelling in order to maintain what little semblance of stealth they had left, but someone apparently didn't get the gist of rudimentary sign language, "Goddamn it… I'll shoot the tower with the fucking cannon, you run up the wall and when the hole gets made you go in there and snatch the bastard! God, was it that hard to get?"

Naruto wordlessly scowled back at him and gave him the middle finger before limbering up and running down his own tower. While he did this, Soren quickly located the cannonballs which were larger than normal to go with the size of the cannon itself and loaded it. As he turned it around, Naruto was already scaling the main tower at a high speed, putting him in a rush to aim and fire, blowing away the wall intended for Naruto to go through, which he did.

He thought he heard a rather cowardly shriek come from the site of the hole that had just been made, which was impressive for it to be that loud that it reached him, but Soren had another problem to worry about once the roof beneath him inexplicably gave way, and he and the cannon on the roof fell down with a resounding crash to the lower levels of their tower.

Soren managed to save himself from a catastrophic fall by getting a hold of the wall with his acid-enhanced fingernails that let him dig a handhold and slide down safely to an intact floor where he found Stainless already waiting for him standing by a cannon.

'This guy shot through several floors just to get me off of the roof and down to his level?' Soren thought to himself as he tossed his Marine hat aside and lost the sleeveless uniform top since there was no more need for it, "You're a vice-admiral, so why aren't you at Marineford? I'd have thought that the top brass would have wanted as many of you back as possible to deal with Whitebeard when he shows up looking to tear that place apart."

"We stopped here to pick up any Marine officer that G-3 had in preparation for that battle, but we didn't think we'd wind up running into one of the most troublesome rookie crews on the sea." Stainless said, holding his katana in a traditional stance, "So that begs the question of what you've come here to do."

Choosing to not answer, Soren let a bead of sweat roll down his forehead. His last fight with a vice-admiral nearly killed him, thus he really wasn't looking forward to a re-do, but then again this man didn't seem to have any Devil Fruit powers the way his last vice-admiral level opponent did.

He wordlessly channeled his green acidic glow to his go-to melee weapons, his fingernails, in anticipation of the battle, "Ibi Ibi no Tsume (Rot Rot Claws)!"

"False blades in lieu of real ones." Stainless commented, figuring that Soren used his acid to augment his ability to cut and scratch with his fingernails, "You'll find that when dealing with a skilled swordsman that crutch won't do much for you."

Soren shot a look towards his hands, both of them held in claw-like forms, before looking back up at Stainless, "I've got a crutch for my crutch." He said before rushing forward directly at Stainless.

The vice-admiral shook his head and prepared to cleave into Soren's hands to separate them from his wrists if he happened to be dumb enough to go up against his sword to do so, but when he met Soren's claws with his katana the strangest thing happened. Soren began matching him stroke for stroke, taking every shot of his sword off of his hands.

That made no sense. His Haki would have allowed him to slice through normal flesh and blood like a cloud, and Soren's acid wouldn't be able to protect him at all because that had nothing to do with such a defense.

"I learned something about using Tekkai (Iron Mass) while I was training the bit of Rokushiki techniques that I stole." Soren said as he continued to death-duel with his hands against Stainless, "That I can't use it and move my body at the same time." That was quite contradictory to what he was doing at the moment though, "But I can harden parts of my body as long as I don't move what I want to harden a bit, like my hands."

"That's impossible." Stainless claimed as he clashed his sword against Soren's bare hands that he noticed had never moved out of their claw-handed forms that he had begun the battle with. He had been telling the truth; nothing past his wrists happened to be moving an inch, as if his hands weren't real and were prosthetic and in fixed positions, "That's a strict amount of muscle control that I can't see someone like you having the discipline to develop."

Soren grinned at having impressed a vice-admiral with something that he could do aside from his Devil Fruit powers, "It's better than not adapting and getting killed because of it don't you think?"

XxX

(With Naruto – G-3 Marine Base Main Tower – Spandine's Office)

Getting his entire western wall blown away with a cannon shot was startling enough, but then to see a strange man jump through the newly created hole and head right for him, Spandine almost fainted from the shock because he thought he was a dead man.

Not to be however, as Naruto merely made it over to him and prevented him from grabbing the Den Den Mushi that would alert the base to the trouble. Thank goodness all of the ruckus was taking place on the half of the base that was strictly operational, the side by the ocean. The barracks were all the way on the other side of the base, closer to the town.

"W-W-Who are you and what do you want with me?" Spandine sputtered as he found his hand in Naruto's iron-like grip. The blonde merely moved the Den Den Mushi far out of the way of possibility for him to reach it and set off an alert for the entire place.

"You don't know who I am?" Naruto said in a bit of disbelief. That was odd, because for the longest time Marines and World Government representatives knew who he was without him having to say a word. Wasn't this guy supposed to be kind of important? Well maybe it was better that he didn't know for once. Very few things were scarier than the unknown, "That's not a big deal though." He so desperately wanted to break into his whole introduction spiel, but there wasn't any time for that, "I've just got one question for you, answer it right and nothing bad'll happen at all. I'll let you go."

Spandine just nodded frantically as Naruto's hand was now set firmly on top of his head. He'd just slip this brute a sweet-sounding lie and he'd be on his way. High-ranking government members didn't just cough up information so casually, but he wasn't really big on being physically tormented either… he was fragile.

At that point, Naruto had been standing still for long enough to build up more natural energy on his own and his eyes not only took on the orange pigment of sage mode, the purple, ripple-patterned eyes of the Rinnegan took form, "You're not going to do something stupid like lie to me would you?" Naruto's hand began to glow in an ethereal manner, "I'm going to be reading your mind, so if you lie I'll know, and if I have to actually look for the real answer against your will I'll pull your soul out too… and that'll kill you."

It wasn't even a matter of questioning Naruto's words as bluster because when the blonde started to pull his hand away from Spandine's scalp the man could actually feel a tug of sorts and quickly reapplied Naruto's hand to the top of his head tightly with both hands around his wrist, "Alright! Alright! Alright! What do you want?"

"Where's your son Spandam? Some people want to talk to him and he went and put himself into hiding." Upon the utterance of his question, Naruto was rather impressed at how Spandine's resolve seemed to show itself. At least he was more inclined to protect his son than his son would have been to return the favor. Naruto had no doubt that Spandam would have sung whatever he wanted to know out in falsetto if he had been put in the same situation, "You're not gonna tell me?" He asked with a frown.

"I won't let a criminal get the location of Spandam!" Spandine shouted, sending spittle all about. All the while tears of fear were pouring from his eyes, "Do you know who you're dealing with? What you're doing?"

"I know exactly who I'm dealing with." Naruto said honestly. If he didn't know those things then he wouldn't have even known where to go to do this in the first place, duh, "And I'll pretend that means something to me for about… ten more seconds." To his credit, Spandine remained silent and seemed to be praying or something. Wow, he was actually resigning himself to his fate, "I'm gonna find out whether you tell me or not."

Still nothing, even when Naruto started using that pulling feeling of him holding onto Spandine's soul like he was playing with a rubber band.

With a sigh, Naruto pulled his only remaining card. He really didn't want to kill this man, he personally had nothing against him and something like that should have been saved for someone that did, "If you just tell me it's not like you can't warn Spandam way in advance before something happens. You can't warn him of anything if you're dead so how will he know what's coming then?"

From the look on Spandine's face and how his snot and tears instantly dried up it was evident that he hadn't even thought of such a thing. He almost looked like a child when he looked up at Naruto and answered him quickly, "The G-5 base in the New World." Yep, a big old wrinkly child.

Naruto actually smiled at the man and lifted his hand off of his head, scaring Spandam until Naruto gave him a few pats on his crown, "There, you're fine just like I said. I'm an honest guy, dattebayo." He then turned to leap back out of the hole that had been blown into the tower with a cannon when Spandine's voice stopped him.

"Wait." The old government agent said, still coming down off of his near brush with death via soul extraction, "Why didn't you just kill me if you would get the information no matter what happened?"

"Because I don't kill people in cold blood." Naruto explained, turning around as his Sage Mode and Rinnegan faded, "Yeah, I've killed a lot of people, but that was all in the middle of battle, and no one picks up a sword or a gun or anything without expecting to maybe die fighting. Killing someone that's already beaten though, I don't do that. I've never done that. I'll never do that. That's all."

A loud crashing noise directed Naruto's attention to the tower that Soren had fired the cannon from. The entire roof was destroyed and the sounds of battle were quite clear to his ears. His jaw went somewhat slack though when he saw a circular, sickly green blade of energy suddenly cut through the tower from its interior. The spot that was cut melted the above and below portions of the walls that it touched and forced the unstable upper portion of the tower to fall over.

"Crap." Naruto immediately took off down the side of the main tower to reach Soren's. He had a pretty good idea of what had just happened and he was going to whack that idiot for being so stupid, "I said as little damage as possible."

Spandine just stared at the hole in the wall and let out a sigh of relief as he slumped back in his chair. He had to contact Spandam quickly, but even then everything should have been okay.

His son was at G-5. The Marines of that branch were… troubled to say the least. Insane, merciless types that would openly torment a pirate that had already surrendered to them just for the hell of it. Probably the most ruthless of the enlisted Marines. And aside from that, the base was set smack dab in the middle of the New World portion of the Grand Line.

Even getting there in the first place would be an insurmountable challenge for whoever was really intending to go there.

No, even though he had given up the location of his son he would still be fine once warned of the possible trouble coming. Who did that man think he was anyway? He didn't look all that tough, and if he was soft enough to spare his life because he was on some kick to not kill people in cold blood he'd never get far enough in that living hell to do anything anyway.

And yes, Spandine thought all of this while still shaking like a leaf in his chair and ignoring the wet spot on the front of his pants.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Naruto's clone up in the crow's nest opened its eyes and turned towards Nojiko who was up there with him for company's sake and to keep an eye on the whole scene from a distance through the scope. Needless to say she had been shaking her head at the stuff she had seen done to one tower and then to the other. She had a great view of it, "We need to go now." He said, getting Nojiko's attention, "Boss got what he needed. This isn't gonna stay as quiet as it's been for too much longer."

"This has been quiet?" Nojiko said with a raised eyebrow before standing up and shouting down to the veritable clone navy down on deck, "It's time to go! The mission's over I think!" She got a bunch of raucous responses from the Henged sailor Naruto clones as she made her way down to the helm where the main clone was hard at work, "Are you doing okay Clone Naruto-kun? Running low on chakra?"

"Kind of." The main Naruto clone admitted with a bit of a strained smile, "I can't really let myself dispel yet though. Holding a transformation for so long on something this big is a serious drain." He should have used two clones to do the technique, but that was hindsight really. Nothing anyone could do about it now.

"Well you're doing a good job." Nojiko assured him before giving him a kiss on the cheek, eliciting a series of boos and heckling from the other clones on deck about how that clone was being a big baby and about where the hell their kisses were supposed to be.

Johnny swung down from where he had been dealing with the sails to try and prepare them for departure. Though he was still visibly injured from his sound thrashing at Kizaru's hands yesterday, he proved to be quite the trooper as he wasn't going to lay in bed if he wasn't injured. Yosaku was still the only one that was still wounded to the point where he couldn't get out of bed, thus he remained in Muret's medical bay, "We're on the move. Once we get into open water we can take these disguises off. It's not like they can catch us at that point."

"True enough I suppose." Nojiko agreed, looking around the deck for any of the rest of their actual crew, "Everyone's being lazy because Naruto-kun's clones are up here to seem like we're Marines aren't they?"

Johnny chuckled a bit and nodded as Nojiko rolled her eyes, "Well yeah. Naruto-aniki does it to everyone else so much, well now they can get him back and let his clones do all of the work for once." He ducked a punch from one of the clones in question and a glare from Nojiko got the doppelganger to stop trying to beat up Johnny, "Anyway, things should be good right?"

At that point, both Naruto and Soren appeared on the deck, both looking a bit battle-weary, Soren more so than Naruto though in comparison, "Comin' in hot." Naruto said before directing his attention back towards the G-3 base that they were sailing away from.

"You should say that before you actually end up in the place you're getting yourself to Naruto-aniki." Johnny pointed out uselessly just before a loud alarm was raised from the land that they were sailing away from at a fast pace, "What did you two do?"

"I knocked out a vice-admiral and put him through like twenty walls."

"I cut down a tower with a kick. My new Rankyaku (Storm Leg) variation is so cool. Didn't beat my vice-admiral though… Uzumaki came and grabbed me."

"It can be as cool as you want it to be. You missed the kick. And we had to leave anyway. I don't need another crew member put in traction right now."

"Bah, excuses."

Interrupting the captain vs. first-mate pissing contest, Nojiko hit the both of them over their heads with the butts of her pistols, "You two fought vice-admirals? I thought the whole point of this disguise crap was so you didn't have to fight anyone at all! Why didn't you just run to begin with?" Both of them stared at her blankly, wordlessly answering her question right there, "Ugh… I swear to God."

By the time any of the Marines of the G-3 base got to their ready posts and reached any working artillery, there was merely an orange ship with unique tree-like masts sailing away into the horizon.

XxX

(That Night – Onboard the Natural Disaster – Naruto's Quarters)

Both Fukasaku and Shima sat in front of Naruto on his bed as the boy they had known since the age of fifteen sat before them looking quite serious at what he had just inquired of them, **"Naruto-chan…"** Shima said, completely business-like in her tone, **"That's really what ya summoned us out here fer? D'ya really think that'd be the best idea?"**

"I know, I know. There's a bunch of reasons why I shouldn't think about doing it at all." Naruto admitted in regards to the cryptic topic of their conversation, "But I can at least ask him if nothing else. If it doesn't happen it doesn't happen. That's all there is to it. The worst thing he can do is say no and that'll be that."

"**Are things really that serious that ya'd consider this to be a solution?"** Fukasaku hopped up to Naruto and put a hand on his charge's leg as he sat cross-legged on his bed, **"Talk to us. Just how dangerous is this place?"**

Naruto stood up from his bed and started pacing around, "Aokiji nearly killed me in our fight, I keep getting lucky against Kizaru so that it never goes that far... and I keep hearing that there are even stronger people out there, that we haven't seen anything yet. Ma, Pa, there are tons of powerful people in the world. I'm just saying that Sage Mode isn't enough anymore. I might need more firepower."

"**Then come home."** Shima suggested, **"What are ya even doing out here to begin with? Ya did yer thing, ya had some fun, ya saw things that no other shinobi ever saw before. Come home."**

For Naruto's sake, Fukasaku stepped in and tried to explain to his wife before she got too worked up, **"Dear we both know that ain't an option for Naruto-chan. Not now at least. Right boy?"**

There was a small hint of a smile on Naruto's face, "No, it's not. I can't go back to the mountain again Ma, not now… not for good anyway. I like it out here. I love the people around me. And that's why I was asking if you guys thought it would be a good idea to go through with my idea."

Shima didn't seem to like the idea of Naruto getting himself involved in another series of never ending and potentially catastrophic situation, but she knew why he felt the way that he did. It was the same reason he seemed to have some drive and a fire back in his eyes again, **"And this is something yer serious about?"**

"Dead serious." Naruto said resolutely, "I'm not cutting and running from them. It's not gonna happen like that again. I'm sticking it out with this crew for as long as they want me here." What kind of man would he be to have gathered them, painstakenly gotten them attached to him and to each other and then just suddenly left one day? Not any kind of man he ever wanted to be, "The world is way bigger than just the Elemental Nations."

Both of the elderly toads looked at each other before turning back to Naruto as Fukasaku spoke, **"Get us to summon ya to Mt. Myoboku when ya think it's time. We'll have the key to the Gedo Mazo (Demonic Statue of the Outer Path) to try what ya need to do."**

"**And ya might as well bring yer crew too Naruto-chan."** Shima instructed him,** "We don't ever get any new company up in our little place anymore."**

"You've got it." Naruto said with a grin. Maybe it could be fun to show everyone the home of the toads, and hey maybe a bit of the Elemental Nations too, just for a bit at least for background's sake while he was taking care of his own business, "We'll finish this mission and then I'll bring it up and see what they think." He reached down and gave the lady toad a hug before putting her back down on the bed, "It was good seeing you guys again."

"**Next time it won't be after seven years thank goodness."**

A bark of laughter slipped from Naruto as the two summon creatures disappeared in puffs of smoke, returning to the land from whence they came.

With tranquil night silence back in his room for the first time since he summoned his non-human parental figures and beacons of advice, Naruto frowned and pulled up his shirt, gathering chakra so that the form of the seal that had been on his stomach for his entire life could be seen. Though now it was disjointed and uneven, signifying that it had been opened and that there was nothing left there other than the residual chakra of the seal's former tenant.

"I wonder if Kurama wants to hang out with me again for a bit." Naruto mused to himself as he flopped down on his bed and stared up at the ceiling, "If I still know him even halfway well he's probably bored as hell in the biju's haven." Right after finishing up his little arrangement with CP9 and giving them the information they wanted he'd have to prepare for a bit of a trip home.

* * *

**Chapter complete. To all of those that tried to help me out with my little problem of finding places to read manga after my site of choice closed shop on what I liked thank you all kindly, I really appreciate it.**

**About why this one took a while to come out; well basically it was a combination of life stepping on my neck and pretty much general disinterest that I didn't really get over until I sat down and tried to just go for it and bang it out, then it worked itself out in rather short order.**

**I've been reading a manga I just found lately; something called The God of Highschool. I don't know why I like this one, but I just do, it's weird why I give a damn about it, but hey.**

**Oh well, you don't care. That's cool too.**

**Kenchi out everyone. Hopefully I don't drag ass for so long in the near future for the next one.**


	42. Faded Scars and Lines

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. So what? Big whoop. Wanna fight about it?

Seriously do you? I need more sparring partners.

**Chapter 42: Faded Scars and Lines**

* * *

After delivering the information of Spandam's whereabouts to CP9, Naruto had another man-to-man sitdown with Rob Lucci at the CP9 hideout on Kwai Island. There was still ill intent between the two of them after last time the Foxhound Crew had dropped by their island sanctuary, and after a show of good faith of pulling off the mission requested to them via CP9, it was as good an opportunity as any to clear things up.

The term 'sitdown' was completely out of place though, as there was no sitting done here.

Aside from the two of them the waterfront hideout was empty and the furniture was all moved out of the way in the front room… as if that would prevent it from being destroyed if things escalated to hostility.

"We heard rumor of your attack hours after it occurred." Lucci said, standing with his arms crossed as he leaned against the wall. His pigeon was flying around the room between the two of them, but neither of them were paying attention to that, "It was impressive. I expected more problems considering that the rest of your crew doesn't seem up to something so sensitive."

The last thing that anyone on the crew needed was praise, least of all Naruto. Especially in the form of backhanded compliments. Time to poke the bear… or jaguar in this case, "Yeah whatever. I didn't kill Spandine, so have fun with that later when you go after Spandam."

Lucci's eye twitched unnoticeably, but the atmosphere in the room shifted at that admittance, "And why not? You're the man that killed over 1000 in one battle with a single attack."

"Because it wasn't in a battle. He was sitting behind a desk damn near pissing his pants." Naruto responded as if it didn't matter if Rob Lucci had a grievance against the Spandine/Spandam family, "I don't kill anyone in cold blood, and I'm not your pocket executioner."

A low growl rumbled from Lucci's throat but he settled down quickly enough. It didn't matter. Any powerful Marine that could actually stop them would have been moved to Marineford, because Portgas D. Ace's execution was pending. The best wouldn't be around Spandam even if they knew CP9 was coming, "Very well then. We'll simply have to kill him before an actual defense can be placed around him."

"Good luck with that, because he's supposed to be in some Marine base in the New World. G-5."

The entire back wall of the room was then punched out by a venting CP9 member in Rob Lucci. Despite the sudden violent action his face didn't change expressions at all. Naruto just raised an eyebrow questioningly. What was that supposed to be, a demonstration?

In actuality it was Lucci's equivalent of a normal person slamming their hands on a desk and shouting damn it in exasperation and anger. It wasn't that weird though. Most pirates and other combatants that had been met on the seas used random demolition as a form of anger management.

"That is where we're going to go then." Lucci eventually said, "It doesn't matter where Spandam is in hiding. It doesn't matter that you've tried to deter our revenge by alerting the enemy. He is still going to die."

If he thought that Naruto was going to do something or say something to try and convince him otherwise he was sorely mistaken. All he got was a look in Naruto's eyes that said that he had seen things like this happen too many times before for it to get a rise out of him when someone he barely knew declared such.

To an extent he was sort of correct. Even someone on Naruto's own crew had that kind of mindset when it came to one person in particular; that he would kill a certain person without any questions asked if the opportunity presented itself.

"I was still a fool when I left my home to start sailing and exploring." Naruto admitted with a shake of his spiky yellow-topped cranium. He got a raise of a confused eyebrow from an otherwise emotionless Rob Lucci, "Even after seeing how huge the seas really were, and after seeing a ton of different places with different cultures and people all over I still felt that I could do what tons of important people I respect dreamed of; bringing peace to the world."

He had figured that the ninja world had been the world, period. Until he saw that ship from beyond the limits of his home continent and realized that there had been things farther than he had seen evidence of in his life. His ally from when he had been a child, Temujin, he had been from a completely different continent, and that had inspired him again when he hadn't had a reason to be.

Why not? After all he had sort of been the catalyst to that kind of thing before in one massive place. The entire Elemental Nations territory was more or less at peace for the longest extended period in history with no sign of it ending anytime soon. But that was there, where the culture throughout was similar and the world had managed to pull together in understanding of a threat greater than themselves.

Without Akatsuki to coax them into banding together Naruto hated to say it but the hidden villages would never have taken the chance to come together. And that made itself clearer than ever as he traveled.

He bore witness to people in the country of one of his dear friends killing one another due to the lies and greed of one man who cared not for the people, only for the opening to reach the location of a secret weapon.

He had seen a mass atrocity in its near aftermath that he was luckily in the vicinity quickly enough to do something about. He'd seen slavery practiced by the people that had been said to control the world. And he realized that his homeland had only been the tip of the iceberg. There were things just as complicated and interwoven elsewhere.

All of that made him realize that he couldn't bring peace to the entire world, no matter how long his life lasted. Not when he hadn't even seen the world in its entirety. Not when he hadn't borne witness to enough of what it had to offer at both its heights and its depths to understand. Peace without understanding wasn't peace, he was already aware of that.

Forcing such a thing onto people wasn't the answer. It wasn't peace, it was just fascism. It was why he didn't really agree entirely with the approach of Dragon and the Revolutionary Army; of instigating change and damn whoever didn't desire it.

"Peace…" Lucci said, as if testing the waters of the idea before casting it away. The thought of peace all over did nothing for him honestly, "How idealistic of you, but then again you seem to be the type."

"Idealistic?"

"No. Dumb."

To Lucci's surprise the blatant insult of what he had deemed to be a deep-seated belief of Naruto elicited an amused bark of laughter from him, and not even the mocking kind either. It was real, "Ha, no one would ever call me brilliant, but let me tell you something. Smart people might rule the world, but dumb people are the ones that change it. Dumb people are the ones that make things happen in the world, because they're not smart enough to know how to deal with things the way they are when they're bad."

He wasn't any kind of leader of the people, he knew that much and that was why he could eventually deal with never becoming Hokage. Some people were just fit everything that came with being the leader of everything. Some weren't. But what he happened to be was a man that could inspire those that were cut out to be the leaders of their people. A catalyst.

"That's the stupidest thing I've ever heard anyone say to me out loud."

"Aw man, that can't be true because you've spoken to Luffy before."

He would have had a point if Luffy had ever said anything more to Lucci other than how bad he was going to kick his ass, but he really hadn't so in his mind it was still Naruto.

"You're not going to be able to coax everyone over to your way of thinking Uzumaki." Lucci lifted up his hand and tightened it into a fist, "There are always going to be people that want to do things their own way. If you want everyone to think the way you do and cease conflict altogether that won't ever happen."

Naruto was well aware of that, "I know. There's always going to be some reason to fight. You can't stop that. But if people in the world just understood each other and could see things from the perspective of those around them you couldn't say it wouldn't make things better. It would be a start."

"Hm. Understanding you say. Well in that case I want you-." Even though it couldn't be seen from behind the walls of the house, Lucci pointed in the general direction of the Red Line, "I want you to go past that wall. Go past it and see what lays beyond it, because that is where the Grand Line really begins. See if you can 'understand' what drives the people past that point to do the things that they do. And if you can still stand here before me and speak with as much conviction as you do now _maybe_ I'll start hearing what you have to say."

Because he hadn't seen anything yet.

Past the limit of the 'Paradise' portion of the Grand Line and into the New World half. Fair enough, "That's the general idea. You can't try to change what you're not aware of first. The only way you could is through fear, and that's not a real solution."

XxX

Just outside of the house on the deck that surrounded the entire thing the members of CP9 and the few members of the Foxhound Pirates (Johnny, Soren, and Vivi) were waiting while their two leaders had been conversing.

Despite the back wall of the place being punched out, none of them really seemed to care on either side with the exception of the 'kidnapped' princess from Alabasta who headed off that way despite everyone's nonchalant assurances that things were fine.

If Uzumaki Naruto and Rob Lucci who had been getting stronger since his only defeat by the slimmest of margins really fought, the back wall would have only been the first thing getting destroyed in the first ten seconds.

But as big a worrywart as she was, Vivi snuck to the hole in the wall and was able to listen to most of their conversation, complete with Naruto's dogma. Someone like him felt that he still had much to learn. That was something that gave her a settling feeling as royalty meant to inherit rule of her country one day, because she often felt that she would never know everything she needed to. If Naruto was admitting that he still knew nothing, well that was something to latch onto and take to heart.

And speaking of hearts, why the hell was hers beating so fast? Damn Nojiko and Miss Valentine.

Yes she had a crush on Naruto.

She had gratitude at first when he criminalized himself to get her out of Alabasta for her father and when he had even taken to training her at her request. Spending time on Constellation Island had driven the point home for her about what she was feeling, and the more she learned and heard about what made him tick just made it worse over time.

Was it the conviction that he could speak with and the purpose that he could move with when the situation called for it? That spoke to the would-be monarch in her. Was it the empathy that he showed to the people and things around him?

"Alright, well you do what you want but you jerks still owe me a favor later. We're leaving. Come on Vivi-hime, let's go."

Almost letting out an 'eep' at the fact that her presence had been known of the entire time, she slowly peeked through the hole and found both Naruto and Rob Lucci staring at her. One of them had a smile on his face, the other was just giving the same blank look as always.

Having been caught, Vivi bashfully walked through the hole in the wall past Rob Lucci carefully before quickly darting over behind Naruto. That guy was seriously unnerving. The two of them then walked back out front to get Soren and Johnny.

Soren was busy speaking with the CP9 members about his Rokushiki skills, "So you're saying it's not that big of a deal that I learned how to combine my Devil Fruit powers with stuff like Rankyaku and other stuff?"

"No it's not." The square-nosed Kaku said as he smirked underneath his black cap at the young man, "Jyabura, Lucci, myself… we can all do that." He seemed to be enjoying the fact that he could cut down Soren's thoughts that he had managed to pull off something unique and innovative, "You're late to the party man."

There was no verbal response from Soren, and his face didn't show any anger or annoyance, but the acidic steam coursing from his body was a dead giveaway that he was getting pissed off.

Meanwhile Kumadori, Blueno, Jyabura, and Fukurou were watching Johnny attempt to hit on Kalifa in amusement as he seemed to be failing miserably, "-I mean, we used to be kind of enemies yeah, but does that really matter now? I mean in the end we're all just flesh… and bone." He spoke smoothly, pushing down his sunglasses a bit so that she could get a look at his eyes.

The beautiful blonde woman did actually spare him a glance for a moment from behind her glasses before noting how he was trying to close the proximity between them, "Please refrain from sexually harassing me further swordsman-san."

"Johnny." He said with a pleasant grin on his face.

"Right. Johnny-san."

"But my friends call me J-Rock. J-to-the-izzle, Mr. J. Any of those if you like."

"Whatever you say Johnny-san."

Soren palmed his face and was never so thankful that Naruto walked out of the house with Vivi. He didn't want to mouth off and he actually wanted to give Johnny a shot to impress a woman, but goodness someone needed to throw him a lifesaver because he was dying out there.

"Alright guys, let's go." Naruto said, with Vivi already holding onto him piggy-back style in preparation for the Hiraishin, "The ship awaits."

Both Soren and Johnny nodded and walked over to their captain, with the latter giving a goodbye wave to Kalifa. He felt a bit victorious when he actually managed to get a smile out of her after doing so, at least until Soren muttered to him, "John-boy that was pathetic…"

"Whatever. Quit trolling." Johnny replied under his breath, not willing to let the surly first mate of the crew get him down. Today was a win for the speed half of the twin swordsmen in his book, "You're just jealous because you know that all the girls want Peanut Butter and Johnny."

All of the CP9 men outside started snickering, as did Naruto and even Vivi while Soren looked absolutely mortified at what Johnny had just said, "Oh God, please don't ever say that again."

"Peanut Butter and Johnny. Peanut Butter and-."

"Shut! Up!"

XxX

(Mariejois)

In the grand palace of the leaders of the known world the five old powerful-looking men that ruled above any other aspect of the World Government sat amongst each other in their meeting room, staring at the headline of a paper that they had managed to intercept.

How were they going to work this news into what they wanted it to be? It would be difficult to hide the fact that the G-3 Marine Base had been hit and had suffered quite a bit of damage since it sat by a town and anyone attracted to the noise coming from that direction would have borne witness to an entire tower of the base being cut and falling off.

"This is becoming a very troublesome pattern." One of the Gorosei members said as he glared at the newspaper that had almost been released for all to see, "It is not the time for such a thing to be happening. Not with the execution of Portgas D. Ace three days away."

Another of the elders took that moment to speak up, "It is the only time where such a thing wouldn't be leading news. Were it not for the mounting war with Whitebeard being common knowledge it would have been. We would be unable to cover this up."

This Uzumaki Naruto had to be some kind of opportunistic mastermind due to how he had interrogated a high-ranking official of the government on the location of a VIP with even more secrets than the one he had grilled. This was not the first time that he managed to do something like this. When the main focus of the military was elsewhere he would make some kind of move just out of sight of the mass incident that was absurdly significant. A recent example being during the debacle on the Sabaody Archipelago.

He must have been taking advantage of the alarm being caused by the preparation for Whitebeard's retaliation on Marineford to make his own moves. But they couldn't just keep raising his bounty for reasons that they would never release to the public or the majority of the Marine forces; such as destroying separate Pacifista cyborgs and defeating Bartholomew Kuma, his success over surviving the Buster Call, his victory over Aokiji and diverting Kizaru on two separate occasions, and a decisive victory over an entire Grand Line Marine base.

All of those things had been hidden. If they kept raising his bounty every time he did something that they needed to retaliate to eventually too many questions would rise that someone would have to answer to justify such a thing. They were able to justify his currently extremely high bounty due to his actions in kidnapping and subsequently brainwashing Nefertari Vivi along with other subsequent things that his crew had done that they _could_ allow the public to know.

The most important thing about him that they couldn't let people know of were the origins of his whereabouts.

The Gorosei were not fools. They knew the things that they needed for men of their station and then some.

No one else knew the history of the world the way that they did, and they were fully aware of the existence of a large continent in the far reaches of the East Blue. The amount of strength that this place had was alarming, even back centuries ago when they had first encountered them, but they never reached any further than themselves when it came to any kind of imperial ambition. Past the waves there was nothing for them and it stayed that way apparently.

It never came into any significant contact with anywhere else because it sat far out of the way in the East Blue, where there was nothing and where it was the back end of the Grand Line where it let out. Only very go-getting entrepreneurial merchants went out that way and only to trade with the outer area. Out of the less than one percent of East Blue merchants that tried going that way, only one percent of that slim number ever went as far as to actually reach the mainland.

Since the East Blue was comprised of the weakest set of pirates in all of the seas the more wide-eyed set of them that caught wind of this place from the very few that had been there sometimes ventured over that way as well trying to build their own success and spread their chaos… but appropriately none of them ever came back.

They had always been an underlying threat, but they had always been out of the way far enough that they could be ignored. But time had perhaps made them curious as to what else lay out in the world. And they had to determine if Naruto was a normal example of their strength or the extreme example.

The point was, that if such a place became common knowledge in all the seas, especially to people like the Revolutionary Army, they would find even more incentive to undermine the World Government due to the complete autonomy of it. Who knew what else had changed about them? If they had finally formed a true government, if they had become even stronger these days than back then, who knew what else?

Monkey D. Dragon may even endeavor to try and gain an alliance with them if the knowledge of the Elemental Nations existed in the open.

It was probably highly unlikely to happen even if he did wish to do so, but if the possibility existed it was a danger they had to prepare for and contain. This meant that any news of Uzumaki Naruto had to be controlled. At worst they would merely be able to barely keep him out of headlines. At best they could twist his reputation into that of a monster, hence his already imposing epithet and the initially very unflattering picture that came with his early bounties (it had to be changed to the current one because it was so hard to identify him otherwise).

Either way, either due to from his mere presence outside of the limits of control of the Elemental Nations, his mere existence amongst the most troublesome aspects of their society, or the fact that he constantly stood in the direct path of the Marines successfully, Uzumaki Naruto was a serious enemy to the World Government.

XxX

(Two Days Later – With Foxhound Pirates – One-Finger Island)

Why Naruto had guided the Natural Disaster back out to their particular little haven in the Calm Belt none of them were really aware of, but it seemed to be rather important when they moored the ship safely in the hidden cove of the island. He seemed to be pretty excited about it too when everyone was requested to gather things that they felt they'd need for a little while at shore, also confusing because the ship was right there.

"What are we doing here Naruto-kun?" Nojiko asked him, holding onto a bag filled with the things that he had asked them to bring. She had clothes, ammunition, clothes, makeup, clothes, and some emergency food, "I thought we were supposed to be going past the Red Line by now."

The entire crew was there from Yosaku, Johnny, Muret, Vivi (with Carue), Soren, Paulie, Miss Valentine, and despite being new to the crew the long-haired musician Byron was waiting as well, eager to find out what was going on. Even Perona was there for the express purpose of making sure that she couldn't steal their ship. Not that it would matter too much since Naruto could just Hiraishin to it if he needed.

"Well that can wait, there's no rush really." Naruto said, and it seemed that he almost couldn't stand still he was so buzzed, "But I want to show you guys somewhere that's really important. I have to go somewhere to handle something and I'd like you all to go with me."

"Leave me here then." Perona said, interjecting into Naruto's explanation, "I don't even want to be here. Why would I want to go somewhere else weird with you people?"

"Prisoners don't get a choice in where they get to go." Paulie chimed in, cigar billowing smoke in his mouth. He all but outright ignored the glare sent his way from the ghost princess. He'd seen it more than enough times already since she had been conscripted onboard, "And you're saying that you don't want to go anywhere weird, but you're on the Grand Line. Yeah that makes a lot of sense."

"Shut up…"

Even if they weren't going to be sailing to where they were going, the ship was going to be alright. One-Finger Island was a puny jungle island in the Calm Belt, thus making it way too dangerous for anyone to go wantonly looking for it, even if they knew it existed and where it happened to be. So far only the Kuja Pirates knew where it was, and they didn't know yet that Naruto had claimed it as his. To add onto that the ship wasn't even out in the open, it was in a cove. It would be fine where it was.

Draping herself over Naruto's back as light as a feather, Miss Valentine had a normally bright smile on her face as she spoke, "So where are we going, and what's this thing you need to do that's so important huh?"

"You'll find out what I'm doing when we get there. I need to go ask an old friend for something." Naruto said with a wide grin, choosing to keep it under wraps, "And we're going to the place that I learned Sage Mode. The home of my toad summons, but if you want to I can show you a bit more of the Elemental Nations while we're there."

Perona's previous lack of enthusiasm aside, it was an interesting prospect to get even a momentary look at the place that managed to spawn someone like Naruto into the world. It was hard to say that they weren't all interested in some way.

Seriously though, that had to be a long, long trip. What, was he going to Hiraishin back and forth with each of them? That could get a little cumbersome and awkward after a while if that was how he planned on doing it.

While he had the chakra to abuse the Hiraishin like that to get his crew there, even over a long distance, it was better to do it all in one shot.

Without saying another word, Naruto made a set of hand-seals and slammed his hand down onto the ground, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu (Summoning Jutsu)!" In a puff of smoke on the ground appeared Fukasaku who didn't seem to be surprised that he was summoned, "What's up Pa? I'm ready to go."

"**Good to see ya again so soon Naruto-chan."** The small and elderly toad said as he looked around at Naruto's crew again, **"Right, so who's comin' on the trip? I'm askin' because the pink-haired girl doesn't look too happy to be goin'." **And indeed Perona was not looking too spirited to be leaving.

"Alright, does anyone not want to go?" Naruto asked the entirety of his crew, getting no response from anyone other than Perona raising her hand frantically, "Anyone that's not Perona who's still a prisoner from when she tried to take over my damn ship after I saved her from Oars?" She lowered her hand in a bit of bashful shame, remembering how she almost screwed over the Foxhound Pirate crew, "…Nope, we're good."

"**Alrighty then."** Fukasaku said, **"Everybody move around Naruto-chan an' wait for a sec."**

After watching Fukasaku dispel, everyone gathered around Naruto as instructed, including Perona begrudgingly as she decided that even if she didn't something else would still happen to force her to go, "I hate you guys."

"We all hate each other on some level." Soren admitted freely, "Haven't you seen how we treat each other?"

In order to help Soren as he thoroughly agreed, Paulie spoke up, "Yeah I mean the girls don't hate Uzumaki, but the rest of us hate him and undermine his authority enough that it makes up for it." He said as he blew the smoke from his stogie into the air.

"I feel so loved and respected by my loyal crew." Naruto remarked sarcastically before getting a kiss on each cheek by Nojiko and Miss Valentine to prove the point of his crewmen, "…And I don't care because that happens for me."

Yosaku of course had sidled up as close as he could to the ship's resident doctor Muret, trying his hardest to flex his now notable muscles while trying to look nonchalant, "I'm pretty sure Naruto-aniki's home is a wicked dangerous place, but don't worry I'll keep you safe."

"It's okay." Muret said dryly, motioning to the sentient cutlass on her hip, "Funkfreed can keep me safe just fine." If that idiot kept trying to flex and popped his stitches she'd kick his ass before she fixed him up again. He definitely wasn't as cool as Trafalgar Law. Not a chance.

Before any more time could pass, the entire crew disappeared in a massive puff of smoke that concealed the departure of the lot of them.

XxX

(Elemental Nations – Mt. Myoboku)

A massive plume of smoke rose up and dissipated, signifying the arrival of the Foxhound Pirates.

The ear-splitting screaming from Byron didn't hurt the announcement of their presence either. Needless to say he had no idea that Naruto could do anything like that for the rest of them. He hadn't been around long enough to get used to all of the weird stuff that the captain was capable of.

He eventually stopped when he noticed that everybody else was moving away from him and covering their ears. Trying to save some face for his rather high-pitched cries of fright, Byron cleared his throat, his face a mortified color of red, "Ahem… I've never had to teleport anywhere before."

He didn't even know such a thing was possible before a few days ago.

Thinking she found a kindred soul in all of the weird that surrounded the crew, Perona put a hand on the young musician's shoulder, "It's freaky right? At least you chose to join. I'm just here until I can get back to Moriah-sama. It's still messed up though."

"You get used to it." Everyone chimed in at once to their newest crew member before they started taking in the environment that Naruto had transported them to.

Aesthetically none of them had ever seen anything like it. There wasn't ten square feet of the place that wasn't covered in some form of lush greenery. From the cliff that they had been summoned to stand on one could see out over quite a bit of the landscape, allowing them to get a good view of the lush forest that covered everything, the waterfalls and streams, and the waterways constructed by the toads to guide the flow of water for them.

The entire place had a different feel to it, as if the mountain had an aura all of its own that was trying to creep itself into their presence and encompass them. Sort of like Naruto's form of killing intent for those that had been around it before, but it was relaxing. It was safe to say that just being on Mt. Myoboku made everyone feel stronger, with an increased vitality about them.

"This is… amazing." The first one to speak was Vivi as she walked toward the edge of the cliff and held her arms out as if she could take in everything around her. Even though she had seen a lot of plant life she was still a girl from the desert, and she had never seen anything like this, "Naruto you really live here?" Carue quacked in agreement.

She wasn't the only one caught up in it all though. Nojiko held up one of her pistols and could feel the amount of her chakra that was available for her to use inside of her body stimulated by just being on the mountain, "Why would you ever want to leave a place like this?"

Fukasaku hopped onto her shoulder, almost startling her out of her reverie to get a better look at the seals inscribed on her gun. Definitely some of Naruto's work. He loved using chakra draining seals for most of his personal stuff since he had an incredible amount himself, **"Naruto-chan leaves because me an' Ma don't like seein' him all cooped up here. Honestly we think he's better off with the lot of ya. I see ya take good care of him."**

"Uh, it's more like he takes care of me… err, us." Nojiko said with a bright red blush on her cheeks. She was normally way more confident, but these were effectively Naruto's parent figures since they dwarfed his own sizeable age and treated him as if they were. It was a bit embarrassing being complimented, "You really like us that much?"

"**Ya do him a lot a' good being around."** Fukasaku admitted with a nod, **"And I can see that ya love him very much."** If she had been red before he said that they needed to invent a new shade of it to describe Nojiko's face at that point.

After taking a moment to soak in the environment of his original home base, Naruto took a deep breath and turned to his entire crew with a big grin on his face, "Okay you guys, this is my home. You can go looking around in just a bit. If you follow Pa he'll show you where we'll be staying."

"Where the hell are you going to be?" Soren asked, keeping a scowl on his face despite the fact that he really didn't feel like staying in a surly mood. This mountain was seriously mellowing him out, "You take us here just to dump us off somewhere already?"

Sure, Naruto could have told them that he was going off to try and drag the gigantic ultimate monster fox that used to reside in his belly off to come with him on another absurdly dangerous journey, but what was the fun in that? The surprise later would be so much better when he told them then.

So he had to distract the surlier members of the crew somehow, and that was easy, "Pa, show Soren and Paulie where the toads drink and gamble." Both men turned their heads to Fukasaku so quickly Naruto was afraid that they had broken them for a second. It figured that those were the things that would interest them the most, that was what he had been banking on.

Fukasaku hopped down from Nojiko's shoulder and made his way to the front of the group next to Vivi by the cliff, **"Right. Follow me. I don't think ya can stick to surfaces with chakra sweetie, so we'll hafta take the long way around."** He turned toward Naruto and gestured a bit further to the peak of the mountain, **"Naruto-chan on the other hand is goin' up to the peak. You'll probably see him later."**

"Probably see him?" Miss Valentine asked with a raised eyebrow. What the hell did that mean?

"**Ya never know. Now come on."**

Shrugging to herself, Miss Valentine went to follow along with the old toad and the rest of the crew when Naruto grabbed her arm to stop her from leaving. Turning toward him with a beaming smile she batted her eyelashes at him sweetly, "Yes Naruto? Are you afraid you'll miss me too much while you're gone and need me to come with you?"

Naruto seemed amused by this for a second before he remembered why he stopped her and took on a look of dread that she noticed, "Please tell me that you're not against cooking while you're here as long as I can get the food for it Valentine-chan."

He needed her to say yes. Not really for his own good, but for the good of the crew in its entirety. If she was not willing to do this they were all going to suffer until it was time to leave. If all else failed he could try and bum some junk food off of Gamakichi and Gamatatsu as they both still had a sweet tooth, but they weren't much for sharing.

"Not really. It's not a big deal to me." The sunny young woman admitted, getting a sigh of relief from Naruto that confused her, "Why does it matter anyway? The toads have food right?" Oh beautiful Valentine. She just didn't know…

"Yeah they do, but you do know what toads eat don't you?"

"Yeah of course I-. Oh. Ew, gross."

"Yeah exactly. Trust me, I know."

"…Naruto did you have to eat-?"

"-I don't want to talk about it."

XxX

At the top of the mountain, past the Great Toad Sage's personal shrine, past the point where any plant life lay, there sat a grand stone temple hidden amongst the rocks, hidden behind the flow of water that came down from the top of the peaks. It was a difficult place for all but the smallest toads to get to, but they were the only ones that knew of its existence. Appropriate as they were the designated protectors of it.

Naruto walked underneath one of the waterfalls and shook the water off of his body as he looked upon a place that he hadn't ventured to in a while. The temple was aptly constructed for what it was meant to house, and it better have been with all of the toad and clone labor that went into building it. It was rather intentionally understated though with the exception of the design that sat on the front of it.

A Rinnegan design with nine tomoe distributed evenly around the eye. How subtle.

Naruto walked through the open doorway that signified that someone had disengaged the security and was already inside as he looked around within. On the floor there was a seal that he had placed there surrounding another symbol like the one outside where Shima stood waiting for him, "Hi Ma."

"**Ya sure know how to keep someone waitin' Naruto-chan."** Shima said as Naruto walked to the center of the seal and sat down in the middle of it. She then opened her mouth and let out a precise series of croaks that caused a stone door to descend over the entrance to the temple as a seal array spread over it and then disappeared, **"Ready for the ritual? I'll watch yer body 'till ya come back."**

"Why'd we come up with this jutsu again?" Naruto asked rhetorically, entering Sage Mode and activating his Rinnegan as Shima rolled her eyes, "Oh yeah, so the biju could all go and do what they wanted without having to worry about being messed with or destroying stuff." He hated doing this jutsu, but it was probably the most complex thing he had ever done and it took twenty years of studying to come up with it, "Fuuinjutsu: Kyuseishin Touei no Biju (Sealing Technique: Nine Spirit Projections of the Tailed Beasts)!"

Lanterns all over the room with toad oil inside of them automatically lit up to illuminate the grand hall and reveal statue embodiments of the nine biju all around the room, connected by chains to one figure directly in front of Naruto. With a deep breath Naruto stared straight ahead at the massive and imposing humanoid statue that sat directly in front of them, cross-legged with its hands out, unmoving. The Gedou Mazou; the Demonic Statue of the Outer Path. It served as the medium for the technique.

With a crack of his neck, Naruto formed three hand-seals as his eyes lit up in a bright red, "Kurama." This was all he said to initiate the ritual. The seal array on the floor glowed red as Shima jumped outside of it. She didn't want to be involved in the proceedings in any way possible.

The eyes on the statue of the Kyuubi lit up and a chakra silhouette surrounded the Gedou Mazou before a chain swiftly extended from it and hit Naruto right in the chest, linking them. His body went limp and lifeless on the floor and took on the same chakra outline as the Gedou Mazou.

Shima just sighed as she watched Naruto's lifeless body on the floor, **"Only you boy."** She said in an exasperated tone of voice, **"Why'd ya have to come up with a jutsu where you technically hafta die to make it work?"**

XxX

(Elsewhere on Mt. Myoboku)

"I think I'm in love…" Soren said aloud as he stood stunned in front of the largest container of sake that he had ever seen in his entire life. It had to be at least ten times his size in height and circumference, "What is this wonderful, wonderful place called again?" He asked as he gave the container a full-body hug.

"**Mt. Myoboku."** Gamakichi said with an amused look on his face as the rest of the boss-level toads such as himself, Gamatatsu, Gamaken, and Gamabunta were sitting around playing cho-han with a regular-sized dealer in the middle of them all controlling the bowl that contained the dice,** "If you need any more than that just give us a holler."**

He said it jokingly. Any human that could finish that in one sitting would either die of alcohol poisoning or something like that. Functioning alcoholic or not, that was irrelevant. The human body couldn't handle all of those harmful substances at one time.

There was even more? Man, Soren figured that he probably hadn't survived that reverse summoning jutsu that got him to the mountain. He probably died and went to heaven instead, "Wait… how do I drink it?" He couldn't lift it up to drink because it was too big. He could have melted a hole into it but that would have wasted far too much of it, and there was no tap either, "Oh no… I'm in hell."

He honestly could have cried.

And he wasn't the only one. Indulging in his own vice, Paulie was having a rather rough time of it himself.

Apparently whether gambling against humans or toads he still sucked at it, "Damn it! How can I keep losing like this?" Paulie shouted while pointing at the toad that was his size and regulating the gambling going on, "Let me see those dice! There's no way that I can't get evens or odds!"

Perhaps before calling out for a cheat he should have taken into account the fact that he was surrounded by toads large enough to lift up their ship if they ever found a reason to.

With a booming laugh, Gamabunta blew the smoke from his pipe into the air, **"You know you're not even losing your own money right? You don't have any currency of the Elemental Nations so you've been playing off of Naruto's credit the whole time."**

"Oh." Just like that Paulie calmed down and retook his seat gesturing for the game to continue, "Well alright, I'm putting down the standard bet on odds to win then."

They were fitting themselves in quite nicely amongst the entirety of the toads. It helped that they had seen absurdly weird things on a routine basis for months if not years by this point and that for the most part the toads found the Foxhound Pirates amusing.

It was pretty easy to get along with most of them since after having dealt with Naruto for years the eccentricity of his crew spaced out between multiple people was a welcome change of pace from the single weird human that normally wandered around there.

XxX

After taking them all on the tour of the place, Fukasaku rode on Carue's back to rest his old legs as the duck walked around following Vivi. She was still taking in the sights, looking around the place with Nojiko. Miss Valentine was off with Perona and Muret taking a bath while Byron was with Soren and Paulie playing music to entertain their hosts during their drinking and games. They were actually still in earshot of it as a matter of fact.

They had managed to wander over to a place with many huge toad statues in meditating postures that dwarfed them "Where did Naruto-kun go again?" Nojiko asked as she looked around and took it all in, "He didn't really say what he was leaving to do before you pulled us all off."

"**A special shrine that he set up to house a very special jutsu."** Fukasaku informed her, gazing up at the top of the mountain for a split second. There wasn't any reason that they needed to know exactly where the most important structure on the mountain was hidden, **"He's with Ma right now. I don't know how long it'll take him but he'll be back soon enough."**

Hopefully, because he was the only one that could use the jutsu that it was built to house. It still disturbed him a bit that Naruto had to eject his entire spirit from his body in order to access it, but he didn't use it that much so it didn't come up too often.

"I hope he comes back before it gets late." Vivi commented absently under her breath, "I had some things I wanted to talk to him about."

"Want to have a heart-to-heart with Naruto-kun under the starlight?" Nojiko replied jokingly as she had heard Vivi's remark. Clearly the princess was quite embarrassed as she thought she had been quiet enough, "I know what you mean though. This seems like it would be a pretty beautiful place at night… really romantic and all."

Vivi let out a groan, wishing she could hide her face from view, "Why does it always have to come back to this? I'm grateful to him for all he's done for me."

Nojiko started listing things on her fingers, "You spend a lot of time hanging around him even when you aren't doing anything that involves training, you spend a ton of nights in the crow's nest with Naruto-kun as company, and you're way more curious about what makes him tick than any of us are." With each thing she said her face got a little bit more victorious, "After all, isn't he supposed to be your 'knight'?"

"You… you know about that?" Vivi said in a careful tone of voice the belied just what emotion she wished to convey outwardly at that moment. Even Fukasaku and Carue seemed to be trying their best to keep grins off of their faces. Since when could toads and ducks even make facial expressions like that? And why was everyone picking on her? It was probably because she was the youngest.

Eventually Fukasaku did let out a chuckle when Vivi finally pouted and jumped onto the top of one of the toad statues by way of its legs and then arms. Hey, that was a familiar set of moves, **"Naruto-chan really did train her… at least a bit."**

"Vivi was always a bit acrobatic." Nojiko said, looking up at her as the younger girl stuck her tongue out at them and turned her back, "He just made her focus on that and learn how to use it to fight a bit better. She can't use chakra or anything though. None of us can, we've all tried. That's why he fixed my guns to work the way that they do. I was really helpless until I had to learn to shoot. Turns out I had a knack for it."

No chakra? Well it wasn't that unbelievable. Even though everyone had it, it wasn't hard to believe that humans that lived elsewhere would learn how to increase their own abilities in other ways. After all they didn't have a Rikudou Sennin to teach them about how to utilize chakra.

It made a ton of sense as well, because there was no way Naruto would let people that couldn't defend themselves travel with him. He'd heard from Gamabunta and Gamakichi just what Naruto had gotten into from time to time.

Speaking of the people that Naruto travelled with, both Johnny and Yosaku ran past Nojiko, Carue, and Fukasaku yelling something about going for a swim while shedding their clothes before the elderly toad jumped out in front of them and smacked them down to the ground with his extremely speedy and powerful tongue.

Nojiko could then see why Naruto was afraid of getting beaten up by the elder toads, 'Good God… if Shima can do stuff like that too I'd better not try anything suggestive with Naruto-kun while we're here because she seems to get mad at that kind of thing.' It would probably be best not to incur any sort of toadly wrath if at all possible.

"**What the hell do ya think yer doin' ya tadpoles?"** Fukasaku asked as Johnny and Yosakue were wondering what the hell had just hit them, **"There's nowhere to swim around here."**

Yosaku recovered first and pointed in the direction they had been running where a fountain could be seen, "There. The other girls are using the springs right now and Miss Valentine threatened to squish us if we went in there before they were done."

"Yeah." Johnny said in support of his brother-in-arms. He had originally been trying to help Yosaku get a peek at Muret, but now they really did want to swim after being threatened with and later escaping extreme bodily harm, "What's the big deal?"

That remark earned them both several rapid-fire slaps from Fukasaku's tongue that dazed them heavily, allowing Carue to join the party and peck their heads, **"Don't be a buncha hasty idjits! That's not water, that's the Sacred Oil Fountain and it's not fer swimmin'!"** He shouted at them loudly. A dismayed look came over Johnny and Yosaku's faces at that realization that they almost jumped into a big fountain of oil, **"All the water on the mountain and ya pick the one thing that **_**isn't**_** water to try and jump into!"**

From her place on top of the statue Vivi watched Fukasaku tear the swordsmen of the crew a new one before turning her gaze up towards the peak of the mountain where Naruto was supposed to be. It was fun being there and a nice reprieve from the constant turmoil that they found themselves in back on the Grand Line, '…But where's Naruto and what's the real reason he wanted to come here for?'

XxX

Naruto felt his soul get ripped from his body and fly across the entirety of the Elemental Nations too fast to see, making everything a blur. He couldn't even see how much things had changed since the last time he had been in those areas. This was the aspect of the jutsu that he absolutely despised. It gave him motion sickness from hell, but since he was just his soul he couldn't throw up or anything.

His spectral body was being dragged to its destination by a chain connected to his chest per the structure of the jutsu. And to his surprise it drew him to a sudden and abrupt stop right in the Valley of the End of all places.

As his trip came to an end and Naruto was allowed to walk on his own two feet again, he staggered about randomly until his sense of balance returned, "Oh Kami… when I get back into my body I'm gonna puke."

"**Hmm? Well look what the Shinigami dragged in. I wondered where you were when I felt your chakra signature disappear."**

A very strong and booming voice got Naruto to pay attention to what was exactly in front of him. Lying down inside of the rip in the ground that comprised the valley was a grand fox with nine gargantuan tails swishing behind it, either signifying interest or excitement. The sheer size of the red-orange fox was incredible, making Naruto look like an ant in comparison.

Looking at the chain attached to his chest, Naruto noticed that the other end of the chain was attached to one of the fox's tails. Awesome, "Kurama. How long's it been?"

Kurama grinned, showing all of his sharp teeth to Naruto as the blond walked closer to him, **"Well the last time you came by to bother me was five years ago. You still staying out of the desert so that Shukaku doesn't try to kill you again?"**

"Fuck Shukaku." Naruto said as he got close enough to Kurama to have a decent conversation and sat down. It was like he was chatting it up with an old friend, "We should have locked him back up in the Gedou Mazou after the crap he pulled last time."

"**Oh, but you're too kind." ** Kurama said sarcastically, chuckling a bit as his tails came down to rest around his body with a resounding crash, **"So what's new with you that you had to rip your soul back out to find me?"**

"I've been travelling the world."

"…**What else is new? You woke me up for that? I should eat you."**

"No dumbass, the real world. The world past the Elemental Nations. There's more out there you know. You just can't swim it to see."

"**I could, but I won't. What's your point Naruto? Did you come all the way out here to tell me about your vacation? You didn't even bring me any pictures."**

Naruto let out a humorless laugh at the joke. . Vacation. Right. That was not the word he'd use to describe what was going on out on the seas, "Well I guess I'll cut right to the chase since we can always talk later. I want you to come with me."

The two went silent and Kurama just gave him a long, hard stare as if to ask him if he was serious. But Naruto didn't back down, not that the fox expected him to. Still, it was a pretty heavy request. Leave the comfortable and mostly tranquil Elemental Nations that finally couldn't bother him or any other biju any longer due to Naruto's jutsu truly binding them to the Gedou Mazou making them unable to be sealed, or go back out and get into a load of trouble around the entire world.

On the one hand, these days the Elemental Nations were an extremely boring place to be; since humans left him alone Kurama really didn't have anything to do. No excuse to commit large amounts of destruction, no people to scare off for trying to treat it like a tourist attraction when it would travel around and rest somewhere for a bit.

Despite how annoying it would probably be to go out into the actual world with Naruto and deal with all of that crap, it would still probably be more fun than just lounging around and doing nothing. A fox could only justify lazing about for so long anyway. Most of the other biju had found something to do with their time. Gyuki was still the guardian of Kumo, and Isobu hung out in the waters between the mainland and Mizu no Kuni as just a few examples.

On the other hand though, Naruto hadn't bothered him for anything huge since the aforementioned incident where Shukaku started flipping his wig and creating sandstorms the size of half a country in the desert, and that was well over ten years ago. So if Naruto wanted him to come along it was probably going to be a pain in both of their collective asses.

Seriously, out in the world past the seas? That had to be _extremely_ far. Going east past the islands of Mizu no Kuni wasn't advised as the ships that went too far that way never came back, and there didn't seem to be anywhere that way to begin with so he had to have somehow gone south off the mainland way past Mizu no Kuni or circled around the entire continent and gone west which was even crazier, but it was the only direction taht made sense. What the hell had he discovered going west that was worth getting into a gigantic mess?

"**Give me one good reason."** Kurama said, getting a strange look from Naruto who was about to open his mouth and answer until the mammoth kitsune cut him off again, **"Don't you bring up any dusty old war stories. I want a good, relevant, topical reason as to why I should put my tails on the line here."**

Tails on the line? Stingy old fox sure did have a certain flair for the dramatic did he?

With a grumble, Naruto crossed his arms over his chest and started to think about any reason why Kurama might want to get involved. He drew a blank because nothing going on past the shores of the Elemental Nations had a damn thing to do with catching his interest, "…Come on. You remember right before I finished the jutsu to protect the biju when you caused that avalanche and that landslide in Tetsu no Kuni and the samurai got all pissy; rambling about how if I wasn't going to seal you for good they would. Remember when they got your tails and I needed to-."

"**-Yes I remember."** Kurama interrupted before Naruto could finish his story, turning his gaze away from the insect-like human with an almost embarrassed look in his eyes. Naruto and some of the bigger toads had to save his ass, **"What's your point?"**

"My point is that you owe me a solid brother." Naruto said, placing a friendly hand on Kurama's muzzle with a grin on his face, "And I didn't bring it up for how many decades? Well I'm calling it in. Come with me for a bit and I'll bring you right back."

"**How long is a bit?"**

"Not even close to one hundred years by a long shot so _you_ of all people should just consider it a walkabout."

Naruto could see the glimmer of thought on Kurama's face and knew that he was not only thinking that he had to uphold his pride and return a favor, but that he was so extremely bored he'd take it just to see what kind of wild stuff there was past all of the endless water that managed to catch his former jinchuuriki's attention.

All he needed now was a little more to drive the dagger home and secure himself some nine-tailed company, "You remember that thing we worked out during the last few days before I finished the jutsu that bound you all safely to the Gedou Mazou? I figured out how to perfect it. It takes a Path, not a clone."

From the look in the red eyes of Kurama, Naruto could tell that he had managed to sell him on it.

"**Really now?" ** Kurama's tails started slowly swishing again behind his body. Naruto was really hoping he wouldn't hit something and screw up the landscape, **"You figured that you could use a Path? And when did you come up with that idea? You hate using the Paths. You won't use them at all. So I can't see you using them to experiment with something."**

"No…" Naruto corrected, "I hate using the Paths, but that doesn't mean I've never used them. It's just cumbersome to do it." He had to control them all himself, and they couldn't even go that far from his body or else he wouldn't be able to use them at all. If that were the case he might as well stick to the five clones he could make while in Sage Mode anyway. Also those chakra receivers looked pretty brutal too, "Either way, I figured it out to give you a real body. So how about it?"

A sigh from Kurama almost blew Naruto back downstream of the river in the valley, but he hung tough with some chakra directed to the ground and a handful of Kurama's fur, **"You'd make a fox's body a Path? Because I don't know how to walk around like a human and I won't demean myself in learning how to doing so."**

"Not a problem bud. Believe it or not you're not the weirdest thing I've ever seen anymore." As a matter of fact he'd probably fit right in, "Putting you in a fox as a Path works perfectly." Just so long as he didn't have to share a field of vision with it, which he shouldn't have had to because his idea would definitely work. The shared vision thing was why he hated using clones with the Rinnegan to begin with.

"…**Okay, you've got a deal. Take us out of here you stubborn bastard."**

Naruto had to fight the urge to let out a whoop as he made the release seal for the Nine Spirit Projection jutsu, "Soul Retract: Uzumaki Naruto and Kurama!" Naruto ordered as both his spectral body and Kurama's glowed momentarily, "You're gonna want to brace yourself." He warned. Kurama had never done this part.

A raised eyebrow came from Kurama as he wondered why. He didn't have to wonder why for too much longer before he found himself bonelessly jerked at a ridiculous speed through the air along with Naruto via the spiritual chain that bonded it to the Gedou Mazou as if they were being reeled in. Who would come up with a jutsu like this?

Tears generated by having his eyes wide open in the wind came to Kurama's eyes as he looked over and saw the exact same thing happening to Naruto, **"Old Man Rikudou Sennin never came up with crap like this!"**

"Well I guess I'm just cooler than him!" Naruto yelled back in response.

XxX

(Mt. Myoboku – Temple of the Biju)

Shima was stirred awake from her slumber when after several hours of Naruto's body being limp and dead the Gedou Mazou statue shot a forceful burst of chakra through the chain connected to Naruto's chest twice, letting out a pair of shockwaves that blew her back against the wall.

The seal on the floor glowed one more time and the red eyes on the statue of the Kyuubi went back to their normal state as the chain in Naruto's chest retracted and the chains around the Kyuubi statue did as well, signifying that it was no longer tethered to the Gedou Mazou and was at risk to be sealed again.

At least it would be if it wasn't already.

Shima shook the cobwebs off from the shockwave and got back up to see Naruto stirring on the floor, no longer in Sage Mode and no longer with his Rinnegan active, **"Are ya alright Naruto-chan?"** She asked as she walked over to him, **"At least you got yer own soul back. Is there a passenger on board again?"**

Not answering at first, Naruto stood back up hissing in pain before he pulled up his shirt and looked at the seal on his belly. It was as if it had been seared into his flesh anew and was throbbing a flashing red, meaning that something was behind it again.

Despite the fact that he had just taken the gut punch from hell via the Gedou Mazou and the jutsu of his very own creation, after seeing this Naruto couldn't help but smile down at the marking, "Welcome back partner."

* * *

**Alright everybody, Kurama's back on board and Naruto's got some plans for how to keep that ornery fox happy, at least until he gets them back out on the water and he sees how messed up the Grand Line is.**

**Then he'll probably either be happy that he came along, or even more upset that he caved in and drew himself into such a mess. Friend or not.**

**Now I'm going to work. Those detestable college loans won't pay themselves will they?**

**Kenchi out.**


	43. What a Small World

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. This should be abundantly clear by now, but in an effort to keep my balls from being sued to the wall by any means necessary I will continue to assert this fact in the most entertaining way I can think of at the time via disclaimer.

**Chapter 43: What a Small World**

* * *

Naruto didn't get back to the town of toads until long after the party between his choice summons and his friends had died down and ended. It was just as well anyway. If he wanted to see any of them get drunk he could do that any time.

What he needed after taking a stomach-punch from hell in getting Kurama back was sleep, and Gamakichi's home was the best place for that.

Being the newest boss of the toads he had the biggest place to stay to go along with his size, and that meant plenty of free space for Naruto to put down a bedroll and sleep comfortably.

At least until the morning when he was unceremoniously awakened by toad oil being poured on his head, "Blegh! Who's the dead jerk that did that?" Naruto demanded, sitting up heatedly with the hair standing up on his neck in fervor.

Paulie, in all of his blonde, cigar-chomping glory stood over him, along with the newest addition to the crew in Byron looking rather apologetic, "My apologies Naruto-sama, but I was only aware that we were to wake you. I didn't know how exactly." The ruffled-shirt buccaneer said with a short bow.

"Don't apologize to that guy… he's not worth it." Paulie said as it was clear that he had been the one to do the awakening. The empty pot in his hands was a dead giveaway.

Byron seemed far too respectful to be a pirate by his view, like a gentleman of the seas or something. In a group full of jerks and rude idiots, it seemed sorely out of place.

Admonishment of the newbie behind him, Paulie turned his attention to the sputtering Naruto, "Alright, I've got about ten different questions for you, and I figured that now when everyone else is asleep would be as good a time as any to get some answers."

With a sharp growl, Naruto accepted a handkerchief from Byron to clean as much of the slimy liquid off of his face as he could. It didn't matter really. He needed to get up and bathe anyway, "Ten questions? That seems like a little much." It wasn't like he was even trying to hide anything either.

"Yeah, but there's a reason for that." Paulie said, backing away to let Naruto get up and stretch, "The first reason being why the hell do you feel stronger now than when you left when we first got here?"

Seriously, standing in front of Naruto now seemed like his mere presence demanded his entire attention, and he wasn't even doing anything other than shaking oil off like a damn animal. No class.

"Because I am. I'm stronger now than I was yesterday." It was a simple question required a simple answer. It was as clear as that. Did he really have to get into the technical stuff that nobody other than the highest ranked of toads would have understood?

The simple answer wasn't any less frightening though. Even stronger than he already had been? Both Byron and Paulie wanted to know how that was possible, but that could wait.

"Okay, second question." Paule said before pointing off to the side of Naruto's bag where something else was sleeping there, "On a mountain of nothing but toads, why is there a fox here?"

And indeed there was a fox. A red-orange fox the size of a full-grown dog with strange front legs that looked like arms that could grab if necessary, as well as a pair of piercings in its chest and in each of its nine tails. Huh, nine tails that it happened to be laying on like pillows. Weird.

Naruto looked down to his right where said fox was sleeping and shrugged, "The fox is here because he's the reason that I'm even stronger now." So now he could see why people were so purposefully vague with him all the time. It was actually kind of fun, "And when we leave he's coming with us."

"Damn it, we don't need more pets." Paulie said, palming his forehead at the thought of having to feed yet another animal.

Funkfreed was a sword that turned into an elephant instead of the other way around, so he didn't need to eat anything (thank goodness), but Carue was enough of a hassle to have to account for, and now there'd be an actual predator onboard that could kill and eat the large bird if it got too famished.

"**Who are you calling a pet fool?"**

The ornery shipwright lowered his hand from his face and looked around the room for the origin of the voice. He turned to Byron first but realized that the musician was staring with bug eyes at the fox that had cracked open one eye to look at them. By now, Paulie had seen enough weird stuff to the point that he already knew where this story was going, "…The fucking fox talks… that's great."

"**I do more than talk, I can assure you of that."** Kurama said as he stood up off of the tails that he had been sleeping on, **"I forgot how loud humans could be. Loud enough to wake me up."** He remarked with a yawn as he continued to eye Paulie and Byron, **"…These men are a part of your crew I presume."**

"Paulie and Byron." Naruto introduced, pointing to each of the men, "Guys, this is Kurama. And he's not my pet, he's my partner… and a really important one too. He's been with me since the day I was born. It's a long story."

Paulie nodded as he took in the information, "…Like a pet." He was then hit with one of Kurama's tails that somehow extended far enough to slam him into the distant wall of Gamakichi's rather sizeable dwelling, "Ow. Not a pet. Got it." He said in a pain-wracked voice.

"**Aniki keep it down! Me and the missus are still sleeping here!"**

At the bellowing voice of Gamakichi shaking the walls of the home, Naruto and Byron cringed while Kurama snorted at the thought of that damned tadpole making him do anything at all, **"Feh. Let's go for a walk so that I can meet the rest of your current allies."** The Kyuubi said as he used his head to push Naruto out of Gamakichi's house.

Byron watched and moved with them until they passed Paulie. It was there that he stopped and addressed the hole in the wall that still had cigar smoke billowing out of it, "Are you intending to follow along with myself, Naruto-sama, and Kurama-san, or are you going to keep sitting in there until someone pulls you out?"

Paulie sighed, but didn't pull himself out of the hole in the wall, "I just got shoved into a wall by a glorified furball's tail. Can't I get thirty seconds to come to terms with that before I start following you all around for the day?"

XxX

"He's so cute!" The first person to actually get sight of Kurama was Perona, and for once they had found something about their crew that she apparently enjoyed, "Ah, I thought the only thing I'd see on this mountain were all of these weird toads!" Hearing her actually be happy for once froze Naruto and Paulie in place since she hadn't really sounded this way for the entirety of her stay on the ship.

Even Kurama was confused at first, raising an eyebrow at the pink-haired ghost princess and her strange behavior until she scooped him up and hugged him… like a pet, **"Naruto, could you remind me which Path's powers you instilled in this fox body?"** He said dangerously.

"Ah! He talks too! Is he mine now?"

"No he's not." Naruto said when he finally regained his senses at seeing a happy Perona for once, "And I gave you the Human Path powers because I don't use that one much." He thought about using the Preta Path for his buddy, but no one he had fought thus far used chakra to fuel their attacks, so the ability to absorb it, especially for a biju who Naruto had yet to see run out of chakra, wasn't useful.

Kurama growled and tried to restrain himself from biting Perona's arms to free himself. She wasn't really hugging him hard enough to hurt something as tough as him, but all of this 'pet' crap was going to get really old really fast, **"Good, because she has ten seconds to let go of me before I-."**

"-Pull out her soul with one of your tails?" Naruto interrupted with a roll of his eyes. Someone still took himself a bit too seriously, "I'd rather you didn't. Perona, let Kurama go before he does something to hurt you." She was so lucky that he could limit how much power Kurama got due to the lot of it being inside of his body behind the seal.

Of course she didn't listen, still hugging the fox to her chest, "This cutie wouldn't hurt me would he? All I want to do is love him and-." She stopped when she looked down and saw Kurama's eyes. Instead of the red eyes she had seen at first, she now saw purple, ripple-patterned eyes like Naruto's Rinnegan, "…Okay, I'll let him go."

And just like that, Kurama jumped out of her arms with a mean-spirited vulpine grin. He could get used to the whole Path thing. Most of his power resided in Naruto unless he allowed him more, but the tradeoff to having the eyes of the Rikudou Sennin in his Path body on command almost seemed worth it.

Frightening Naruto's more 'friendlier' comrades into taking him deadly serious aside, Kurama had to say that he liked what he had seen and sensed so far out of them. He had only met three of them, and none of them could really be perceived as weak. Before he turned his eyes back to normal, the shared field of vision he had with Naruto alerted him to more people coming their way, **"Just how many people do you travel with?"**

"You are severely underestimating just how big the rest of the world is." Naruto said as he waved more of his crew over to where they were, "I haven't even seen close to all of it yet."

The incoming crew members looked curiously at the fox that seemed to be getting a wide berth from everyone else save for Naruto and Nojiko who was still sleepy and merely walked over to Naruto to kiss him good morning. Well that wasn't good as far as Yosaku was concerned. The toads here were smart and many of them were absolutely huge, but there were also too many small ones that were too young to deal with a predator around.

Being the good Samaritan that he was for those that put him up, partied along with him, and let him drink to his heart's content last night, he had to get the fox off of the mountain. He hadn't seen anything else up there that ate toads, so seeing a fox was just odd.

"Alright, you get out of here now." Yosaku said, leading the way and taking Kubikiribouchou from his back to try and scare the fox away, "Go on, scat!" He then quickly found himself frozen in place by the blatant presence of will that the fox had while staring into his eyes, "W-What?"

Naruto decided to belatedly warn everyone as they all froze in place by the fear of God being stricken into the lower-tier combatants of the crew. Even Nojiko held onto his arm with very uncomfortable fear-strength, "Yeah, don't do that to him."

All of the random woodland creature crap was starting to work Kurama's nerves. He already missed being a gigantic monster fox of obscenely scary proportions. Sure, you could still pet him or tell him to scram then… but you'd probably at least think twice about it before you did.

"How does a fox have Haki?" Soren asked as he too could feel the intense pressure flying off of the seemingly mundane creature, though he seemed to be the only one that could talk or do anything about it, "Uzumaki… what is this?"

Naruto flicked Kurama on the ear to get him to stop trying to effectively bully all of his crewmates with his sheer force of will. It stopped being funny after Paulie got put through a wall after they woke up, "Maybe you should introduce yourself instead of just sitting there trying to look scary? That'd probably stop everyone thinking that you're just some random fox."

Once the feeling of impending death stopped washing over everyone, including the toads inside their homes that had just been waking up to start their day, Nojiko was the first one to walk forward and stoop down in front of Kurama to look him in the eye. In the background everyone thought to themselves just what a bad idea it was to do something like that, and Carue was actually hiding behind Vivi.

He didn't want to be breakfast, and honestly after Kurama's little display no one could blame the duck for thinking that way.

Still, Kurama just stared back at the up close Nojiko who didn't seem to be doing anything other than looking at him. How curious. Well it was better than hugging him, calling him a pet, or trying to chase him away like some small forest creature.

Eventually she just reached out a hand and placed it on the back of his neck before smiling at him. If he didn't bite her or eviscerate her the way his killing intent would have indicated he would, he clearly wasn't that bad, "So I'm guessing you can talk since apparently everything else in this wacky place can. What's your name?"

She and the others that hadn't heard him talk didn't expect the authoritative voice that came out of the fox as he calmly answered the young woman kneeling in front of him, **"I've had many unofficial titles throughout my existence, but for the sake of simplicity you may refer to me as Kurama." **He then smirked when he heard Naruto grumble about how long it took him to learn Kurama's name while he was just giving it away to the others now, **"Let's just say that I currently find myself fonder of you than of the idiot next to me when we first met oh so many years ago."**

The circumstances of said meetings were also grossly dissimilar from one another, but that was a completely different thing altogether.

"Kurama." Nojiko tested before nodding and standing up straight with her hands on her hips, still smiling down at the nine tailed mammal, "Well, you certainly scared us all to death, so you've got our undivided attention now. What's going on?"

"**It's simple."** Kurama stated dryly with his tails idly swishing about. Thank goodness that little habit of his didn't end up the way it would have had he been at his normal size, or this mountain would have been in some serious trouble, **"I'm coming with you on your journey, or trip, or whatever you want to call it. He asked me to."** He concluded, gesturing his head in Naruto's direction.

Everyone just looked at each other confusedly until the never shy to speak Miss Valentine asked the question on everyone's mind at the moment, "Uh… why?" Seriously, the fox was scary, but there didn't seem to be much point in bringing him.

"Remember that story I told most of you about how I used to have a monster-?"

"**-We prefer the term 'chakra beasts' over monsters by the way."**

"-Right." Naruto then amended his previous statement per Kurama's correction, "The story I told you about how I used to have a _chakra beast_ inside of me?" He didn't really need to finish what he was saying when Kurama lifted one of his paws and waved cheekily at everyone else, "Yeah, I put him back in for a while."

That gave everyone a bit of pause, but honestly most of them had gotten used to being surprised by the things going on around them seeming improbable (those that had been there since the very start), thus they shrugged it off handily enough.

One of them, Soren, just proceeded to give up on trying to understand it. He wasn't a scientist, nor did he have an innate need for the universe to make sense. If it was in front of him and he was aware of it there was no need to go any further.

No, he just fought, and the gist of what Naruto was saying was that he was stronger now because of the angry-looing fox standing right in front of them. It was simple enough, and all he needed to know. End of story, "Okay. Whatever you say. I don't care anymore. I don't want to ask another question, I don't need to know how he'll make you stronger, or how he can be inside of your body but standing right here at the same time. It doesn't matter."

With a satisfied grin, Naruto pointed at the bald, tattooed, ill-tempered young man for Kurama's benefit, "That's Soren. He's basically the first mate. The crew's second in command."

"**I see. Good choice."** Kurama said, also satisfied at Naruto's choice of junior officer, **"I like him, he seems quick to anger but he looks like he can deal with it. Oh, and on a completely unrelated note I like her too."** He finished with a tail pointed Nojiko's way, eliciting a bashful response from the usually confident woman, **"I honestly expected you to amass a pack of morons for your team."**

"We've already got that quota filled." Miss Valentine said with her usual laugh as she grabbed Johnny and Yosaku by the backs of their collars and pushed the pair of swordsmen forward, "We've got all of the bases covered. We've got a naïve princess, a temperamental den mother, a sociopathic killer, a bratty girl, a gentleman musician, two dumb muscle swordsmen, a doctor girl scared of _everything _we see, a lame gambling prude of a shipwright, and me; well… I'm simply the greatest of them all."

Half of the crew took slight at the labeling of their characters, while the less volatile half of them simply let it be. It wasn't like she was really wrong about anything that she had just said, other than that she was the greatest of them all, but they weren't going to say that was inaccurate to her face because she controlled their food supply.

They had seen what passed for food around there, and had been grateful that Miss Valentine had somehow managed to procure some provisions from their ship.

Thus technically that did make her the greatest of all of them, because without her they'd be eating bug soup or some other wiggly mountain delicacy.

"**Right."** Kurama's eyes panned back and forth amongst the amassed Foxhound Pirates before looking over at Naruto, **"So what would you say the plan is now that I'm onboard so to speak? I can't imagine that you requested my assistance for old times' sake."**

So down to brass tacks they were? That was just fine. They all might as well have been around to hear what Naruto had to say anyway, "Okay, I'll just go ahead and say it. Aokiji almost killed me at Enies Lobby, and because Kizaru's so fast I haven't come up with a good way to beat him yet."

"-Other than making him hit a mirror."

"-Other than making him hit a mirror, exactly." Naruto said, shooting a glance at the mischievously grinning Nojiko who merely winked at him, "But that already worked twice babe. I really don't think it'll fly a third time. My point is, there are supposed to be people out there stronger than Admirals. And if I'm really going to do this, and I can't get our bounties taken away, I need to be at my absolute best."

Hearing him say something like that struck home with many of the crew members that had been there for quite some time. As far as Johnny and Yosaku went, Naruto was the strongest, period. Nobody was on his level, even when they had seen him at his limit and seen that he was actually mortal against Aokiji, the way he had bounced back and managed to win solidified the fact that he was great.

And they weren't the only ones that had a sentiment similar to the swordsmen. The only person that hadn't been hit hard by hearing Naruto say such a thing was Soren who could see where Naruto was coming from. He had long since come face-to-face with his own reality check when he fought Doflamingo on Jaya and got decimated.

"We _all_ need to be better." Soren said, sneering before angrily spitting acid on the ground directly next to himself, "We don't know what's on the other side of the Red Line, but we all know that we ain't seen nothing yet, and if we're going to go any further we can't be fucking around or we are going to die."

Way to sugarcoat it Soren.

Perona shivered slightly at the thought of moving onto the other side of the Red Line into the New World, "Moriah-sama's first crew… he took them past that wall into the New World, but they were all slaughtered right in front of him by Kaido of the Yonkou." Just thinking about that story gave the ghost princess chills.

"Well I've got all the time in the world." Naruto said, tapping at the nonexistent watch on his wrist, "The last thing I want is for someone here to be caught in a situation where I can't help, but if that does happen I want to make sure that you guys are the best so that nothing can happen."

"That's a nice sentiment and all…" Soren lazily said, drawing attention back to himself, "But really, in the end when it comes to that there's nothing you can do Uzumaki. You can't really do much more for anyone than you've already done." Seriously. He'd given half of them the tools that they used to gain their strength, "The only person here that was raw enough for you to train in the least is lil' hime over here, and she can't use that chakra stuff of yours either." He concluded, pointing a thumb in Vivi's general direction.

But the voice of confidence came from the last person anyone expected to hear any optimism in regards to combat come from; the aforementioned Nefertari Vivi.

Not to say that Vivi wasn't brave because that couldn't have been further from the truth, but Vivi, and she would be the first to say as much, was not the strongest fighter on the crew… and it wasn't even close.

She could survive, which was the entire point of Naruto training her to begin with, but realistically she couldn't have beaten anyone in CP9, she would have been defeated by the Gorgon Sisters of the Kuja Pirates even if she hadn't been turned to stone by Boa Hancock, and had Naruto not been there on Constellation Island she would have been forced to fall into World Government hands even if she had only fought Hina, not even counting Smoker.

Even so, she sounded completely sure of herself as she walked around the rest of her friends in the crew, "It doesn't matter if Naruto can train us or not. We can do this ourselves right? We're not helpless." With a very impressive single jump, Vivi leapt from her place on the ground to the roof of one of the larger dwellings of the toads that had to have been twenty-five feet off of the ground, "Naruto gave me a push-."

"-'Push' my ass. Naruto-aniki dragged you through his training kicking and screaming." Yosaku deadpanned, not willing to let a decent speech get in the way of the facts, "Kicking. AND. Screaming." And that was _not_ hyperbole. At all.

Glaring down at Yosaku to get the headgear-clad power swordsman to button his lip, Vivi continued, "-Naruto gave me a push, but I know that I can keep getting stronger on my own. And that means none of you can say that you can't. You're all so strong it's just unfair, and if the New World is so scarier you'll all just have to get even scarier than it!"

Kurama poked Naruto with one of his tails to get his jinchuuriki's attention before whispering to him, **"I kind of like her too. She's kind of weak compared to most everyone else here, but I like her anyway. She's got spunk."**

No one said anything at first until Paulie started a slow clap that quickly died off due its failure to catch on, "You guys don't know how to respond to speeches. That was awesome. A goddamned _princess_ just started publicly speaking in front of us and you all might as well be zombies for it."

Naruto was smiling up at his unofficial student until he felt a tugging at the back of his mind. The mental distance he could feel the pull from was actually… not as far as he thought it would be for someone triggering the reverberation effect of the Hiraishin kunai to call for him.

That was weird. It wasn't coming from anywhere in the Elemental Nations since it was illegal to own a kunai with the formula inscribed, but it wasn't from far enough away for it to be the Straw Hats or Boa Hancock, the only two groups he had given one to. It actually felt… kind of close really. Closer than it should have been. They weren't anywhere near the Grand Line.

"Guys, you can meet and greet with Kurama later." Naruto said, still feeling very put off and suspicious about the whole thing, "I've… got to go."

Go? Really? Muret raised an eyebrow, idly running her fingertips on the hilt of the Funkfreed sword to hide her curiosity, "Where?"

"That's the thing. I don't know. I can't tell who's calling me because I can't tell where they threw it."

Before he knew it, a feather-light blonde woman draped herself over his back raising her hand into the air and smiling brightly, "Ooh! Ooh! I want to go! Let me come with you! I like travelling!" It was true enough, otherwise she probably wouldn't have become a pirate.

That was fine, but he had to go now, "Sure, whatever. Kurama?" Naruto asked, trying to scope out whether or not the fox wanted to see what was up.

"**I assume that you're asking me that to be funny, because I doubt that this you're going to place falls within the range that we're allowed to travel away from each other before I get pulled from this body and back into you."** They were tethered together by nature of Naruto's jutsu after all. It was just different than being stuck inside of him all the time for this go-around.

"Hey, I'm the only one that's ever used this jutsu and I'm the one that figured that out to begin with so cut me some slack!" A slightly embarrassed Naruto said at being called out on missing an important point of his new bond. It was only the second time he'd ever used that sealing jutsu and the first time that he used it to retrieve a biju.

Miss Valentine spurred Narutos hips with her heels to snap him out of his argument with a talking fox, "Less talky, more teleporty. Go, go, go!" With a roll of his eyes, Naruto jumped the three of them away in a flash.

As everyone else stared at the aftermath of Naruto, Kurama, and Miss Valentine's departure, Perona (the 'prisoner') of all people spoke up to what was the most important thing that no one had thought of at the time, "If Miss Valentine is away with your captain, who exactly is responsible for cooking for us?"

No, they were not about to eat insects damn it! They had seen what had passed for food up there, and there wasn't anything that seemed edible to humans anywhere on the mountain.

XxX

(Moments Earlier – Tequila Wolf – Celestial Bridge)

In what seemed to be a rather hastily set up side building, several soldiers in red uniforms and hats were rummaging through a large amount of items of all sorts that had been thrown inside haphazardly.

"I can't believe some of the stuff some of these workers have on them when they show up here." One of the men said as he found a sizeable wad of beli that he quickly pocketed for himself, "They'll get these people from anywhere won't they?"

"Criminals, people that aren't with the World Government… who cares about 'em? They can work 'em to death for all I care."

That elicited a round of laughs from the others in the room until the clang of metal hit the ground and someone picked up a weird looking three-pronged knife with a wooden handle and a weird engraving on it, "Heh, what kind of stupid-looking weapon is this? Nobody could defend themselves with this thing. Here, check it out." He threw the weapon blade first into the floor away and let another person pick it up.

"It's sharp though." Another uniformed man said as he touched the edge and drew blood, "Really sharp. Whoever had this had to know what they were doing with it. Maybe one of the criminals happened to be a pirate?" With a careless shrug he wound up and hurled it at the wall, smirking as it stabbed deeply into it, "Nice."

They all went about their business for a few moments longer until three more presences entered the room near the strange throwing knife from before. Nobody just appeared out of thin air like that, and all of the soldiers recoiled in fear and scrambled to the other end of the building entirely.

"Where the hell is this?" Miss Valentine asked aloud, not liking the dingy atmosphere after leaving the beautiful mountain she had just come from. It was really killing her mood, "I don't see anyone that would have called you anywhere."

"For sure." Naruto said as he pried his kunai out of the wall and turned back to the scared stiff soldiers, "What's up? Where are we?"

"W-What's that? W-Who are you?" One of the soldiers asked fearfully only to whimper when Kurama climbed onto a pile of swag, grinning cruelly with his tails whipping around him.

"**The devil."** Kurama said in his rich, deep, and imposing voice as his red-eyed gaze did its best to burn into their souls, proverbially of course because he couldn't do that… in that body anyway.

"Devil Fruit users technically." Miss Valentine amended helpfully, "At least I am. They're not."

One of the men pointed at Kurama and Miss Valentine hatefully with a shaky finger, "The devil is not welcome here!"

"Yeah, great." Naruto deadpanned. This was getting old, "One of you tell me where the fuck 'here' is exactly! He's not going to eat you damn it!" He didn't know if Kurama would eat them or not, he was just guessing really. How long had it been since he'd devoured human beings exactly? Was he even still into that?

Getting yelled at by Naruto as opposed to being spiritually bullied by a talking fox snapped one of the guards back to reality as he jumped up and glared at the intruders, "Hey! Why are unprocessed prisoners here? And they're unshackled!"

This was a prison?

That didn't matter right then as the entire group got up and pulled out cutlasses and whips, planning on using them against Naruto, Miss Valentine, and Kurama, "You're in the wrong place! Get to work at the end of the bridge with the others!"

This was a prison on a bridge? That didn't even sound right. Confusion didn't even begin to define what was going on with the yellow-headed pair.

They did understand the fact that weapons were being brandished against them though. It didn't take much for that to translate to them, "Kurama, you want to handle this?" Naruto asked, turning to the fox that was now lying down on the piles of random stuff and clothes.

He merely yawned and shut his eyes, **"No, I'm fine here. Take your time."**

"Yo, lazy-ass fox." Naruto said, marching over to Kurama before grabbing him by the scruff of his neck, "Get your fat tails into shape. When was the last time you did anything that qualified as exercise? Just kick some butt and we can find out where we are."

"**I don't feel like it. I just woke up, and we haven't eaten breakfast yet. I thought you said that this human female could cook?"**

"Who cares? Get your shit together, it's time to do this."

Miss Valentine rolled her eyes at the argument going on between her beloved captain and his pet(?) and turned her attention to the series of men still threatening to arrest or kill them all, "Right then." Still smiling brightly, she tapped her closed umbrella into her palm, "If you think it'll take all of you boys to handle little old me, by all means come and get me." Her hat shaded a slight sadistic glint in her eyes as she said this.

With her invitation to attack her in unison, all of the men launched at her with intent to harm, but just as suddenly realized that they were attacking absolutely nothing. At one point they saw her and at another they didn't.

Six solid thuds slammed six of the men into the ground, knocked unconscious from single shots via a shockingly sturdy umbrella. The last of the seven men turned around fearfully and lifted his arm to attempt to whip Miss Valentine when she merely touched the arm with her fingertip, "Kilo Kilo Henkan (Kilogram Conversion)." She chirped brightly as the man's arm suddenly took on the weight of a lead anchor, dropping him to the ground.

Completely unable to budge the entire limb, nor lift his body up due to the unmovable weight of his arm alone, the man cried out in pain and fear, "What are you?"

Twirling her umbrella playfully in one hand she started listing things in the other, "Pirate, chef, lover, melee specialist, and possibly the sexiest woman you've ever laid your pathetic eyes on in person. I'm probably missing a lot more of them, but the one that really matters right now is your newest deity. Now be a sweetie and tell us where we are."

"You'll find out when you're enslaved with the rest building our bridge!"

"Ah, so there are slaves here. That's a good start." Miss Valentine said in mock encouragement, "But we're not opening that door without some background info. Who knows what we'll walk into? So I'll ask you again; where are we?"

The man tried to stand, managing to get up on his belly and knees with his arm stuck flat to the floor by whatever this witch had done to him, but she then immobilized the rest of his body with another touch to his torso, sending it crashing flat to the ground with a dense thud, "Gah! You think paralyzing me is going to make me talk?"

"Nope." With that, Miss Valentine plopped down on his back, sitting carelessly, "This probably will though. Better talk fast. I hear structural damage to the spine is pretty nasty stuff. Crescendo Stone." Slowly she started to increase her weight, getting a straining grunt out of the man beneath her, "You don't seem that tough, so in two minutes you'll either be singing like a canary or you'll be a pancake."

Naruto just sat off to the side with Kurama and watched Miss Valentine more or less torture some poor random schlub, "Yeah, Miss Valentine has the power to change her weight or the weight of anything she touches." Naruto explained as he watched the woman work, "The lightest she can make anything is 1 kilogram, the heaviest is 10,000 kilograms."

Kurama had to admit that watching her torment another human being in such a trivial manner was kind of interesting, **"And a lot of your so-called crew members have their own odd assortment of abilities? And no chakra usage either? Amazing."**

Naruto nodded, though not in an attentive manner as Miss Valentine was smiling suggestively at him and winking, '…Is it weird that I'm kind of turned on right now watching her do this?'

'**Yes. Yes it is.' **Kurama answered without even looking in his direction. Still linked telepathically, Kurama could still listen into him whenever he felt like hearing what Naruto was thinking. Naruto just blankly looked his way before actually responding aloud.

"That was rhetorical."

"**No it wasn't."**

"Shut up."

It took almost two minutes like Miss Valentine had estimated at first, but indeed the soldier underneath her started gasping as if his lungs were being squashed, "Hah, hah, okay! Okay, I'll talk! The place you're in is called the Celestial Bridge!" After hearing that he'd talk, Miss Valentine had lowered her weight enough for him to speak, but still kept the fear of being crushed inside of him.

"Good boy. Now what island on the Grand Line is that on?"

"It's not! It's a bridge that leads out from Tequila Wolf, in the East Blue! Please just stop!"

Having a crying grown man beneath her notwithstanding, Miss Valentine turned and looked at Naruto, letting out a bit of a startled laugh at what she had heard, "Why is one of your kunai stuck in the East Blue?"

He couldn't tell her. He hadn't even used any when he started to take his journey out from the Elemental Nations, and he'd definitely never heard of any place called Tequila Wolf on his way out. Now with his curiosity piqued, Naruto got up and walked out to the door before opening it and being greeted by cold, snowy winter winds.

Standing at the open door, Naruto looked around at where they were, past the other hastily constructed-looking buildings that populated the area as they were at the edge of some kind of elevated, constructed platform. That platform had to be the bridge, and walking to the very end, Naruto stared over and looked down at the ocean, then turned his head to stare down both ends. He could see the end of one side a mile or two away, but the other simply stretched on and on past his ability to see in a single direction.

Miss Valentine had walked out along with Kurama and did the same thing that Naruto had done before shaking her head. She had knocked out the man inside since it seemed that there wouldn't be any more questioning, "What on Earth is this thing supposed to be for? We're in the middle of the sea and there's not an island around anywhere. What is this thing being built to?"

"Let's find out." Naruto said before suddenly taking a seat on the ground, freaking out Miss Valentine a bit as she was concerned due to the fact that there were more than likely armed guards all over the place. If they were anything like the seven in the shack she could probably decimate them all on her own, but that wasn't the point, "This is going to take a minute."

Naruto closed his eyes and entered Sage Mode before holding his hands out and returning to being as still as a statue. In front of his hands, a blue grid and a smattering of blue dots of his own chakra sprang up. Quite a few were clustered relatively close together, but three were much farther away than the rest of them.

It was beautiful, but also kind of baffling as Miss Valentine moved closer to take a look, "What is this?"

Kurama moved next to her to try and help her out if he was able, **"Ah, I see. The users of Hiraishin can use places that they inscribe the formula for the technique as marker points to teleport to. You know that much, but another thing that a sensitive user can do is pinpoint the proximity of the separate markers. Naruto has merely turned that into a visual instead of just something mental."**

Huh. Well that was neat. And Kurama was smart because he explained it easily enough for her to deduce the rest. She wasn't a dummy either. The blonde hair meant nothing on her intelligence, she just liked to act a bit ditzy for fun, "So this light thingy, or chakra grid thingy is basically like a map. The dots are his markers, and the middle of the space between Naruto's hands represents where we are since we're on that one particular dot." She observed them closely with a cute tilt of her head, "If we're in the East Blue, this one dot where we are is way closer to that mass of dots than the other four."

The bigger mass of dots would have to be the Elemental Nations obviously, the smaller mass of dots would have to be where the ship was waiting at One-Finger Island and the remaining dots would have had to have been the Hiraishin kunai that Naruto had left in places around the seas. Three were far enough away to be on the Grand Line, but that was where the problem sat.

There should have been four out that far. One for One-Finger Island, their unofficial base. Another for CP9 whom had been given one so Naruto could keep an eye on them. A third for Boa Hancock and the Kuja Pirates whom Naruto had extended the olive branch of sorts to. And the last one of course went to the Straw Hat Pirates for obvious reasons.

One of those four he had left out to mark people and places had been woefully misplaced, and none of it made sense. There was no feasible way that anything had made it that far out.

And since when was anything in the East Blue this close to the Elemental Nations? This whole 'Celestial Bridge' thing was befuddling.

The chakra map vanished in a snap as Naruto stood back up now that its use had been spent. He looked up at the sun and frowned even deeper, 'This bridge is going even farther east… but it couldn't be going toward home could it?'

Impossible. The thought was ridiculous. The Elemental Nations weren't that well known for anyone to fund a bridge to be built. According to traders he had sailed with, intrepid East Blue merchants had only been trying to trade out that far within the span of his lifetime. People had only been trying in the smallest of numbers to sail that way since he was a kid at the earliest.

Even in a hundred or so years, hell even more, No one could ever build a bridge even from the closest smaller island in the East Blue to the big continent of the Elemental Nations. It was impossible. It was at least ten times the distance between the mainland of the Elemental Nations and the island nation of Mizu no Kuni. Even sailing that far across the open ocean was something that only the bravest and well-stocked would attempt.

Building a bridge out that way was unfeasible. He had to have been mistaken.

"Come on." Naruto said, motioning for Miss Valentine and Kurama to follow him, "We need to find who had my kunai here." This place had slaves, and slaves wouldn't be allowed to keep weapons or any actual possessions really, hence why all of that stuff was in that shack. So who was a prisoner there that had his weaponry on them when they had arrived there?

Time to reach out and sense somebody.

Breathing calmly as he sensed around, Naruto had to immediately steady himself for the amount of misery he could feel permeating the air. It was even worse than the Human Auction House at the Sabaody Archipelago. Even so, he was able to feel only one familiar presence anywhere near them, and that was who he was banking on as to who had been in possession of the kunai.

"Kurama?" Naruto asked his furred ally, "You want to give me a bit of a distraction so I can find somebody?" It wasn't that he needed it, but it would just be a lot easier if he wasn't the person that people were trying to pay attention to.

"**I can do whatever I want right?"**

A reasonable enough request since he was basically asking him to run amok and raise hell, "Yeah, the guys in red are fair game, but leave the prisoners alone. Other than that go nuts." With a hand-seal from Naruto, Kurama's body began to glow and grow to ten times his previous size due to an influx of his chakra from Naruto's seal.

Yes, Miss Valentine believed now without a shadow of a doubt that Kurama could be incredibly scary as he now stood fifty feet tall and started to whip his tails around him, destroying any shacks or tents that were within reach. Naruto had to grab her hand and pull her along to leave or she probably would have stood and gawked the entire time.

"**Okay, I've got this. Go do whatever you want."** He said before turning toward the already constructed side of the bridge where he saw a tower probably built as a waypoint of sorts, and that was where Naruto was going, flying there with Miss Valentine, **"That looks important."**

Like a watchtower or something to observe the aforementioned prisoners working at the end of the bridge. They were more than likely going to be sorely missing that in a few minutes.

Well he didn't have access to his full power, but what he had already was going to be more than enough to make a damnably big bang. It had been so long since he had been provided an opportunity to blow something up that actually meant something that Kurama was almost giddy.

Akin to a great and proud beast of the wilds, the grand fox turned his head to the sky and let out an ear-rending roar that busted the stone of the sturdily built bridge beneath him just from being near the focal point of the sound.

There. That would send clowns running either toward him or away from him. Either or, it didn't matter. He was going to have his fun today.

XxX

From as high in the air as Miss Valentine had floated, with Naruto holding onto her, Naruto had to admit that all of Kurama's waving tails when he stood in the middle of a destroyed place was a pretty impressive sight. He could actually feel Miss Valentine shaking as she looked down at it, "Hey, don't worry about it. Kurama wouldn't hurt any of you guys on purpose. I think he likes most of you."

It was kind of hard to take that at face value when she was watching him shoot fire from his mouth and create mini-twisters with swipes of his tails. The hapless Tequila Wolf guards that had charged in to take the beast down before he could destroy the bridge were getting fricasseed and tossed asunder.

Yes, the originally unassuming Naruto had pretty much almost broken her neck in one move when they first fought, but it had been over so quickly she wasn't given much time to become afraid of him in battle. Afterwards she had become one of them, and all of the scary things that Naruto did from that point onward had been for her benefit, thus she was never really given the opportunity to fear him.

Kurama was different though, so she could be a bit wary of him until later.

"We're over the tower." She told him, deciding to change the subject back to business, "What's the next move dear?" She asked, brightness back in her voice.

Naruto looked down and made sure he had his aim on right. He only had a short time left in Sage Mode with the small amount of nature chakra he had gathered so it was time to make it count. Waste not, want not, "You can drop in with me if you want, or you can wait until I do this and float down after me. Later."

He then departed by letting go of the beautiful woman and free-fell to the roof of the tower. It was quite the drop, but in Sage Mode he was durable enough to easily survive a fall from that height no problem. As he fell, Naruto took a single deep breath and focused his chakra into his body, percolating wildly.

"Senpou: Hishougama! (Sage Art: Flying Toad)!"

Landing on the roof on bended knees to brace the fall, Naruto's body immediately used the properties of the Frog Kata to expel all of the chakra he had been building outward in a shockwave that blew open the room of the tower without causing structural damage to the entire building.

Using a Rasengan-based jutsu would have probably blown half of the tower away, so he fell back to taijutsu. Not as flashy, but who cared? It didn't bring the tower crashing down either. Nobody needed that… yet anyway.

To anyone looking at the move from above, such as Miss Valentine from her point of view, it looked very impressive. One lone man falling fifty feet from the air before stomping into a roof hard enough to shatter it, and safely at that, as all of the chunks were blasted outward instead of downward.

That was her beloved captain; man-of-action extraordinaire.

To anyone within though, it was markedly less inspiring as all they would have seen from above after a horrible rumbling was the sight of a young man falling down and landing on his face on the cold stone of the prison floor. After doing just that, Naruto jumped up immediately and looked around rapidly for anyone that might have seen him hit the ground.

Muttering to himself angrily for more than one reason as he dusted himself off, Naruto then started to look around in the rather dingy light of the prison area for his person of interest, "What is she even doing out here?" It was just completely weird. Once again, this made no sense.

Walking past all of the cells, Naruto kept a low growl in his throat at the despondent and broken people he saw within them. These were slaves that hadn't gotten the chance to be freed before facing their misfortune. So a fate like this or possibly worse could have awaited Byron had Naruto not stopped those nobles from taking him that day.

'Gonna break them out… just as soon as I figure out what to do with them.'

What was he going to do, even if he did manage to corral hundreds if not thousands of slaves in a field to be teleported with an adjusted version of his jutsu? He didn't even know if he could jump that many people at once. Even if he could, where would he take them?

He now had three other kunai out there. One wherever the Kuja Pirates were. One with CP9. The last one planted at the summit of One-Finger Island.

None of those places were really anywhere he'd consider prime location for relocating enslaved peoples for various reasons per destination.

Oh, what, was he going to take them all back to the Elemental Nations? A decent idea in theory, and it was definitely his first idea, but there were holes riddling that plan as well.

Like it or not they were stuck out at sea and to build a bridge this size it had to take a veritable army of slaves that he wasn't sure what he could do about. Speaking of which it would have to take an army, a smaller army of course, of guards to watch over them and ensure that they were working and wouldn't try to muster an escape or revolt.

Just how was Kurama doing by the way? There weren't any windows in that place so he couldn't look outside to see.

XxX

"**Now is the winter of your discontent!"** Kurama shouted audibly enough for everyone to hear as guards scrambled about. How the hell were they supposed to deal with anything like that? The damn thing could create mini-wind storms with its tails and spit fire or whatever the hell it wanted on command, **"I am all-powerful!"**

Not really, but no one subjugated to his wrath was aware of that. Naruto had allowed him more than enough chakra to play around with against jerks like this.

"Where the hell did this thing come from?" One of the embattled and in over their heads guards asked fearfully as Kurama turned in another direction and fired a powerful jet-stream of fire from his mouth, "We're not near the Grand Line! Nothing like this should exist anywhere around here!"

"Screw that! It's here, so how do we kill it?" They had to duck behind a ruined wall as a mass of tails swiped overhead, taking out loads of men that hadn't had the same idea in other places, "Who are we supposed to call about this?"

"How about God? Yeah, I think calling God would be the only thing we can do right now to stop this!"

A small Den-Den Mushi on the wrist of one of the men relayed a message that caused him to pale as he relayed it to his comrades. When it rained it poured apparently, "The guards keeping watch at the end of the bridge confirmed seventeen unmarked ships coming this way!"

"Unmarked? Pirates?"

"No jolly roger, just plain sails with red flags at the top!"

"Damn it, we need to get away from this thing and run! Haven't you heard about the Revolutionaries?"

Meanwhile, as the work camp guards proceeded to lose it over their doubly-bad touch of horrific fortune, Kurama was taking that time to stretch his legs and puff out his chest. It had been a long, long time since Kurama had gotten to fight something that was actually too afraid of him to do anything useful to stop his rampage. Ah, those were the good old bad days.

So enraptured by the fighting he was involved in, the biju took a moment before he registered that there was a small fleet of ships with nothing marking their allegiance other than plain sails and red flags, heading that way from the under construction end of the bridge. What they were coming for, he didn't know.

If they belonged to the Tequila Wolf guards wouldn't the ships have come from the completely opposite direction where the bridge had been built from? So chances were that they weren't their reinforcements, especially since he had heard them all screaming about who there would be that could help them as far away as they were from an actual island.

So the jury was out. Could he destroy those or not?

…And then one of the ships shot a cannonball at him, officially taking the decision out of his hands.

Well Naruto did say that the guys in red were fair game. He could probably spin that so it meant red flags too. It'd probably be more fun than crushing people on foot.

XxX

Yeah he was probably fine.

But as he walked past the cells he finally found the one that he was looking for. With an unreadable expression on his face, Naruto used his bare hands to rip the barred doors off of the hinges and hurl it aside, "I've got a ton of questions right now…" He started to say as he walked inside and kneeled down in front of the figure on the floor, "…But that can wait, because you don't look so hot right now Robin-chan."

And indeed it was Nico Robin, lying on the floor, drenched in seawater and bound with seastone shackles. She was dressed in a blue jumpsuit that was standard for the slaves building the bridge to wear. It seemed to be the kind of outfit that she wouldn't be caught dead in if she could help it, but even then she was able to make it look good on her, mostly because the front zipper was undone enough to expose ample cleavage.

Being soaked with seawater and cuffed in seastone seemed like overkill, but this was Robin. He had to hand it to those slaver pricks, they knew well enough to ensure that such a smart girl wasn't able to work her way out of their custody.

Despite her rather compromising situation and position of weakness, she still managed to sit up onto her knees to face him, "I don't know how you knew I was here, but I can say that I certainly won't complain about it." Even as a prisoner and potentially a slave she still had a calming charm about her.

"I didn't know you were here. Some idiot that didn't know what they were doing called me by throwing the kunai I gave you." Naruto informed her as he checked over her cuffs. Even pulling at them mightily while in Sage Mode couldn't bust them, "Damn it." He said while reaching around on his person for something.

"Seastone is harder to break than diamond." Robin told him, trying to get him to stop working on them as he started fussing with the cuffs again, "If you want me out of these I'll need a ke-." She stopped talking after the locks opened up and the cursed shackles fell from her wrists. In Naruto's hands were a small set of lockpicking tools that he placed back within his supply pouch, "Nevermind. Well look at you. Not just brute force I see."

Naruto smiled as his Sage Mode faded from the small amount of energy he had managed to gather while he had been outside and he helped her up, "No, that just seems to be what works best most of the time." He didn't need Sage Mode to hear the barking of guards coming their way. And them with no way out other than the roof he had crashed through, "Can you fight? And how did you of all people even get captured to begin with?"

"Extenuating circumstances." Robin said, rubbing her chafed wrists and frowning at everything that had transpired, "And give me a moment. I'll be fine in just a bit." She just needed a bit of time to dry off a touch.

"Take your time." Naruto said, as he walked outside of the cell already making hand-seals. The moment he stepped into the hall of the prison block he slammed his hands onto the ground, "Kuchiyose: Gamaguchi Shibari (Summoning: Toad Mouth Bind)!"

Guards turned the corner as Naruto had his palms on the floor and pointed their rifles at Naruto, all set to fire on cue. Focused on the strange intruder, they never noticed that the walls of the prison level had turned pink and fleshy, moving as if it were alive only with prison cell bars in certain openings. Needless to say, the cognizant prisoners were quite freaked out, "Put your hands up!"

Naruto stood up and placed his hands on his hips as he raised an eyebrow, "No."

Confused looks went around from the Tequila Wolf guards at the extremely casual response from this random guy that appeared from who knew where, "But we've got guns."

"I don't care." And indeed he didn't, because they didn't even know that their legs were trapped in the stomach of a damn mountain toad up past their ankles.

"…" The guards all looked at each other. The guy wasn't begging, running, attacking, or anything, and they were all aiming right at him, "That doesn't make any sense."

A shrug and a humorless chuckle came from Naruto who didn't seem to have enough patience with the men to humor them, "Too bad." Before he could make a move to quickly decimate the amassed troops, the option was taken out of his hands when arms sprouted on the bodies of each of them.

"Treinta Fleur: Clutch (Thirty Hands: Clutch)!"

In one move, all of those arms grabbed the guards as necessary and bent their torsos to the extent that their back had been broken, "That was… brutal." Naruto commented dryly. He couldn't blame her either. It wasn't like these were the best of people, "Do you have to break everyone's back when you beat them? That's kind of excessive." He said as he snapped his fingers and the hall turned back into normal walls.

Behind him he could feel Robin standing there with her arms held up in an 'x' as she usually did with the way that she fought, "I'm just making sure that my enemies don't get back up." She said evenly as she brushed past him, "You destroyed two entire Buster Call ships and every Marine onboard them as if it were a warm-up. You literally incinerated most of one."

"I'm sure it was painless, mostly." Naruto defended weakly, as Robin fished keys to the cells off of one of the broken guards, "Come on, we need to get Valentine-chan and Kurama so we can figure out how to get all of these prisoners out of this place. Where the hell is your crew by the way?"

"It's a very long story that started after all hell broke loose on Sabaody Archipelago." Robin told him as she quickly moved from cell to cell, opening the doors, "How did you manage to defeat Bartholomew Kuma by the way?"

Busy in his own right as he sent clones down the stairs to clear the way for any fleeing slaves once they were freed, Naruto also had a Fuuton: Rasengan forming in between two of his hands that he started using to carefully carve a hole in the wall of the tower lest it grow unstable and simply explode. Still, it was an easy enough tale to remember.

"I kind of dumped him on a deserted island in the middle of the Calm Belt with Hiraishin and ditched him there. There's no way what I actually did to finish him killed someone that tough. If I'd kept fighting him, even if I'd won I wouldn't have had much gas left in the tank to get back to Thriller Bark or my ship." He then recoiled slightly when he felt a slap on the back of his head from an arm that had sprouted there, "Oi, what was that for? You a fan of the Shichibukai or something?"

So that was why Kuma still managed to appear out of nowhere in that battle against the Pacifista cyborgs after everyone had figured that Naruto had gone and dealt with him. Still, managing to fight someone like that to a finish had to be a harsh challenge after wasting so much power trying to help them fight Oars beforehand. Besides, he apparently had no clue that Kuma could basically teleport similarly to him, otherwise he probably wouldn't have assumed that such a thing would be a fix, so that was another thing as well.

Yes, Robin understood this, but knowing now after the fact the extremely indirect reason that her crew had been so abruptly separated from one another was right there in front of her even with all of her skills of reasoning and deduction couldn't stop her basic knee-jerk reaction, "No, nevermind. It's just that he's the reason I'm here. He fought against us and used one of the abilities of his Devil Fruit to send us all to random corners of the world."

It was a good thing he was done carving, because Naruto's control over the volatile Rasengan slipped enough to blow up in his hand and knock the slab of wall out and down to the ground far below, "What?"

"You heard me. Kuma split us all up during the Marines' attack on the pirates at the archipelago."

"…What?"

Ignoring him the second time, Robin walked over to the hole in the wall that Naruto had carved as his clones started escorting other people out. As she looked down she raised an eyebrow at the sight of a gigantic fox jumping onto the surface of the ocean from the bridge, "What exactly do you call that?"

Kurama was about to get into a shootout with a small fleet of ships… and he'd seen those subtle little flags that they flew high above them before. One time before… right before he met the 'World's Most Dangerous Criminal'.

Crap. He already had the Marines crawling up his ass as the enemy of the Foxhound Pirates. He didn't need the exact opposite end of the spectrum lining up to take shots at him either. Inciting both the Revolutionary Army and the Marines would be the equivalent of being caught between a rock and a hard place.

Naruto could feel the atmospheric pressure shift and could see black and white chakra being gathered in front of Kurama's face by his tails. His eyebrows jumped up past his headband and he quickly hurled a Hiraishin kunai at the Kyuubi before holding onto Robin tightly and teleporting away.

This had a very real chance to end extremely poorly.

As he barely noticed the knife in his back, Kurama was completely surprised when Naruto appeared on top of his head and kicked some of his tails out of position to disrupt the chakra ratio he needed to form a Bijudama, **"What's the big idea idiot? That's dangerous!"**

"No Bijudama! What the fuck?" Naruto shouted, almost flipping out at the sight of his partner even thinking of trying such a thing, "I know we're at sea and you're excited to fight, but goddamn!"

"**You said to go nuts! Those were your exact words! 'Guys in red are fair game!'"**

"Yeah, but the only thing red on those ships are the flags!"

"…**I'm colorblind?"**

"Bullshit! When you use Rinnegan I have your field of vision, so I know that's a lie!" As they continued to argue, one of the lead ships shot another cannon blast in their direction. Kurama turned his head and let out a sea-rending roar that slowed the ball in midair enough for him to casually swat away with a tail, "Thank you. But still, don't fight with these people. I don't really like them, but we're not on their bad side yet. Put your hands up."

Okay, so maybe that was unnecessary, but they really did need to de-escalate this somehow. Part of Naruto just wanted to see if Kurama would really do it though, and he had to keep from laughing out loud when indeed Kurama reluctantly put his massive arm-like paws into the air as if he were at gunpoint, which technically he was.

But hey, it worked. And when Kurama placed everyone back onto the bridge with his tails and shrank in size, it seemed to work. No more shooting, which meant that another fleet wouldn't have to be sunken for a misunderstanding.

Once again, having been desensitized by the Grand Line and having been placed in absolutely terrifying and unbelievable situations since she was eight years old, Robin did not visibly react to Naruto's verbal spat with a gigantic vulpine creature.

But to think… not only was she saved without calling for it, she was now about to come face-to-face with the Revolutionary Army of Dragon.

Well timing certainly is everything.

XxX

None of them had ever seen an army of a liberating nature come through a settlement before, but it was completely amazing to see. Those Revolutionaries swept over the bridge and started immediately getting people situated to get them the hell out of there. It was damn impressive. They came in there with a plan.

Granted, that plan involved a somewhat drawn out battle with the guards first, but without a fight that just made the liberation go all the more smoothly. Naruto and company had pretty much rendered whatever defenses that the slave labor camp had absolutely worthless before the Revolutionaries had even landed.

When they did they immediately began doing what they could to assist the slaves, quite a large number of whom had actually been born into lives spent working on the bridge. The reason for that was actually absurdly startling for Naruto.

"700 years?" Sitting on one of the ships of the Revolutionaries as they got the slaves situated and given actual clothes to wear instead of the work uniforms in preparation to be taken far away from that horrible place, Naruto was given a startling bit of information, "You've got to be kidding me. They've been building that thing for 700 years? Why?"

"The nobles from back then demanded it." The leader of the attacking force of Revolutionaries told him. A man with curly brown hair wearing a tan cloak and a bowler hat with a feather in it that went by the name of Bunny Joe.

He didn't go into any detail on the name and Naruto really didn't want to press the issue of where it came from. Nothing good could come of that. He had to cover Miss Valentine's mouth before she could say something funny about it.

Speaking of her, "…Why?" She echoed Naruto's sentiment accordingly in a similarly inquisitive manner. What was the point of building a bridge out to the middle of nowhere?

"Nobody knows." Bunny Joe said, finding it absolutely disgusting that for 700 years people were forced to work to the death on building a bridge for such an arbitrarily worthless vanity project, "There are legends amongst the slaves though that have been passed down from the days when this started. It's probably the truest rendition of a reasoning for why that you'll possibly get if you're really interested in hearing it. Outside of the East Blue nobody really hears about it at all."

Why the hell not? Robin was getting changed into some real clothes, so they had time to wait to hear the entirety of her tale of exactly what transpired to separate the Straw Hat Pirates.

Until she was ready to go in some decent clothing they had plenty of time, so it was story time as both Naruto and Miss Valentine wanted to hear what the tale just so happened to be.

"Well, there's a place. A whole continent, bigger than any single island, that sits at the back end of the East Blue, with lots of wide open space, vast lands enough for everyone, and it's forbidden to no one unlike the land of the Red Line. Apparently people can go their whole lives without seeing the ocean at all in some cases… or so they say." Bunny Joe started to explain, "It's so far away. Most of the islands that comprise the East Blue are way farther west and north than this place. The East Blue marks the back end of the Grand Line. Anyone that makes it there gets dumped out in this sea… though only one pirate crew ever made it all the way through, twenty years ago. That's where the better descriptions of the land come from."

Kurama hadn't been interested in hearing about old crap that didn't involve him until he heard about a crew of foreigners that had seen a decent if not a large amount of the Elemental Nations twenty years ago, **'Wait, something about that sounds oddly familiar.'** Damn it, all of those years were blending together on him. Twenty years ago was recent compared to how long he'd been alive,** 'Biju don't become senile! Well, Shukaku did… but I'm nine times better than him, so I should be able to remember this!'**

It was going to grind his gears until he figured out how the hell this had anything to do with him. Somehow he felt that as a biju he should have definitely remembered this. To him that thought made complete sense.

As he growled lowly to himself, lying down on the deck, head in his paws, he continued to ponder.

Miss Valentine already knew exactly who Bunny Joe was referring to, but Naruto didn't care because twenty years ago wasn't relevant to 700 years ago, which was what he wanted to know, "Yeah, yeah… come on, what's the legend between the workers? I can hear that other part later if it's a Grand Line legend."

Impatient perhaps, but he had a bit of a point though. If he really wanted to hear that one there probably wasn't anyone on the Grand Line that didn't know it, so he could always ask about it there if it came up enough for him to care.

Besides… it was a pirate legend, and he wasn't a pirate.

Taking the hint, the Revolutionary continued, "This place, it's so far back that it's hard for any crew sailing from the islands of the East Blue to reach even if they knew where it was. They'd risk running out of supplies before ever getting close. The East Blue is the weakest sea too, so not just anyone can make it out there too. There's some nasty legends about that place too, monsters and people with incredible skills, things like that. Over the last few decades pirates try going out there every now and then to make it their turf since there's no one really tough enough in this sea to try and head to the Grand Line. None of them come back, and some people ended up calling this place the 'Final Continent.'"

"This is starting to sound kind of familiar." Miss Valentine pointed out, shooting a look of intent Naruto's way. And indeed it did sound familiar, but Naruto simply wanted to hear it out until the end, just in case, "This place you're talking about wouldn't happen to be called the Elemental Nations as well would it?"

"Yeah. How'd you know the official name of the place? It's not really a legend that gets around much outside of the East Blue. Dragon told some of us about it since he's from the East Blue. He always wanted to visit a place that had never seen the influence of the World Government."

"I know because Naruto here is from the Elemental Nations. You're talking about his home."

Given that information, Bunny Joe looked at Naruto in a different light, as if he were some kind of novelty or something, and in actuality he sort of was, "Wow. Wait 'till I tell Dragon about this one." Seriously, he'd have the coolest random bit of information out of the rest of the Revolutionaries once he got back to their base of operations, "Well, long story short they've been building this bridge to your continent for 700 years. Why, I couldn't tell you. That's something nobody knows."

'Come on… why is everyone's history shoddy after a certain point in the past?' It was really annoying. It didn't matter if it was his home of if it was the rest of the world apparently. His homeland was supposed to be far out of the way, even by modern standards of ships. What the hell happened where building a bridge to that place seemed like a good idea according to the World Nobles?

Things that happened 700 to 800 years ago were always murky and cloudy no matter where he wound up trying to infer about history. In the Elemental Nations nobody had any history that went back that far because it had been the day of the old-school clan wars and the free-roaming mercenary days. Important things had to be handed down by word-of-mouth for security purposes. There really wasn't a reliable history system for all to take knowledge from until the establishment of the hidden villages when recorded history started becoming important to foster pride in one's home and for various other reasons.

Even then, there were way too many legends and stories to keep straight what was true or not. Half-truths and embellishments were the norm, because they were supposed to be a society based on the shinobi arts after all.

That almost wound up biting all of them and possibly the entire world in the ass when Naruto had been a teenager, but that was another story for another time.

Apparently the rest of the world sucked at keeping records that far back either and having it be common knowledge, which made more sense because the world was huge, That still didn't make it any less annoying though.

Wait, Robin was some kind of awesome archaeologist that was so good she'd gotten a massive bounty just for knowing things about the past. Maybe she knew some East Blue history that could help connect some dots?

While Naruto just sat in place and mulled over everything that he had been told, Kurama was doing some thinking of his own.

In a span of less than 24 hours he had his soul yanked hundreds of miles by a spirit chain, he'd been processed through a statue, and been shoved back into the stomach of the kid he'd spent nearly sixty years sealed inside of, all voluntarily.

He'd met a group of eccentric humans with varying personalities and abilities from all walks of life that Naruto had deemed interesting enough to travel the world with, as well as a gigantic duck that he was probably going to end up eating at some point before it was all said and done.

He'd been given the chance to make pitiful mortals tremble at his presence again for the first time in decades, both from his sheer presence alone and on the battlefield getting to hurl his considerably powerful chakra around as well.

And he'd been given a brain-bender of a memory question from the Revolutionary man's story that was going to be killing him to remember until he actually managed to do so, because for the life of him he swore that it was supposed to have been something really important at the time that it happened… it just didn't engross him directly, hence he didn't care too terribly about it when it had happened either.

If this was the way that the rest of the trip could be expected to go, Kurama could dare say that he might even be excited to be involved in it.

* * *

**Ooh, a link to the past and there ain't no Super Nintendo in sight.**

**God I dated myself with that reference, and anyone else who got it congratulations, you're just as old as me.  
**

**Now I'm going to sleep in a parking lot seventy miles from home to get some rest so I don't crash my car on the way home out of exhaustion after staying awake for the last 60 hours to work on various jobs and projects… because I am a responsible driver boy.**

**Please don't worry about my safety, because no one else does.**

**Later. Kenchi out.**


	44. What Makes a Man

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Now I'm going to go sit in the snow. Oh, wait there isn't any snow.

**Chapter 44: What Makes a Man**

* * *

"So…" Naruto said, sitting outside on the deck of one of the ships of the Revolutionary Army along with Nico Robin, now dressed in real clothes instead of the prisoner's uniform she had been in earlier. Kurama was next to Naruto back to normal fox size trying to catch some z's while his former/current jinchuuriki continued to keep an eye on the woman he had saved.

He'd taken Miss Valentine back to Mt. Myoboku after all of the ruckus had died down and remained behind himself to make sure nothing funny happened with Robin. And while there he'd been able to get an important touch of news from the Revolutionaries.

After figuring out that Robin was a member of the Straw Hat Pirates they had a newspaper they needed to show her, "…I'll go out on a limb and say that your crew's week was crazier than ours." He didn't quite know what else to say about what he was reading.

"I need to get back to Luffy." Robin said resolutely, knees pulled to her chest where she was sitting on a supply crate. Her eyes couldn't be torn away from the newspaper on the ground between them, "And everyone else on the crew. He needs everyone there."

There wasn't anything else lining the papers aside from news on everything that had happened at Marineford. Naruto didn't think that people fought wars like that anymore, but then he realized something that he kept forgetting. That the world was way bigger than he'd have ever figured it was. Just because people had gotten sick of warfare in the Elemental Nations didn't mean that anyone anywhere else had done away with it.

Thousands of Marines and thousands of pirates in the fleet of the Whitebeard Pirates had fought one another one reason and one reason alone; to free or keep captive Portgas D. Ace before his execution in the square. _That _was what the war that Soren had alluded to days before had been about?

Holy crap. He did not know that.

Luffy's brother. The cool guy that he'd met back in Alabasta. The guy that asked him to keep an eye on his little brother since he trusted him. Not only had someone managed to beat him and take him alive, he was the catalyst for the two most powerful forces on the seas to clash. Whitebeard really would do anything for his most trusted subordinates.

But that guy. People kept telling him to stay out of Whitebeard's business. That Whitebeard was the strongest man in the world. With an entire fleet at his back there would be no way that he could fail.

Only he did. He was killed. And Ace died. He died in Luffy's arms. Luffy had somehow made it there to save him, and he watched his brother die.

For a lot of his life Naruto wished at times that catastrophic events would stop happening around him long enough for him to catch his breath. He felt that way when they started happening again after uncounted years of peace in his life, sometimes wondering why he traded in relaxing and travelling through the Elemental Nations for constant deathmatches with overpowering enemies in the Grand Line.

And when something calamitous occurred that he actually felt he could have done some real good with, he missed it. He didn't even know where this big event had even occurred. Marineford was just a place that he kept hearing people talk about. All most things seemed to be were talk, until something happened.

So many of these places that he kept hearing about were just names that he couldn't put an idea or an image to. Marineford, the New World, Mariejois, Amazon Lily. What the hell? What did he know? What did he know about anything?

'All those deaths for one person…' Naruto thought to himself, '…And I don't even know how to get to Marineford.' If he'd been there, maybe he couldn't have stopped the battle. As a matter of fact he definitely couldn't have stopped the battle, but maybe so many people wouldn't have had to die. Maybe he could have brought _someone_ back.

"I should have given Luffy your kunai even though I was told to keep it." Robin said, still staring at the newspaper between them, "He is the captain after all."

"Don't even start with that. How the hell would you possibly have known that anything like this would have ever happened?" Naruto said, not willing to hear all of that self-loathing crap for something that wasn't anyone's fault, "Getting separated like this? If you had to make a list of improbable things that could never happen, this wouldn't even have made it. With all of you getting separated all over the world to who knows where in a matter of seconds? Not a chance. You want to know why?"

"**-Because that would mean that you'd have thought of it happening somehow."** Kurama interjected, intentionally cutting Naruto off from finishing his own line just to annoy his host, **"…And this is something that you'd never think of happening. Kami, Naruto your lines suck."**

"Oh shut up." Naruto groused, nudging Kurama with his foot, "What do you know about trying to cheer someone up? You just step on stuff and blow things up. Try to stick to your strengths and I'll try to stick to mine."

"**Meaningful conversations are not your strength."** Kurama jabbed verbally before getting himself comfortable and getting back to sleep.

Saving his ire for arguing with his fox later, Naruto turned his attention back to Robin, "Look, my point is that he needs you now. So what do you need from me to help you get back to your crew?"

"I need to go back to Sabaody Archipelago." Robin said without a moment's hesitation, "That's where the Thousand Sunny is, getting coated in the resin for the next part of the trip."

The original plan had been to meet back up at the ship in three days after it was coated, but all of that fell apart quickly. It had been way longer than three days by that point. It had been as Naruto had earlier alluded to, closer to a week.

All Naruto did was nod, "Whatever you need. It'll take a few days though." He said, figuring that his vacation had been long enough, and if his friends wanted to go back he could always take them back to the mountain and maybe show them his home anytime, "Come back with me, we'll stay the night where the rest of the crew is, and tomorrow morning we'll head out from where my ship is stashed."

"What about the Revolutionary Army?" They were currently riding back to the starting area of the bridge to the country that the Revolutionaries had just overthrown, and from there they had been trying to get Robin to return with them to their leader at his HQ elsewhere. Apparently she was some kind of great inspiration to them, "I don't think they'll be fans of you just up and leaving with me."

"I don't really care about that." Naruto admitted without real regret on the matter, "I don't care at all. You already told them you want to go back to Sabaody, well I'm pretty sure going with me would be faster and more comfortable too since you know me."

Also he really didn't like how adamant they seemed about taking her to see their leader even though Robin clearly was not comfortable with doing so on her own. There was something that screamed 'big red flag' about it. And while Naruto had run across Dragon before, he didn't particularly trust him at all.

"So how about it?" Naruto offered once more, "We can go right now. Leave a note or something. I'd rather not have to deal with that Bunny Joe guy trying to talk you into staying again." Robin had already scribbled something on the back of the newspaper before leaving it on the deck and grabbed Naruto's hand, "You should brace yourself." He warned before whistling sharply, getting Kurama to jump up with a start.

"**What? What is it? I'm ready! Food? Kill? What?"**

"More like we need to go home."

"**Couldn't you have just grabbed me without waking me up and Hiraishined back?"** The irritated fox asked, swearing vengeance in the near future.

Naruto didn't seem to care though. Not severely enough to do anything about it, "I could have, but I would have had to stand up and walk all the way over to you."

XxX

(The Next Day – Grand Line – Calm Belt – Near One Finger Island)

The entire crew of the Natural Disaster left the comfortable surroundings of Naruto's home away from home and got back on the seas, finding the ship right where they left it at their island of choice. What a safe place on such a dangerous part of the ocean.

No time whatsoever was wasted in getting things moving after getting back aboard. The reason being that after learning about what had happened on the Saboady Archipelago, a good portion of the Foxhound Pirate crew were worried sick about a few of the members of the Straw Hat Pirates.

Nojiko had an ill-tempered feeling in her stomach thinking about her sister being separated and all on her own. Sure, she'd done the same thing for years trying to steal enough money to buy the freedom of their village from Arlong, but that had been in the East Blue. As far as she knew Nami could have ended up anywhere if Robin ended up on a bridge being built in the direction of the Elemental Nations.

Johnny and Yosaku weren't necessarily worried about Zoro… on the surface. The thing was though, that both of them were absolutely terrible at disguising the fact that they were concerned with anything. So what you got from them was basically calm voices whenever the topic came up, but their faces would twist up involuntarily at random points in a conversation, and they couldn't feel the kind of expression that they had on at the time.

If anyone out of the anxious crewmembers that were worried was able to keep a level head, it was Nefertari Vivi. But it was also clear that she wasn't feeling very well about what they'd found out. She was keeping herself busy, training extremely hard, and basically doing whatever she could to refrain from having to sit still. Sitting still gave her time to think. Giving her time to think allowed her mind to wander, and when she did that she tended to think about bad things. It was just her nature; a bad habit that she had picked up back when she'd been infiltrating Baroque Works for Alabasta.

"Sabaody Archipelago should be safe to go back to now, for the most part." Perona said, somehow taking her presence on the ship much better nowadays after a month onboard. She was still slower to adjusting to her Stockholm Syndrome status than Soren had been, but times when she actually spoke informatively signified that she was getting better about staying, "I don't think Marines are going to dispatch anyone back out from Marineford anytime soon."

Sitting at the helm as usual to channel chakra into the sails, Naruto followed Perona's needy and desiring gaze and peered over at the object of her newfound obsession in Kurama. Apparently he didn't find the ocean by itself very interesting. He got a kick out of the tranquility of One Finger Island though until a batch of monkeys that had gotten onboard the ship saw them and flipped them off.

The others were kind of used to it, but Kurama was not used to anything, especially a bunch of stupid primates trying to give him the middle finger. Thus he then proceeded to try and eat them.

It didn't do anything to make Perona think that he was any less adorable, as the sight of him chasing monkeys off of the ship just made the ghost princess love him even more, much to his chagrin.

"**Sailing is boooring."** Kurama said with a long yawn as he randomly batted his tails around in the shade of the mast. Soft grass covering the deck? Masts with branches that simulated trees complete with fruit? Yes to all of that. Way to abuse that Mokuton for personal comforts, **"Naruto, how do you deal with this?"**

The boredom? How did he deal with it? Well there were multiple things.

For instance there was training himself in the open ocean where nothing was off-limits since there was absolutely nothing out there that he could destroy and regret. That would probably only get better now that Kurama was back in the mix.

Training Nefertari Vivi was always fun since she soaked up everything like a sponge that he could actually teach her and she was absolutely adorable and endearing.

Picking on the swordsmen was usually great because their responses never disappointed.

Drinking with the swordsmen, and Soren… and Paulie, because the only thing more fun than drinking was drinking with entertaining company. Muret didn't like that, saying that alcoholism was unhealthy and stereotypical of pirate crews. Naruto would then gently respond that he wasn't an alcoholic and that he wasn't a pirate, trying to render her point moot. She would then have Funkfreed try to sit on him because he would shout the latter at her.

He also had very lovely girlfriends that were usually complete joys to be around in their own way, so spending vast amounts of intimate time with Nojiko and Miss Valentine, most often in his quarters or theirs, was also high up on that list.

Let's just say that there were more things for a human to do than for a fox. And the constant salt water smell was irritating his nose. He assumed he would get used to that.

"It's not that bad." Naruto said to his partner, "You'll find things about it that you like. I promise." Kurama just muttered to himself moodily. That old fox was just constantly grouchy. He'd be back to normal by the time Valentine cooked for them all later, "Just wait. You've only been on the seas for a few hours, give it some time."

Elsewhere on deck, Robin was sitting in the grass that completely covered the deck of the Natural Disaster ship just looking out onto the waves. The quicker they returned to Sabaody the better. She could return to the Thousand Sunny and try and be productive preparing things while waiting for Luffy and her crew members to return.

She turned her head for just a moment when she felt herself joined on her side by Nojiko holding a rolled up canvas bag, "Do you mind if I sit with you?" She asked with a smile. Robin had no problems with the woman and knew her pretty well as Nami's fellow adopted sister, so she casually consented with a nod, "Thanks."

"I don't see why you should thank me." Robin said with a small smile of her own, "After all, I am the guest on your ship here. You have the right to go wherever you please."

"Oh don't be that way." Nojiko said, sitting down as she began to unravel the canvas bag to reveal her guns neatly set inside of it that she began to clean, "Our crews are pretty close. A Straw Hat Pirate might as well be a Foxhound Pirate too really!"

"I still HATE that name by the way!" Naruto shouted from the front of the ship. Even half the distance down the deck, his hearing was still well enough to pick up on most of the conversation, "We're not damned pirates, and I will defend that to the death! We haven't done one single solely pirate-related thing since day one! Either that or the entire world outside of the Elemental Nations just uses the term 'pirate' as a general description for 'criminal'."

"Hush up Naruto-kun, it's alright by now." Nojiko said, waving him off with one of the pistols she had been cleaning. Even though it wasn't loaded and she wasn't even pointing it, he still hit the deck just in case. You never could be too safe when it came to her possibly shooting someone, "Anyway Robin-san, feel free to stay with us for as long as you'd like."

"Not for too long I'd hope." Robin replied. No offense or anything, but she was worried and wanted to know that everyone on the crew was alright. Luffy, Zoro, Nami, Usopp, Sanji, Chopper, Franky, Brook… all of them.

"Don't worry about it." Nojiko said, ceasing the cleaning of her weaponry to place a hand on the older woman's shoulder, "The one thing I know better than anyone else is waiting for someone you care about to come back from something like this."

For ten years on Commi Island she saw Nami come and go nonstop, doing everything she could everywhere she could in the East Blue to try and procure the money to buy her village's freedom from Arlong and his fishman pirates. In all of that time, Nami never said where she was going, what kind of danger she would be getting into, and never told her anything about it whenever she would drift back in, be it weeks, months, or years later.

And in all of that time she kept faith in her little sister. So yes, while Nami could be anywhere, she was already used to going everywhere, and while she was on her own she had always gone it alone before, and now she was powerful enough to keep herself safer than ever before.

By proxy to that, if Nami could survive she had no doubt in her mind that the rest of the Straw Hats would be just fine. Even Luffy for all of the things that he had probably went through and was probably going through wherever he was.

Poor guy. She could only imagine the hell he went through trying to get to Marineford by himself as quickly as he did and all alone. To come that far, to actually reach his brother and then still watch him die.

"All you can really do at times like this…" Nojiko said, putting her pistol and cleaning tools aside as she spoke softly, thinking about what she'd do if she had to witness the same with Nami, "…All you can really do, if you can't find them and go to them yourself, is believe in them and know that they'll come back. And be ready to support them when they do." At that point a small encouraging laugh came from her, "Who knows? They might have made it back first and you might just be the straggler out of the group."

The attempt to cheer Robin up actually did manage to get a better smile out of her, though as normal for her it still looked extremely aloof, "I can see why you're the one that runs things on this ship."

"Ah, Naruto-kun's the captain." Nojiko said with an uncomfortable laugh, "I just offer… suggestions every now and then."

"But you have great influence over him." Robin pointed out, "And the others do listen to the things that you say don't they? I've noticed that much. You were the first person on weren't you?" More or less she was, thus she also had seniority so to speak, "I hear that you're the one that takes care of most of the people around here anyway."

At that point, Naruto's summoning senses were tingling, and he looked around to notice that Kurama had felt it as well, lifting his head and raising an eyebrow at his jinchuuriki, **"Trouble? Battle?"** He asked rather excitedly at the prospect of either. Anything to break the monotony.

"I don't know." Naruto said, "I think I want… the swordsmen, Paulie, and Vivi just in case for diplomacy's sake on this one." Nojiko heard him and got up to go inside and get the requested people, "I'm popular these days for some reason."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Amazon Lily)

Taking a break for a bit in watching over the recovery of Luffy after the horrible events that had occurred at Marineford, Trafalgar Law found himself staring at something in a place that he wasn't really supposed to be by decree of Boa Hancock.

Due to island rules, men weren't allowed. But since he'd rescued Luffy from his injuries and had gotten him into stable condition the Heart Pirates were allowed to at least stay on the island. They weren't allowed in the city though. The exception to this were the times when Law would need to pop in to check on Luffy's condition, and this was one of those situations. But he'd eventually taken a break to wander for a bit because there wasn't anything more he could do for his Supernova rival.

Normally he wouldn't have listened to being restricted from anything since he absolutely despised being told what to do, but Hancock was a very, very powerful woman… and they were smack dab in the middle of the Calm Belt with no way to deter the Sea Kings, so for the time being they needed to play ball to get adequate shelter. It was a rather niggling matter.

Why'd he have to feel the need to treat Luffy after what happened at Marineford again?

Oh yeah, because-.

"What do you think you're doing here?" Turning around, Law found the very tall, dark-haired Kuja Pirate Empress standing sternly in the doorway in all of her flowing regality, accompanied by a very small old woman using one of the Kuja Pirates' weapon snakes as a walking staff, "Freely wandering around the premises of my palace on your own. You should know your place Trafalgar Law."

"Whatever…" Law said in a lazily annoyed voice before pointing at what he was looking at, "That." He was indicating a strange three-pronged knife with a strange encryption on the handle sitting flat on a pedestal with warnings to stay away from it, "Where did you get that?"

Hancock narrowed her eyes at Law as she walked farther into her own throne room to sit down on her chair. The Elder with her was surprised, as this had been the first thing that could sidetrack her from fretting over Luffy nonstop for days at this point, "What do you know of that weapon?"

If she didn't like his answer she might have done something drastic, but Law didn't care.

"What I know…" He started to say, "Is that the guy that it belongs to pistol-whipped a World Noble for trying to take Nefertari Vivi away from him, and then he crumpled the Human Auction House on Sabaody Archipelago into a gigantic ball and threw it at the Marines that attacked during the Admiral summoning. The guy is supposed to be close with the Straw Hats from what I've gathered. I've seen their crews hanging out like old friends."

He'd also heard rumor about what the guy did with those knives in action and knew that he could go anywhere that had one of those things planted there. At least that was what eyewitnesses that had seen such a thing claimed. Most of the time on the Grand Line, hearsay turned out to be true.

Hancock raised a thin and lovely eyebrow at that bit of information. She did not know that. Monkey D. Luffy was connected in some way to Uzumaki Naruto. Her first run-in with that man was part of the entire reason that she didn't remain as heated at Luffy's presence on her island as she should have been at first.

That and Luffy himself.

Wait, Naruto destroyed the Human Auction House and used it as a weapon against the Marines? How did he even make that happen? Someone was stronger than they showed the first time they met.

"Why the hell didn't Luffy just call the guy to help before he left here the first time?" Law asked, jerking a thumb at the Hiraishin kunai, "I've seen the guy in action and I've heard rumors. He definitely would have evened the odds at Marineford."

Well, the room was usually very, very crowded the one time that Luffy had been in there, full of Kuja Pirates interested in the only man any of them had ever seen and he… might have not seen it? He more than likely definitely didn't see it actually.

"Do you think that there is anything that he could do for Luffy?" The Elder Kuja Pirate asked, walking up to the doctor of a pirate, using her snake as a makeshift staircase to gaze at the kunai.

"Summon him." Hancock said with complete decisiveness.

"I don't have the guy's Den-Den Mushi frequency and Luffy's kind of indisposed right now." Law said derisively. He was getting really tired of the whole bossy queen thing she had going. Yeah she was hot, but he wasn't about to let anyone, even the hottest woman in the world, tell him what to do, "So unless you want me to stand on the shoreline and flash a light on and off hoping he'll see it from wherever the hell he is at sea-."

"Throw the knife at something fool!" Hancock shouted at him in return. She didn't need the sarcasm. Just because he was the only doctor that could make sure Luffy was stable with what was medically wrong with him didn't mean she wouldn't turn his ass to stone until he was needed again. She was not in the mood!

Law frowned as he grabbed the knife and contemplated throwing it at Hancock, but she'd just stop it and then all hell would break loose, and he didn't need that drama fighting a battle he was probably going to lose and get his entire crew killed during.

Dropping the knife on the floor both he and the Kuja Pirate Elder backed away from it just in case, but nothing happened at first for over five minutes.

"So it was just a trick or something?" Law asked, scratching his head through the fur hat on top of his head, "I guess this really was just hearsay."

"It really isn't." Hancock assured him, "I've seen it. I've been in it."

That got an extremely curious look from both the Elder and Law but before anything could say anything about it a flash occurred around the knife and five figures appeared from it.

Naruto was the first to step out and look around after he picked up his weapon from the floor, "Alright, where the hell is this? This is one of the ones I sent with someone only this one stopped moving eventually." He saw an old lady, that Trafalgar Law guy that Muret had a monster crush on, and last but certainly not least-, "Boa Hancock? You actually called me for something?"

"The lady that turned everybody to stone that one time?" Paulie said, reaching for one of the infinite ropes he had on his person just in case and looking around apprehensively, "You gave her a knife to call you anytime she wanted, anywhere she wanted, in the world. Brilliant."

"Hey." Naruto barked, making the gesture for eye-contact with Paulie, "When you get a laundry list of awesome superpowers you can do whatever you want with them. Until then kindly shut the hell up about what I do with mine. I spread the love around, because sharing is caring and I love the world."

Kurama butted his way forward through the crowd and looked around the very swanky palace room. They were definitely not anywhere near the Elemental Nations anymore, **"I am so glad you improved the range of the Hiraishin from your father. Now we can globe-hop all of the time. Sounds like fun." **He shot a glance over at Hancock sitting and observing them and then walked off to explore the room, **"*cough* Boobs."**

"I'm going to ignore the talking fox with a libido." Law said, walking up to Naruto and taking note that he'd brought along Paulie, Johnny, Yosaku, and Vivi, "And I'm not even going to ask where you came from. She called you, go talk to her. I'm getting out of here."

Naruto just let captain of the Heart Pirates walk past him and out of the throne room without saying anything until he eventually turned to Vivi who had been standing right next to him as she usually did, "…Why does Muret think that guy is cool?" Vivi just shrugged while Yosaku quietly fumed and contemplated going to murder Law with his gigantic and heavy sword, "Where are we?"

"There's a disturbance in the force." Johnny said, setting a hand on both Paulie and Yosaku's shoulders, getting the latter to stop plotting violence against Trafalgar Law, "It doesn't feel negative though. It feels… sexy."

Paulie shrugged his shoulder out of Johnny's grasp and took a few steps away, "Don't say that and stand that close to me."

"I was talking about Hancock you prude douche." Because she was definitely wearing that skirt and blouse with a passion.

"What an indecent woman, dressed like that."

"She can be as indecent as she wants to be."

"She'll turn you to stone again." Yosaku interjected into the discussion. Even so, saying that he was still staring hard at Hancock.

A lewd grin crossed Johnny's face as a shine came to his sunglasses, "I'm already as har-."

Unfortunately for him he was cut off from finishing his statement by Paulie who was not amused and exhibited such by wrapping a rope around his neck as quick as lightning to choke him, "If you make a stone or rock joke about your penis I swear to God I'll burn that tattoo off of your face with a lit cigar…"

Ignoring Naruto's three male crewmates, and the talking fox walking around the room and taking note of everything in it, Hancock got off of her throne and descended the stairs with her smiling snake weapon over her shoulder, "Hello Uzumaki Naruto." She said, getting a small smile and a nod from him as Vivi hid behind him, remembering being turned to stone by the Shichibukai.

"It's been a little while since we fought." Naruto said, feeling Vivi squeeze him around the waist from behind rather tightly out of concern. Poor thing. Maybe bringing her wasn't the best idea, but he wanted her to get used to this kind of thing, "I hope this isn't you calling me here to try and kill me again."

"No, it is for no such reason." Hancock assured him calmly, "Our crews have called a truce and now I see that your goodwill extension of your summoning tool was not an empty one. Though I expected you to be faster about coming here… and to come alone."

Of course she was referring to the fact that he'd brought three other men and a fox. Bringing Vivi was fine since women were allowed, but the others weren't really allowed at all.

"Sorry, but the last few times people called me I had to fight a giant zombie and then a Shichibukai back-to-back, and the last time I wound up fighting an army on a bridge being built for hundreds of years across the sea by slave labor. I didn't really want to take any chances this time so I brought some support. Like Vivi-hime here."

"I understand." Vivi wasn't certain or not, but it seemed as if Hancock were sizing him up or something. And she possessively gripped onto Naruto a bit tighter, though it didn't seem to bother him as he just rubbed her arm reassuringly while speaking with the Snake Princess, "She seems to be quite attached to you."

Ha.

A grin spread across Naruto's face as he threw his hands up behind his neck cheerfully. She had just made a joke that didn't involve petrifying and shattering him. Progress, "How've you been doing?"

"At the moment, not too well. Which is why I've summoned you here." She said, with a frown on her absolutely gorgeous face as she walked closer to him, close enough to stand an inch or two taller than him, not counting the heels, "There is a rather grave issue at hand."

'Why is she taller than me?' Naruto groused to himself before getting serious, "I'm listening. What can I do?"

She gestured toward the exit to the room, indicating that the others should leave, "Perhaps your crew should take a look around Amazon Lily while we talk about this? Elder Nyon would have no trouble showing them around to where they are allowed to be. The women of this island are… slowly getting used to men lately."

Amazon Lily.

Amazon Lily.

The place that was entirely populated by the finest gathering of the female form that any sailor in the entire world would ever lay eyes on. The place that was so hard to get to due to its positioning on the Calm Belt of the Grand Line. The place that was entirely off-limits to men, except for now apparently.

Johnny lived up to his positioning as the second-fastest member of the crew when no one even noticed him move before sprinting outside to the grand steps that led to and from the Empress palace. While Paulie and Elder Nyon went along at a more reserved pace, Yosaku followed his best friend as fast as he could, but Johnny might as well have been Kizaru for as fast as he forced his body to go.

And before him lay the greatest sight that any pirate in the know would otherwise never have seen. A tear came to his eye, falling down past his sunglasses, and right then he realized once and for all that he had made the correct choice in going with Naruto.

"I've got a feeling…" Johnny said as he and Yosaku gazed upon the paradise of gorgeous women that lay before them, "…That tonight's gonna be a good night."

Yosaku turned to him momentarily only for long enough to take in the look of awe that his partner shared with him, "Tonight's gonna be a good night?"

A nod from Johnny, "Tonight's gonna be a good, good night."

XxX

(With Naruto – Inside of the Palace)

Vivi kept putting a very sturdy, yellow-haired wall between herself and the person that she was currently scared of since she'd never gotten any closure out of the whole being turned to stone thing. But that eventually came to a close once Hancock took them into the room to show them what she had called for Naruto about.

Luffy was laid up unconscious, bandaged from head to toe and looking half past dead.

The moment Naruto had seen him and taken in the entire thing firsthand, he'd placed his Hiraishin kunai back into Hancock's hand and bolted back to the ship to go get someone really quick.

So… that left Vivi alone with one of the strongest women in the world. Luckily, Luffy was the bigger focus at the moment than the awkward almost-killing her thing, and she could preoccupy herself with that, "What happened to him?"

"What didn't happen to him?" Hancock said, standing over the bed, looking down at Luffy imperceptibly, "At times, I regret doing what I did in taking him out to make his own way to Marineford, but you can partially thank your own captain for such a thing. He proved men can be selfless and down-to-earth, to save his brother. Monkey D. Luffy did all of that for his brother."

"Well that's right about Luffy, but Naruto's actually pretty arrogant." Vivi said, thinking aloud with a sweatdrop, "I don't know if I'd call Luffy usually bullheaded or what, but if you want to call a man arrogant you'd definitely be right about Naruto."

"You sound like such a thing is so easily forgivable."

"Because of the first thing you said that they proved. Even if he's arrogant, Naruto isn't selfish at all." Vivi said with a very bright smile, "Men, even pirates, they can be terrible people, and I'm not saying for a second that they're not, but my friends are the exception that prove the rule, because they're all wonderful people."

Except for Perona who she still didn't like from the first time they fought… and Soren, who was just an unapologetically terrible person that they had all gotten used to as being terrible.

This girl was very young and rather idealistic. This was the 'kidnapped' princess of Alabasta that had been taken away months ago, Nefertari Vivi, but she didn't seem to have identified with her captors as a method of Stockholm Syndrome. It seemed deeper than that. She hadn't been taken against her will, and she genuinely cared for Luffy and especially Naruto.

"Tell me something." Hancock said, getting Vivi's attention, "It feels strange to ask a woman younger than me a question like this, but how do you know if you love someone?"

And Vivi almost felt her knees shake at the question. Not really from the question itself even though it was a trifle shocking, but mostly from the person that had asked it. The powerful sole female representative of the Shichibukai, the most beautiful woman in the world, and the leader of a pirate crew notorious for possessing a cold, indifferent demeanor towards men.

Who the hell did someone like _that_ find worthy to love?

"I find myself split between the finest example of a kind man that I have ever met, and another with a sharp sense of honor that I am dangerously attracted to. None here outside of Elder Nyon come close to understanding, and therein lies the problem."

Kind of understandable. After despising men, seeing them as weaker than her, and forming an archetype for what comprised them she had the misfortune to run into two remarkable examples of them, remarkable for differing reasons, but both still close enough to confuse someone that simply chose not to interact with them until being required to by whatever circumstances forced the issue.

And she was choosing to ask an outsider woman because, well, outside women were supposed to be better acclimated for that sort of thing. Very few other Kujas knew anything about men except for the pirates, and they usually followed the leading influence of their leader, so they would have been no help as an outside opinionated source.

That didn't make the question any less embarrassing to try and answer for the desert kingdom princess however, "Love." She said with a nervous tint in her voice. Now she wasn't even scared of Hancock for the sake of being weaker than her, now it was just out of nerves, "Well… um, it's pretty hard to explain. There are many different kinds of love."

"Romantic." Hancock clarified bluntly, putting a halt on that train of explanation. Vivi was not going to allowed to beat around the bush, "I am referring to romantic love, and I'm quite certain you were aware of that already."

"Fair enough." With a sigh, Vivi decided that she had to go ahead and get it over with, "Okay. I think romantic love is-." This was hard! Princess or not, she was still sixteen years old! These were not the kinds of questions people older than her should have been asking, "Well it's not just seeing someone and having that fluttery feeling in your chest when they look at you. There's more than that."

"Like what?"

She was getting to that. Impatient pirates. A little patience would be appreciated. She barely knew where she was going with this, "Do you think about them a lot, even when they're not around? Or do you know enough about them that their looks are only a bonus, and that who they are is what you find special? So much, that you don't mind the bad things about them like his ego or his bluntness, or his punch first kind of personality because you know he's got a heart that's worth a billion beli, and that he'd do anything you needed if you asked, and his smile..."

It was quite clear that she had someone in mind already as she was saying all of these things. The young princess already had someone that she was in love with, "And if they don't love you back?" Hancock asked.

A frown marred Vivi's face at the thought but a ghost of a smile eventually found its way back up there nevertheless, "If someone doesn't love you that's that. But that doesn't mean you can't try to win them over somehow."

"And you believe that Uzumaki doesn't love you?" The shocked look on Vivi's face and any remark to the contrary that she was going to make was stopped by Boa Hancock raising her hand, "It's quite clear that from how you react around him you love him, so tell me why you don't think he loves you?"

Because she was too young? Because she was a girl that he was more or less forced to take onboard out of goodness and wound up netting him an increased bounty and more trouble once word spread that he had kidnapped her? Because she was more trouble than beneficial to have around?

At least Miss Valentine and Nojiko were more than just beautiful. They were powerful and had uses outside of sex appeal and combat to boot. She was just a princess that could barely keep pace with the others in battle. And diplomacy as she was coming to see did very little in the big, bad world. Might made right, and she herself didn't have enough of it to ask questions first and take up arms later the way she would have preferred to.

She didn't answer, eyes averting to Luffy, but when seeing him that injured and vulnerable became too much she looked at the ground.

"So someone that would take you in to protect you from being a hostage of the World Government and the World Nobles, would teach you how to protect yourself and fight more effectively, and would gladly protect you with his own body does not love you?" Hancock said, a small smile actually forming on her face, "If only I could be so lucky."

The bit of conversation was cut short when Naruto appeared back in the room in a flash. Vivi's face was red and she tried to hide it at the reappearance of her captain. He noticed as much and raised an eyebrow at her but didn't have the time to question his princess on it.

This time upon his arrival in Boa Hancock's domicile, he brought a little more company than just Kurama whom he had left and reappeared with, and it was a woman. A tall, dark-haired woman that seemed completely horrified at the sight of Luffy.

"Who is this woman Uzumaki?" Hancock asked as she saw this person slowly move around to Luffy's side and kneel down by the bed, "And why did you bring her to this place? Do not take advantage of my extended hospitality."

"Last one, I promise." Naruto assured her, speaking softly for the sake of Robin who was still taking in the situation involving her bedridden captain, "Robin-chan is on Luffy's crew. The way he was separated from his crew happened to everyone else and I somehow wound up getting to her. I'll take back everybody else and make them go back to the ship if she can stay here with him and I'll owe you a favor."

Hancock just stared at Naruto and the solid look in his blue eyes even though he was looking straight ahead with grave severity. What he was thinking was anyone's guess, "She can stay and you do not have to return any of your crew until you leave. But I will take you up on that future request."

Naruto just nodded and stared down at Luffy without saying another word, "Name it and I'll do it. I mean what I say." Vivi looked between them concernedly, her hand finding Kurama's fur with him actually letting her pet him. This room was full of negative feelings at the moment, but from her touching him he could feel a large loving spark from the would-be monarch of Alabasta… directed at his jinchuuriki.

"I'll save it for later." Hancock said, barely taking her eyes off of Naruto.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Elsewhere on Amazon Lily)

"You guys are idiots." Paulie said as he and Elder Nyon followed behind an extremely dejected Johnny and Yosaku. They had left that palace with the greatest and highest spirits possible. With an entire island of women that were not used to seeing men they couldn't have possibly stricken out right?

Wrong.

Because yes, they were men, but the Heart Pirates had been there first, and they weren't as interested in them as they were in Luffy, who was the standard-bearer for all other men that would come after him. And they didn't measure up in that standard.

Some of the women had asked them if they stretched. Johnny was about to answer in his own off-color way, but once again Paulie was able to wrap a rope around his neck and choke it out of him.

And according to Kuja laws they couldn't stay in the town. So they were escorted out all the while getting views of all of the scantily clad women that had little to no interest in them whatsoever.

"You went through the entire city telling all of the women to cover up and about how they were disgracing themselves." Johnny replied flippantly to Paulie's remark, "I wish one of them would have shot you with those snake bows. But come on, after the last time you're seriously telling me that those women didn't enjoy Peanut Butter and Johnny? I'm a sexual tyrannosaurus! Word should have spread!"

Sure, he wished that they had been hotter at the time like Yosaku's had been, but still, he had to take what he could get and he'd claim it.

"How about a nice, tall, frosty glass of shut the hell up?" Paulie said, freely smoking through the jungle now that they were outside, "So Elder lady, where are we going?"

Said diminutive elder was leading the way with her snake staff, "Men aren't allowed on the island as I've told you, but we can't just send you out into the jungle since you would probably die trying to find things to eat out there."

"I'm insulted."

"It happened to Monkey D. Luffy."

"Luffy's a special kind of idiot though. Any other reasons? Why is Naruto allowed to stay?"

"Because Hebi-hime declared that he could stay. For some reason she doesn't openly despise him the way she does most of you men." Elder Nyon said, "Why, I do not know, but since you cannot stay in the town there is a place set up where you can wait with the Heart Pirates."

At hearing Heart Pirates, Yosaku clenched his teeth with a click and started walking ahead faster than before, finding out sooner than anyone else on his crew that they were being taken to a cliffside cove overlooking the ocean where the Heart Pirates were just hanging out looking at the water calmly.

A bipedal white bear wearing an orange jumpsuit of all things seemed to be the one most interested in the goings on of the water in front of him, "Man, look at the ocean. I saw like three different Sea King fins in there. We really shouldn't try leaving anytime soon." A talking bipedal white bear in an orange jumpsuit. Killer.

"Who cares about the Sea Kings Bepo!" Another of the Heart Pirates said. He wore a white jumpsuit and had shaggy red hair that covered his eyes and a bulky blue red-rimmed hat on his head. He and another of the crew, a man that also wore a white jumpsuit but had a black winter cap with a yellow brim and the word 'Penguin' across the front were both looking through the jungle in the direction of Amazon Lily as if they could see through to it, "There is an entire town of women back that way, and we're stuck out here looking at water and fish."

Puffing up his chest, Yosaku continued to walk forward until they all noticed his presence. He stopped and lifted one hand into the air, "I'm here to fight Trafalgar Law!"

At his simple, yet confident declaration, the two humans of the crew started laughing while the bear looked timid and shocked, "Okay, I don't know how you even got to this island man." The pirate with the hat that said 'Penguin' said as he tried to reason with him, "But fighting with the captain is the last thing you should want to do."

"Let that be my choice." Yosaku said, holding his hand under his chin in an intelligent manner to look mature, "This is a matter of respect and honor as a man. It's a challenge I have to issue, or I wouldn't be able to live with myself."

A large set of footsteps came from the jungle and everyone turned to see a man ten times the size of any of them. He seemed to be a mountain of strength and muscle, wearing a black muscle shirt unlike the rest of the crew. Above his eyebrows he had black flame tattoos and a scar above his right one. His hair was a long black Mohawk-ish mane going down his back and two thick sideburns.

"I cannot allow a challenge to Captain Law to go undeterred." The massive man said as he walked forward to the proud swordsman that had issued said challenge, "No one faces the captain so easily. You can't just demand it."

"I _will_ fight Law." Yosaku said without backing down a step. Instead he plopped down on the ground and sat there in the very Naruto-esque fashion when he was being stubborn, "He's going to come out and face me, or someone else is going to have to make me back down. Because I'm not leaving."

The rest of the Heart Pirates all moved away a bit, "Jean Bart are you really going to fight this guy? Here?"

Jean Bart might have been a slave when they picked him up during the anarchy on Sabaody Archipelago, but he had been a powerful captain before he'd been captured and forced into World Noble servitude for years. Out of all of them he was the strongest direct fighter.

The other Heart Pirates all looked at Johnny and Paulie who didn't seem like they were about to jump in and help, but the expression on their faces stated that if this went past a one-on-one they had absolutely no problems backing Yosaku up. He was an idiot, but he was their idiot.

"Very well." Jean Bart said, looking down at Yosaku, "If you want to fight the captain I'm who you take on first!" He lifted a fist back for a punch and Yosaku jumped back up, slinging Kubikiribouchou from its harness to block the punch with the width of the blade.

It didn't work out too well, as Jean Bart's punch broke the sword in half despite its massive side and it drilled Yosaku through a trail across the ground until his body felled several trees at the tree line.

Johnny palmed his face and the Heart Pirates all flinched at the brutality of that one punch from their own crewmate, "Man." Penguin said in pity, "I hope that guy isn't dead. For someone trying to pick a fight he was a lot nicer about it than most other people are."

"I told that idiot to stop blocking with the flat. That's total amateur hour. It'll break your sword easier." Johnny said with a sigh, shaking his head, "The blade is much better for that kind of thing."

"It's not that, it's just Jean Bart." The Bear member of the Heart Pirates said, "He's strong enough to move the submarine with his bare hands. You can't block anything he does."

Instead of disputing that or supporting Yosaku in any way shape or form, Paulie just gave the bear a strange look for several seconds, "…You guys have a submarine?"

That caught him off-guard as he expected Yosaku's crewmembers to have more sympathy for their comrade after his body was smashed, but he didn't really know how to classify Paulie's interest in their mode of transportation over the fight, so he just pointed to the cliffside, "Yeah. It's over there."

"Gotta see that. Excuse me, the bear's gonna show me the sub." Paulie said, squeezing past the others to go see the Heart Pirates' ship/submarine, and ignoring the battle at hand. An actual functioning submarine on the Grand Line was more interesting to the shipwright in him, "What's your name anyway bear?"

"Bepo." He said unsurely as he walked over to the cliff to show Paulie their ship.

"Ah. Name's Paulie. The other guy is Johnny." Paulie said as they walked away, but not without shouting something in passing, "Get your ass up already Yosaku and stop crying over the broken sword! You can fix it!"

No one outside of the Foxhound Pirate crew expected him to get up at all, and wondered why no one had gone over to try and help him yet. The last thing they expected was to hear an actual tearful yell from the man that they thought was knocking on heaven's door from Jean Bart's attack.

"SHUT THE HELL UP PAULIE! THIS SWORD IS A GIFT! A GIFT FROM A FRIEND YOU RAT-BASTARD, SOMETHING YOU _CLEARLY_ WOULDN'T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT!"

The trees that had been covering his body inside of the trench he'd made wound up being destroyed with one slash that seemed to make the ground shake.

Everyone covered their faces as chunks of wood and dirt flew through the air from Yosaku's attack that he used to free himself. He looked rather busted up, blood dripping down his face beneath his headgear, but he didn't seem to care about that at all, more concerned with the broken half of sword he was holding by its handle.

"You're a swordsman with a broken blade." Jean Bart said as he punched into his own palm, "This battle is over."

Yosaku just shook his head, "Nah. I can get it fixed, and you're the one that's going to fix it. Besides…" He said before grinning, "The blade is still sharp!" With that, he spun directly in a 360 and hurled what was left of his sword right at Jean Bart, "Oufuku (Round Trip)!"

'Desperate.' Jean Bart thought before timing a catch of the weapon in between his hands, where he found that it wasn't as simple as that. Because he felt like he'd caught a cannonball in his hands for as hard as it had been thrown. A cannonball that cut his hands to the bone, 'How can a sword be so heavy?'

He had been wholly unprepared to have to catch something significantly heavier than a ton, but he stayed on his feet and dragged his feet deep into the ground for fifty feet until he came to a stop.

"Dynamic Entry!"

Jean Bart took a massive kick to the face that knocked him to the ground. Distracted by the heavy sword that had cut his palms deeply, he never thought that a swordsman without his sword would try to get close to him after what happened the first time.

Yosaku's kick sent the mammoth man flying through the air near the end of the cliff where half of his body slid over. He started pulling himself up only to have the broken end of Kubikiribouchou pointed in his face. Wait it seemed longer now. Almost 2/3rds complete. Hadn't it been broken in half just a while ago?

"That actually worked?" Johnny said in disbelief, "He was moving as slow as dirt! I'm better at that attack than he is! It's about the speed! The speed!" Getting a round of strange looks, he explained, "Everybody on the crew does that move. It's required learning for the Foxhound Pirates."

Okay… it was just a full speed flying kick with a diversion but whatever.

"How did he get up from that?" Bepo asked about Yosaku and the fact that he'd taken a direct punch from their most powerful crew member and retaliated in kind.

"I like to say it's because of the headgear, but it's just because he's a tough bastard really. Everyone's good at something, he's good at getting beaten up." Paulie said before extending his hand to receive something, "Now about the terms of our wager."

Bepo didn't bet anything with Paulie on the stakes of the fight, but the gullible bear heard how confident he'd been and paid him what was in his pocket much to Paulie's disbelief that something like that had actually worked.

"You're lucky that you broke Kubikiribouchou in half before I threw that. Otherwise it probably would have cut you in half." Yosaku said, holding the sword in one hand in front of his opponent's face before setting it aside and pulling Jean Bart up himself along with the nearby Paulie's help, "I just want to fight with your captain. That's all. It's got nothing to do with any of you guys or with trying to destroy your crew."

"Why do you even want to fight him?" Jean Bart asked, conceding defeat to the man that had actually had him at the ultimate disadvantage, "Captain Law is one of the Supernovas. A rookie pirate with a bounty of 200,000,000 beli on his head."

"I know." Yosaku assured him, "I don't care."

"The hell's going on here?"

The surprised voice gave way to someone else in the area, and everyone turned to see that it was indeed Trafalgar Law walking back into the area. Weird, because he'd actually left the palace before the others. Apparently while he would listen to Hancock's conditions of their staying there he wasn't above taking advantage of his lack of an escort by still doing whatever he damn well pleased.

So he'd hung around in the actual town for a bit before heading back to his crew where he found his resident powerhouse being assisted up a cliff by some other people he didn't know. One of whom turned around at the sound of his voice and started walking his way. He had a huge sword but it seemed that a good part of it had been broken off.

"I've come here to fight you." Yosaku said with a confident grin despite the blood covering his face and staining the top of his clothes, "Do you remember a girl that you met in Sabaody Archipelago before the Admiral attack? She was a doctor on the Foxhound Pirate crew."

A look of recognition came to Law's face. That was a pretty crazy time a few weeks ago, but he did remember one very out of place pirate doctor that looked more like a regular civilian than anyone he'd ever seen that far on the Grand Line.

She seemed to like him a great deal as they'd met several times over the course of a few days. To be honest she was extremely cute, and very knowledgeable medically. When she described her crew she actually did bring up quite a few of them, including one that was supposed to be an idiot with a monster crush on her that carried around an incredibly large and heavy sword.

Law stroked his goatee in thought before snapping his fingers and pointing at him, "Oh yeah, you're Yosaku right? The idiot on Muret's crew that crushes on her. You know she doesn't like you like that right?"

A grim nod came from Yosaku as if that were a bitter pill to swallow, "Yeah I know. But she does like you that way. She thinks you're strong and cool. Way cooler than me. I know she has your Den-Den Mushi frequency, and if everything hadn't been so crazy lately she'd have called you by now. It's all she can talk about with the other women on our crew."

"So you're going to fight me for her?" Law said, raising an eyebrow. He really felt for the guy, but if he was going to fight over such a petty reason such as jealousy for a girl that wasn't interested in him he was going to tear some crap up.

"No." Yosaku said with a determined edge in his gaze. "I want to fight you for me."

Johnny stood slightly slackjawed, staring at his friend and feeling the need to wipe his sunglasses that he never took off even in sleep, "Buddy…"

Yosaku looked at Kubikiribouchou and gripped it tightly in one hand, "Just under a year ago, I was pathetic. I was so weak before I came to the Grand Line no one could rely on me for anything. I couldn't rely on myself. I've got to tell you it's almost enough to make a man cry to think about. But I got better. I got stronger. I trained as hard as I could, developed my own style of swordsmanship that could compete out here, and was given an incredible weapon by a wonderful friend to go along with it. But I fell in love with a girl that doesn't think I'm mature or cool enough to give me the time of day. And I thought that I had to change to be the kind of person that she wanted me to be, maybe get more serious like Zoro-aniki."

Law was actually listening to every word he was saying, because he wasn't just spouting off. He had a point, and it was something that he'd been building up for oh so long.

"But I couldn't do it." Yosaku continued, "You know why? Because I like who I am!" He shouted for everyone to hear, "I'm goofy, but I'm a goofy bastard that climbed a mountain in a blizzard with my bare hands and beat the hell out of a hundred man-eating rabbits, helped save a whole country, attacked Enies Lobby and helped my friends win a fight with a Vice-Admiral, survived a Buster Call, got kidnapped and laid by Kuja Pirates and I do mean plural, got a hole blown through my chest by Admiral Kizaru and lived, and gambled and drank with talking toads the size of a municipal building! I'M! FUCKING! AWESOME!"

By that point he was breathing heavily and slammed his sword into the ground hard enough to shake the entire immediate area for several seconds as if a small-scale tremor had occurred on the island, exposing the fact that when he put some tension behind them his arms were extremely well-defined from swinging a crushingly heavy sword around like a stick.

'That's all raw strength.' Elder Nyon pointed out to herself, 'If that man knew how to use the correct Haki… and he already has the potential for the strength of will to utilize it.' Interesting.

Yosaku kneeled his entire body on the handle of his sword that was stabbed into the ground and wipe the blood from his face with one hand, "Pirates have died doing lesser things than the least impressive thing on that list… and I got through all of that being myself. And if she doesn't see that just because I'm a nerd doesn't mean that I can't be cool too I'll just keep doing awesome things, and there's no shortage. We'll go to the New World, I'll be the most badass nerd that ever sailed the Grand Line, I'll save her and protect her as much as I need to, and I'll look her right in the eyes and keep daring her to tell me I'm not what she says she wants, until she can't justify it anymore."

Johnny had never been more proud of Yosaku than in that moment. That had been the most backbone that he'd ever shown for anything, period, 'Now if only he could sack up and say all of that to Muret's face… then she might actually start thinking you were cool.'

"So I want to fight you." Yosaku started concluding with his head down, still kneeling and holding onto the handle of Kubikiribouchou, "Not because I think beating you will make her not like you and magically make her love me. It's so I can prove to myself that I might not be smooth, or a genius, or a leader or something, but I'm just as good. Maybe better." He stood up and raised his head high, "That's my dream. I don't want One Piece or to be the best anything in the world. I just want the person I care for to know that they can rely on me for anything. And I'll go as far as hell and back to prove it."

No one said anything after he was done because no one knew how to respond to any of that. He wanted to fight Law because Law was everything he wasn't. Handsome, powerful, a natural leader with his own pirate crew on the Grand Line, a man with the plan, someone that oozed enough charisma to easily net the object of Yosaku's affection without even having to try.

It wasn't just because of Muret that he wanted to fight. It was because Law represented his exact opposite of everything that he was. And if he was ever going to prove he was worthwhile as he was he just had to see.

See if he could actually win against someone that was really dangerous, with his own power.

"Alright then." Law said with a casual smile, "You've got me. If you want to fight that badly I guess that's just the way it is."

Yosaku wanted to say thank you, but you didn't really say that to someone you were about to have a battle with just because they were consenting to fight you in the first place.

It wasn't really cool either.

* * *

**Alright, and that's chapter. This one's hard to update because it's hard to find the motivation to do it. The other stuff is way easier to update because I was preparing myself to hear people try to chew me out for skipping the Marineford battle, but I don't care about that. There was no reason to do it other than vanity purposes, and that's not why I write scenes.**

**And Ace and Whitebeard's deaths were two of the most badass things that happened in the series due to the way that they went out.**

**So moving past that, Yosaku's bitten off more than he can chew and then some, most of the crew's men are on Amazon Lily trying to live the dream, and the rest are still out at sea. Robin's with Luffy, but what from there? **

**Until next time, I'm gone for now. Kenchi out.**


	45. The Will To Advance

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. You know how last chapter I said there wasn't snow? Yeah there was snow the other day… for less than 24 hours. But man it really messed some shit up.

**Chapter 45: The Will to Advance**

* * *

Due to being spoiled by his own ungodly swift recovery time, Naruto really found himself quite bored when he had to wait on someone else to wake up from catastrophic injuries. It wasn't nice he knew it, but at least he wasn't doing something insensitive like tapping his foot on the ground impatiently. And he'd blocked every yawn that seemed like it would come his way, so it wasn't that bad.

It had been a while since he'd taken Robin to Luffy's bedside and it showed. Vivi was asleep next to him leaning on his shoulder scrunching up her nose in discomfort every time he moved. It was a good thing he was great at not moving. Hancock had kicked them out of his room, but allowed Robin to stay.

While he could have skirted her will and remained behind, it wasn't worth upsetting a delicate truce just to try and throw some weight around.

Due to the magnificent view that the palace of the Snake Princess granted of the city of the Kuja Tribe village, the chosen area of choice to sit and wait if they weren't allowed back in Luffy's room was out on one of the numerous balconies overlooking everything.

Vivi slept, while Naruto let his mind wander about things, such as where his guys were and what they were doing, if his clones had gotten anything done while training on the seas today, and why Vivi seemed to have difficulty sleeping when on the ship but was sleeping soundly right then and there.

Out of nowhere, Kurama who was sleeping on the floor, perked up, going nearly ramrod straight and baring his teeth a bit, **"I sense someone disgustingly powerful on this island. Very close."**

"Oh, well thank you bud." Naruto replied with a big grin, reaching down to scratch Kurama on the head, "That's nice." In his circles, that was perceived as a compliment.

"**Not you jackass. Feel out and see for yourself."**

Shutting his eyes momentarily, Naruto did just that and it didn't take him long to pick up on what his fine tailed friend was referring to, "Whoa. That's like… around as strong as Aokiji." And that wasn't a small feat. He couldn't even tell if it was more or less yet. No ill intent or hatred though, so it probably wouldn't end in a fight.

"**What's an 'Aokiji' and why do I care?" **Kurama asked, batting his tails around lazily.

"Aokiji's this guy that made his own permanent island out of ice by freezing the ocean over just so we could fight on it. I couldn't use water ninjutsu against him." Naruto explained, remembering the bumps he took in that fight. The man could do more than just freeze things, "…Then we actually fought for half a day and he almost killed me."

"**He's S-rank strong?"**

"At least. I told you, there are tough people out here." 'Tough' was an understatement. The world was incredible!

"**And you just now decided to go back and get me? What, did you think I was going to turn you down?"**

"I don't know, maybe. But why does this person feel familiar though?"

It took a bit longer, but the doors out to the balcony were thrown open and Boa Hancock walked back in with some company in tow, but not the kind of company that one would have expected one such as her to have with her.

A tall older man with a scar over his right eye, a white beard, and long white hair. He wore glasses, a simple t-shirt, shorts, and open silver hooded cloak and sandals. Very underwhelming in appearance, but this was the source of the power. Kurama had a low rumbling growl in his throat that he tried to quell.

Yeah, there was something about this person that he didn't like, which was weird because while he didn't like most people he was willing to at least give them a shot, **'What the hell is my problem?'**

The white-haired man clicked his tongue pitifully at remembering the sight of Luffy all bandaged up in bed with Robin at the bedside barely noticing him, "Some of those wounds are going to leave scars. I wonder how the boy is going to come back from this one. How long has he been like that."

"For days." Hancock said, watching the old man carefully, "He's been in this state since his brother died in his arms."

"It will be more of a matter of his spirit recovering than his body then." The old man said with a wily smile as he placed a hand on Luffy's covered chest, "This one's body is young and strong. As far as physically he'll bounce back from this. If his fighting spirit hasn't been killed…" With that he turned partway to Naruto and Kurama and bid the former a smile, "Oh hello. It's been quite a while since I've seen you. 20 years or so isn't it?"

Naruto raised an eyebrow as Hancock did the same. She was about to introduce them, but apparently that wasn't necessary, "You know Silvers Rayleigh?" She asked, wondering just who this man was to know the 'Dark King' or at least for the Dark King to know him.

It took him a second but Naruto finally snapped his fingers, "Oh yeah! You were the guy that my crew met in the back of the Human Auction House. Glad to see you made it out of that mess alright!" Wait, that wasn't twenty years though. That was only like a week and a half to two weeks ago.

Rayleigh chuckled a bit and walked over to Naruto, stopping in front of and stooping down by Kurama who he could hear growling lowly at him, "You remember me don't you? You were _much_ bigger last time though."

Twenty years… wait a damn minute. That smile. Those glasses. That scar. That aura…

"**You! You and that accursed crew!"** Kurama shouted, hopping back onto Naruto's lap forcefully waking Vivi up and frightening the poor girl, **"I remember now! That Revolutionary's story from the other day jogged my memory, but I definitely remember what he was referring to now!"**

Naruto just stared at his furry partner who seemed ready to lash out at something, "…Say what now?"

Kurama just rolled his eyes before they took on the pattern of the Rinnegan and pressed two of his tails to his own head before putting them to the sides of Naruto's head, releasing a discharge of chakra, **"Look."**

And look Naruto did, as Kurama's current thoughts and the incident he was remembering found itself shoved into Naruto's brain with chakra via the Human Path powers Naruto enacted through Kurama's body. It all came back in flash, like a really quick acid trip.

Around 20 years ago, just before Naruto had completed the seal that would better protect the biju from those that would take advantage of them.

…A whole fleet of ships, beaten to holy hell, out between the mainland of the Elemental Nations and Mizu no Kuni.

…Holy crap, the Sanbi got the shit kicked out of it by someone that wasn't him or another biju.

Naruto then stepped in, just in case someone was trying to capture the biju again or some force was about to devastate his homeland.

…Big, gigantic, hazy fight that required Tailed Beast Chakra Mode.

…Silvers Rayleigh was involved, back when his hair had color to it. As was some other ultra-strong guy with an _epic_ mustache. Roger-something. Something-Roger. Whatever.

It turned out to be a misunderstanding…. which led to partying and lots of alcohol. The foreigners then proceeded to leave at sunrise, and blackout-drunk Naruto remembered little of the entire encounter in hindsight, chalking it up to a random chance encounter that seemed to be the hallmark of his life.

Apparently not.

"Holy shit!" Naruto said, pointing at Rayleigh, a man he most certainly didn't expect to ever see again, "I remember you! You took a Fuuton: Rasengan like a champ and got back up. Didn't your captain deflect a Rasenshuriken into the air before it went off or something?" Kurama grouchily tail-slapped Naruto for bringing that up.

"I still have the scars from the first thing." Rayleigh said with a good-natured laugh, "You certainly look well. And I thought we were around the same age."

Standing up, Naruto swung his hand out at Rayleigh who did the same and the two clasped the grip tightly around the forearm of the other with enough force for a bit of wind to blow through the room, like two old friends or something even though they'd only met once, "How's that captain of yours? Ol' what's his name? He's probably ancient too."

Once again Rayleigh chuckled. How many people in the world didn't know his captain's name after hearing it even once? The Elemental Nations really were far away from the affairs of the rest of the world, "I'm afraid he disbanded the crew and wound up passing on not too long after our meeting."

"Yeah…" Naruto said with a frown, "He was sick when we fought."

'He couldn't possibly be implying that Uzumaki did what I think he did.' Hancock thought to herself as she watched the strange interaction between two of her guests that really shouldn't have known each other, "You're telling me that Uzumaki fought against the Pirate King?"

"He called himself the Pirate King?" Naruto snickered with a grin, "I like that."

"He did too, but other people gave him that name." Rayleigh clarified dryly, "He had your particular flair for the dramatic, and I see you haven't really lost much of that." He then turned his attention to Hancock who was beginning to get a bit agitated at being left out of the loop, "Yes, the Roger Pirates got into a bit of a tiff with this man here for attacking some kind of creature that we figured was an abnormally powerful Sea King. I never thought in a million years that I'd see him become a pirate though."

Instead of flying off the handle, Naruto just paced around, biting down on his hand to try and keep from exclaiming that he wasn't a pirate. He was trying to set a better example for the youngest member of the crew in Vivi, especially since she was royalty and had a way she was expected to act, but it was hard to keep from going off.

"Not a pirate." He muttered from behind his fist.

An irritated Hancock just held her head and shook it in response, "I'm simply going to stop letting myself be surprised by these things." To be surprised as a Shichibukai… how shameful, "I can only imagine how your crew manages to deal with you every day."

Yawning as she sleepily got her bearings in time to catch the end of that question, Vivi answered what was meant to be a rhetorical query, "Because sometimes they can all be worse."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Onboard the Natural Disaster, the members of the crew that had remained behind from the island of the Kuja Pirates still had the trials and tribulations of the Grand Line to deal with. Fortunately they had already braved that neck of the waters and knew what to expect for the most part.

With Naruto gone, captaincy of the vessel fell to the first mate, Soren.

Soren… who had absolutely no reason to care about leading the ship in Naruto's stead was busy getting blitzed in the shade underneath one of the two main masts/trees. There was no shortage of alcohol on the ship.

"There's so much drink on board I don't know what to try next." Soren said groggily, surrounded by bottles, "SO much wine… SO much rum… SO much liquor in general! My new best friend is Byron! Where is that long-haired, musical motherfucker?!"

This is where he was found by the _next_ person meant to be in charge on the ship in case the captain and the first mate were indisposed. Drunk out of one's mind counted as indisposed, didn't it?

"Oh my God you lush." Nojiko said as she walked out onto the deck and stood over the drunken former assassin with her hands on her hips, "It's still daylight out! Have a sense of decency and responsibility! You're supposed to be in charge!"

"How sober do I have to be just to steer the fucking ship?"

"You're not steering a damn thing. You're so far from the helm I don't even think you could walk that far now."

"I'm not even that drunk."

"You're totally drunk. You're swaying just sitting down."

That got a stern, serious look out of the bald, tattoo-faced former assassin/bounty hunter, "Woman, you're not drunk until you have to grab onto the grass to keep from falling off of the earth."

Nojiko didn't know quite how to respond to that one, thus the conversation lulled into silence as the Foxhound first mate continued to imbibe in the ale.

"Fah, what's this one? It's fucking got kick! Whoo!" Soren said after taking a sip of some random bottle, "I can totally see up your skirt from this angle by the way. Good on you." He pointed out, tilting his head back as he took a massive swig.

*Click*

Feeling the barrel of one of Nojiko's pistols up against his forehead he lowered the bottle from his lips with a pop and grinned ferally at her, "Alright you and I both know that you won't shoot me in the face so-." And with that Nojiko pulled the trigger and shot him in the head, snapping his head back and bouncing off of the trunk of the tree,

"Hm, you've been training Rokushiki a lot haven't you?" The gun-toting beauty commented after noting that no blood came from the pistol shot straight to the head, "I didn't even see you tense up and brace for that one."

Soren lowered his head with a vengeance, "Ow! What the fuck?! You just shot me in the face you crazy bitch! If I didn't have Tekkai on-!"

"-But you did have it on, so nothing happened." Nojiko reasoned, spinning the offending weapon by the trigger guard, a slow smirk growing on her face, "So that means that you did know that I would shoot you in the face.

"That's not the point!" Soren yelled, bullet still stuck to his forehead and slowly melting due to the acid exuding from his skin out of growing irritation, "Who shoots someone in the face when they're pissed?"

"I do, because I can't hurt you or Naruto-kun by hitting you when you idiots are being stupid." Nojiko caught her gun by the barrel and held it with the grip being shown, "I know pistol-whipping you hardheaded jerks doesn't actually work. Naruto-kun just sells it like it hurts because he knows when I'm upset."

"Nobody else usually cares when I drink during the day!" It was the first day back out at sea and he wanted to commemorate it properly.

"You're usually not in charge!" Stopping her yelling, Nojiko pinched the bridge of her nose to hold back the anxiety, "Okay, just… please take these back inside and go get something from Muret to sober you up. You can drink when the sun goes down."

Soren gave her a taunting salute before scooping up the bottles in his arm and jogging back inside of the ship. Now Nojiko was the one that needed a drink. Moving slowly as she went back inside as well, the blue-haired first lady of the Foxhound Pirate crew sat down on a couch in the common area and let the smells of lunch coming from the kitchen soothe her, as well as the sound of Byron playing the piano that they'd managed to obtain from the toads before departing their mountain.

Why toads had a piano they didn't know. They weren't explaining, and they'd all learned a long time ago to not ask questions.

The pleasant lighthearted laughter of Miss Valentine rang out from the kitchen, probably at her expense. With a roll of her eyes, Nojiko made sure her pistol was loaded before curving a shot through the open doorway to the kitchen, only to hear it ricochet off of something metal, "Hey!"

The shot prompted the feather-haired Byron to stop playing and look around to see the smoking gun in Nojiko's hand, "Miss Nojiko is everything alright?"

"I guess so. Don't worry about it." She said, waving the pistol idly before she spoke up for the benefit of her 'target', "I knew I wasn't going to hit you." Nojiko said, leaning her head back on the headrest.

Out came Miss Valentine, and instead of being bright and comforting her smile was actually rather intimidating to reflect her ire. She held a cast-iron pan that now had a bullet dent in the bottom of it, "And just how did you know that? You couldn't see me."

Nojiko tapped her pistol off of her own temple for emphasis, safety on of course, "Haki…" She said before twirling her gun and reholstering it safely, "It's getting stronger… I really wish it wouldn't. It's giving me migraines." She rested a hand on her head over her eyes.

The scary-factor of Miss Valentine's smile dropped and she went back into the kitchen to put the pan back before coming out and sitting down next to Nojiko as Byron went back to playing, "Come on honey, is it really so bad?"

"It wasn't but it got stronger on the mountain." It was why she didn't partake in any of the raucous partying that the rest of the crew did with those toads. She barely slept well while they were there too. Something about the aura of the place just made the clarity of her mind's eye that much clearer.

Sensing Naruto's high-speed battle with Kizaru in the sky above the ship a while back nearly split her skull in half as her mind wasn't prepared enough to keep up with the images being projected into it, but something about Mt. Myoboku made her senses more intense, whether that was a good or bad thing was subjective.

"Why didn't you inform Naruto-sama?" Byron asked, continuing to absentmindedly tickle the ivories as if it were second nature, "If you aren't well it's his responsibility as captain in the end isn't it?"

"I told Muret." Nojiko defended. That should have been enough to toss that point aside. Muret was an actual doctor, so who else would be better to go to about pains and discomfort. Also, Muret would keep it quiet, since the last thing she wanted was to scare any of the others.

This did nothing to assuage the former Baroque Works member who put a hand on Nojiko's lap and lowered the girl's hand herself to bore into Nojiko's eyes with her own emerald orbs, "Why didn't you tell Naruto?" Miss Valentine echoed in Byron's stead.

"What good would that have done other than get him worried?" Nojiko asked. They had only been back out at sea for less than a day and there were other things to worry about, like the situation with Nico Robin and Luffy. The fact that the Kuja Pirates had him was question-worthy, but Naruto had to bolt back out in a hurry, "My powers, my problem. There's nothing anyone else can do. I've just got to find some way to adjust."

"So what can you do with it other than the visions?"

"Um, I can sense everyone on the ship. More than that too."

"Really?"

"Yeah, come here." With that, Nojiko walked to a window and opened it up before pointing straight out in that general direction, "Sea King, that way." To let Miss Valentine tell if she was bluffing or not, she handed her the long-range rifle with the magnified scope and watched the blonde woman's jaw drop, "You see it? That was why I went outside to bitch at Soren."

She was just going out there at first to tell him to avoid that direction, but when she had to adjust and relock the wheel herself to keep them from drifting in that direction she had to go over and lay into him out of principle.

"Why do you know that?" Miss Valentine asked still staring at the massive ocean critter that would sink the hell out of their ship if it got too close and noticed them. That was what Naruto did when manning the helm. When he was on lookout he could feel things before anyone could ever see them, "How did you-? That's two miles away!"

This was where a frazzled Muret found them when she came out from down the hall from her own quarters, "Alright I sobered Soren up with some of the Nigai Root I found on Mt. Myoboku, but apparently he didn't like the taste so he washed it down with more liquor… so I just wasted some root. What are you two looking at?"

"A Sea King Nojiko felt from two miles away." Miss Valentine blurted out, glad that apparently the gun wasn't loaded because her finger brushed the trigger.

"Wow, she can sense that far?" Muret mused as she took a seat on another chair in the room, "You told me during the whole raid on the Marine base that you could only feel Soren and Naruto-sama fighting the vice-admirals and that was as far as it went. Two miles?"

Nojiko just shrugged, "Maybe I'm just sensitive to stronger powers than other kinds."

"It's the Kenbushoku Haki (Color of Observation)." The eavesdropping Ghost Perona said as she floated casually up through the floor and then through the ceiling, "She uses it a lot, even when she doesn't know it, so it's getting stronger. Nojiko is pretty much the smartest, most grounded person on this ship so her mind's usually clear. Because of that she's super-aware normally, but since she has that kind of Haki she picks up more than she otherwise would without trying."

"What do you know about Haki Miss Perona?" Byron asked politely, "Are you able to use it?"

"Afraid not." Perona said, poking her spectral upper body out through the ceiling, "I still heard things though. Moriah-sama saw a lot of things before he went to the New World and his first crew was destroyed by Kaidou."

Byron began to play a slower more bombastic tune, his voice having a bit of a hum to it as he spoke, "I too have heard many things. They say that a strong enough Haki of a certain kind can harm users of the logia-style Devil Fruits. I never had the misfortune to run into anyone capable of using it though until coming across Admiral Kizaru."

"That other kind is pretty dangerous too." Perona pointed out, floating in the air lazily, "The um… Busoshoku Haki (Color of Armaments). But I really don't know much about how to get it. All I know is that Amazon Lily is supposed to be filled with women that can use it like second nature."

XxX

(Isle of Women – Outside of Amazon Lily – With the Foxhound Swordsmen and Paulie)

Members of the Heart Pirates stood silently watching the ongoing standoff at a safe distance along with Paulie, Johnny, and Elder Nyon. No one had an easy feeling about this, but it was something that they couldn't stop. It meant too much for Yosaku for any of his crew members to step in.

"Go ahead and start whenever you're ready." Law said, beckoning Yosaku to attack him. Even though he consented to the fight, it still didn't mean that he was excited about it in the least, "I'll give you five moves to do your worst against me. That's all."

Yosaku hefted Kubkiribouchou in a standard two-handed grip, prepared for battle with his powerful opponent, "What? You're givingme the first move?"

"You don't want me to make the first move." Law assured him with a cool-tempered smirk, "It'll be the last."

Fine then.

"Whatever you say." Every bit of hard-earned musculature in the headgear-clad swordsman's powerful arms came on display as he made his move, "Inryoku Tsukamidasu (Gravity Grabber)!" Swinging his sword down from overhead to strike the ground, it felt to the others like Yosaku was about to lop the entire cliff off, mostly because that was exactly what he did, and Law along with it.

"Our ship!" Several of the Heart Pirates that were currently tending to Jean Bart shouted upon seeing Law go over the edge along with a pretty big chunk of land. Upon hearing no massive splash or no sounds of something being crushed underneath, they breathed a sigh of relief.

"Holy crap man!" Johnny shouted as the ground shook and the Isle of Women became one cliffside smaller, "_That_ was your first move?! I didn't even know you could fucking do that! You just cut off a cliff!"

"Where the hell do you think the name 'Gravity Grabber' came from?" An irritated Yosaku yelled right back at him as the land continued to quiver from his last move, "That was what I made it for!"

"Bullshit! When have you ever done that attack near a cliff?!" Johnny shouted in turn, "Every time you've ever done that move you just cut a deep, huge straight line in the-! Oh. Nevermind."

The Kuja Elder Nyon was completely flabbergasted, but for a reason that the others weren't even pointing out; Kubikiribouchou hadn't even been complete. It was still somewhat broken from his last fight with Jean Bart, "Strength like that is absolutely terrifying." And he _didn't _know how to use Haki?

"He sure took his shot though, didn't he?" Paulie interjected, continuing to smoke a stogie even as his interest in the battle grew, "Law did ask for it."

"That I did."

Horrifyingly enough, Law _and_ the chunk of cliff that Yosaku had cut off to send him taking a spill into the ocean, seemingly levitated back up and over Yosaku's head before settling down on the ground safely with the Supernova standing on top of it.

That was impossi-. Well no, because Naruto could do something a bit like that when he was using Rinnegan, but for Law to be able to so casually do something like that. That sneak attack was the only hope Yosaku believed he had to win.

"That was actually really nice." A casual hop down off of the slab of sliced cliff from Law got Yosaku to recoil back just in case, "I didn't expect that out of someone like you. With your body type I expected a power-based sword style, but I really underestimated just how strong you'd be. Muret didn't say anything about that." Law said, still smiling in his usual aloof manner, "Cutting the whole cliff down… I'll have to take that one for myself later."

There wasn't time to be amazed or to question what Law had done. Yosaku hefted his sword up again, but had to lower it when in a heartbeat Law sprang up and twisted through the air to attack Yosaku with the unsheathing of his nodachi. Much to Yosaku's pleasure, when he lowered his weapon to block the blow and heard the clang of steel he wasn't moved an inch, "I'm stronger."

So it wasn't a matter of whatever special thing he had enhancing his strength.

"Yeah, but I'm faster." Law said, now at Yosaku's side, much to his horror. The heavy swordsman of the Foxhound Pirates tried his best, but he couldn't escape Law's slash, "Aw, I meant to get more than that. That's not fun."

All of Yosaku's comrades freaked out from the sidelines due to the fact that the last move had resulted in Yosaku's arms being cut away from his body at the shoulders. The only thing that stopped them from voicing it aloud was the fact that there was no blood, nor cries of pain or anguish from the man himself.

The two arms were hanging in the air along with Kubikiribouchou in their grasp and floated away from Yosaku's body over to Law who had beckoned for them with movement of his hands.

"Wh-." A mortified Yosaku tried to ask, only managing to stutter at first, "Wh-What did you just do?"

"Don't worry, it's just a part of my powers from my Devil Fruit; Ope Ope no Mi (Operation Fruit). I'm a 'Free-Mod Man'." Law said, making Yosaku's arms and sword float freely around both of their bodies and above their heads, all over.

"What the hell does that even mean?" Johnny asked, rubbing his eyes underneath his sunglasses in a bit of amazement.

Law just chuckled and made strange gestures with his hands, "I can dissect anything that my sword could cut through as long as it's in my 'Room'. Anything within my sphere of influence I can control with Are Ato (Shambles). You're in my operating room and I'm the mad surgeon serving up an asskicking."

And just like that, Yosaku felt as if his heart had dropped down out of his chest. He didn't know that. Didn't know that Law had a Devil Fruit. And here he was without the only thing that he had that would let him defend himself. Period. He was literally disarmed in both meanings of the word.

He shook his head backed up a few steps. This… this wasn't fair. He hadn't taken on the battle expecting to win, but if this was what he could have banked on happening, on losing his arms, he probably would have-.

Oh hell, he probably still would have fought anyway. And he was still going to.

"I don't care." Yosaku said through gritted teeth, "The old me probably would have run away the second you didn't flinch after my last attack. The old me from back in the East Blue probably would have run after you showed up here in person."

Wait. As Yosaku said that, Law paused in his hand movements and his dismembered arms stopped moving right by him. Not only that, but why did his arms visibly tense up when he imagined gripping his sword as tightly as he could. Really, blood came from his hands and spilled onto the ground which was what let him notice everything.

"Look. Just quit." Law said, placing his hands on his hips, "I can just put your arms right back on, and I don't really want to break your spirit like I'm going to."

"Sanhyakurokujuudo Funkei (Three-Hundred Sixty Degrees Decapitation)!"

Only the look of focus on Yosaku's face warned Trafalgar Law that he was about to get nailed, and he ducked to avoid getting his head separated from his shoulders, losing his hat in the process. With a move of his hands, he moved the arms away from him, but could not separate them from the hold they had on the sword.

"I do believe you've killed my hat." Law deadpanned as it fell to the ground with the top cut off of it, "You moved your arms?"

"Oh yeah!" Yosaku said, "Air Yosaku coming at'cha! Oufuku (Round Trip)!"

Yosaku's arms independently proceeded to hurl Kubikiribouchou at Law before the man performed a lifting motion with his index finger and stopped it cold without any drag whatsoever, "Takt. I told you. I have complete control of this space." With that he turned his hand away and sent the sword flying back at the armless Yosaku who barely dodged it as it ripped through the ground.

As he dodged he saw the sword come to a stop a certain range away, 'Wait, that's it! That's his ran-!'

"Mesu (Scalpel)." Law struck Yosaku square in the chest with his bare hands and out the back of his chest flew a small cube, leaving a hole in Yosaku's body where he had been hit.

Johnny watched Yosaku's frozen form before he saw his best friend sink to his knees on the ground, but there was no blood. Looking closer at the cube that had hit the ground right behind Yosaku he went cold. Inside of the transparent cube was a heart. Yosaku's heart.

"You son of a bitch!" Johnny shouted, hand moving to his own sword at his side as he prepared to rush Law down, damn the consequences. The challenge was officially over. What stopped him was the strong grip of a rope around his waist that also trapped his arms, keeping his sword sheathed and rendering him unable to quickdraw, "Damn it Paulie let go!"

"And what the hell do you think you're going to do?" Paulie hissed as he'd preemptively lassoed himself a speed swordsman, "You just saw that. The second you get in range with him he's got more of an advantage than you can handle, even if you are fast. He took Yosaku's arms, well he'll take your legs." The cigar-chomping shipwright then let the rope go slack, "Besides, he's not dead."

Yosaku was still on his knees, breathing heavily and exhausted from Law's last move as the latter picked up his heart, "A whole lot of brute force, a little ingenuity, but not much else. No matter how you came at me it wouldn't have worked though." He said with the laid-back smile returned to his face, "You can cut through a lot of things it seems, but unlike me you actually need to make contact to cut anything."

All Yosaku did was breathe heavily with his head down.

"I'll tell you what." Law said, walking back in front of Yosaku while holding his heart out in front of him, "I don't feel like killing you because then I'll have Uzumaki Naruto at my throat and we can't leave the island just yet. I'm still Luffy's doctor. So I'll go ahead and give this back."

"…Don't look down on me." Yosaku said quietly.

"That's all I can do. You're on the ground you know." Law replied dryly, "You know, I'm usually not this nice, normally I'd-." He then gave the heart a little squeeze, forcing Yosaku to cough a little blood, "-Do that, or worse."

"Then do it." Yosaku said, staring up at him with a bloody grin, "You'd better do it. Because I'm not done yet. Sure, I'm not strong enough now. But one day I will be."

"Not without your arms."

"Want to bet?"

That caught Law off-guard, "Say what now?"

"You heard me." Yosaku shrugged without arms, "You took my arms, so what? I've got a mouth full of tiny little blades. And if they're not enough I'll get a razor-sharp grill or something. Next time I'll _bite_ a cliff off of a ledge! Next time I might bite a mountain in two! I've seen a man that made me believe that anything is possible! 'Boo-hoo, my arms are gone! I'll never be strong!' Is that what you want me to say?"

Trafalgar Law just stared at Yosaku until turning and walking away from him, "You know what? I'm not going to kill you, because Uzumaki Naruto will turn half of this island into a missile and throw it at me and my crew, but I will keep this for now so you don't attack me again. Tell him to get it back before you all leave."

"No need. I'll get it back myself." Yosaku said, not faltering in the slightest despite his complete defeat, "When I'm man enough."

All the superpowered surgeon could do was chuckle at that, "…I like that." With a gesture of his hands, Yosaku found his arms attached back in their rightful place, "I guess if that's the way you want to do it that's how it's going to go."

"Why are you giving me my arms back?"

"Because I don't need 'em." Law said, holding Yosaku's missing organ up, "After all, I've got your heart in my back pocket." He turned his head and addressed his crew, "I'm heading back to the palace in town before Boa Hancock starts throwing a fit… I don't need that shit. Keep watching the sub."

Yosaku watched him go and worked his arms out to figure if everything was where it belonged before standing a placing his massive cleaver blade back into its harness. Now that the battle was over for good, Johnny walked up to him and stared at Law along with him, "Are you alright?"

"Fine." He said, touching at the space that used to house his heart only to find that it was covered once again, "Nobody tells Naruto-aniki about this, got it?"

Both Johnny and Paulie looked at each other concernedly, "Uh, he's got your heart."

"I'm not dead yet am I?"

"No."

"So it's not a big deal yet." He was then whacked over the head with Elder Nyon's snake staff, "Ow! What the-? God old woman, that hurt! Why did you hit me?"

"I have several reasons." The diminutive old woman snarked before hitting him again repeatedly, "You have that much belief in yourself?" Whack, "To continue to fight without your arms." Whack, "Without your heart." Whack, "But you don't have Haki." Whack, "I have to ask why." Whack, "How could someone with that much self will not be capable of using Haki if after all that he still believed that he could win?"

"Because I didn't think I could win…" Yosaku admitted, ducking down and holding his head to shield from the blows, "But I fought that fight because I wanted to prove something! Not because I knew I could beat him! If you've gotta lose you might as well lose big."

"Well there's your problem." Nyon said with a bit of a tone, "You have a strong will, but your self-esteem is so low that it's counteractive. I don't understand how a person's mind could work this way."

Who would be willing to fight so hard that they were willing to lose their arms and later their heart, but still didn't believe that they could win? Did he want a glorious death? What was his motivation?

"Probably because before we came to the Grand Line or joined our crew we stunk out loud as fighters." Johnny offered as an answer, "Seriously, we were horrible. Yosaku might have lost today, but back then… whoo."

"I see." Elder Nyon said, "I shouldn't do this since you're men, but enough of Amazon Lily's old archaic traditions are being broken constantly lately so why not? Come with me. I believe I can help you."

"Why?" Paulie asked suspiciously, "What in the hell do you want to help these two stupid swordsmen for?" He then chose to ignore the stereo cries of 'hey' afterwards, "And why the hell is the stupid captain allowed to stay in Amazon Lily if we got escorted out?"

"Because our empress is somewhat fond of your captain."

XxX

(Amazon Lily – Battle Ring Arena)

Since there was no way to really buy anything due to the fact that Beli wasn't the accepted form of currency, Vivi had to go on a bit of an errand to get a bit of Naruto's money exchanged so that she could go get herself a little something and for the other girls as well.

Naruto would have gone with her, but it probably wasn't a good idea. Men weren't allowed in the kingdom, the city especially, and he was fairly sure that with his luck he'd run into one of the Kuja Pirates that he and Soren had defeated/terrorized a while back.

That little bit of trouble was not needed.

He figured he could walk around in Oiroke no Jutsu form. He even showed her just what that idea entailed by transforming to show her in advance, but Vivi just glared at him until he took the idea back and decided he'd wait for her somewhere else to seal away her stuff. If he just waited at the palace it'd be a way longer walk for her than otherwise.

"Should've brought Carue or something for that..." Naruto commented before sighing, "…She took Kurama though."

Yes, Kurama had ditched him in exchange for walking around with Vivi, because he'd gotten enough sleep at the palace before Silvers Rayleigh showed up

He was sitting in the empty stands, looking down at the very large ring in the center of the stadium that was surrounded by a spike pit, "Why do they have a battle arena? Nobody's ever here but them."

Probably for the exact same reason that Konoha apparently had an arena dedicated entirely to the final rounds of the chunin exams. Actually, Konoha had two arenas come to think of it. It was just that one sat in the Forest of Death and the other sat at the end of town.

Either way, this was still boring.

Trying to feel out with Sage Mode in order to waste some time, he could feel Johnny, Yosaku, and Paulie moving miles away from the city with the old lady Kuja from earlier. Lucky bastards, getting to explore the island.

Turning it off, he sighed as he didn't need Sage Mode to feel the things around him. Now that Kurama was back he could sense and gauge the negative emotions of the living beings around him to locate them, and there had been someone in the stadium with him for most of the time he'd been there, but whoever it was they weren't attacking him, instead just observing him.

"If you're going to watch me you might as well just come over here to do it." Naruto shouted into the air without even looking up at the top of the stands in the direction that he felt the presence in, "I'm pretty sure just standing there staring at me is making you as bored as I am."

It took a while but eventually to the side of Naruto the sun was blocked out by a massive presence.

A bulky blue fishman that stood a full body taller than Naruto and just as wide. With two sharp teeth protruding up from his lower jaw, he had curved yellow eyebrows and sideburns, a scar on the side of his face at the side of his eye, a bulbous nose, and long black hair with gold streaks in a topknot. Underneath a red jacket he wore a traditional kimono open enough to show a tattoo of a red sun on his chest, with geta sandals on his feet.

He just stood over Naruto and stared down at him while Naruto just kept looking forward, not looking back at him. Eventually the massive fishman just sat down next to Naruto and looked down into the ring as well, as if it were actually something to do.

Neither of them said anything, until the fishman spoke, "Uzumaki Naruto?"

"Yeah. Who are you?"

"Jinbei, captain of the Sun Pirates."

At that, Naruto turned to look at him and size him up. He'd heard that name in passing before, back when he was beginning to learn something about heavier hitters on the Grand Line, "You're one of those Shichibukai aren't you?"

"I was…" Jinbei said, "Recently I've made some decisions that will undoubtedly mark me as an outlaw pirate once again. Refusing to take part in the Whitebeard War was one, as I refused to fight against a man as great as he, and the other was assisting Monkey D. Luffy in trying to rescue his brother Ace from Marineford."

There was nothing more that needed to be said about that.

"So why were you watching me like that?"

"Trying to figure out what kind of man you are."

A blank stare came his way from Naruto that was met with the seemingly serious-to-a-fault one from Jinbe. Naruto was scrutinizing something about him though. The red tattoo that he could see on Jinbei's chest. It looked familiar, like the one on Hatchan's forehead… or Arlong's chest.

Crap.

And he totally killed that guy a long while back and a big chunk of his crew as well to boot.

Naruto didn't know how to eloquently ask, so he just went to the point, "You knew Arlong didn't you?" Jinbei nodded and Naruto continued, "You know I killed Arlong don't you?" Another nod from the gigantic fishman, "Are you going to try and kill me?"

Jinbei didn't answer, instead putting forth a question of his own, "Explain to me why exactly you did it. From what word says about you, you were far beyond him. Killing him wasn't necessary for someone like you to win."

"He wouldn't stay down." Naruto said, remembering the battle. Now that it was long over and the ill-feelings he had for the brutal fishman pirate had subsided, Naruto could say that even though Arlong wasn't anywhere near strong enough to threaten him, he never backed up a step in that battle. In hindsight was somewhat admirable that he never gave up, "I hit him with something too heavy for him to take."

"I grew up with Arlong in the Fishman District." Jinbei said, "For years he was a friend and a comrade of mine in the Sun Pirates before we parted ways under heated circumstances. To hear that he was killed, and in the East Blue of all seas, it resonated with me."

"Well I killed him." Naruto stated bluntly, "He took over a bunch of islands in the East Blue and made people pay 100,000 beli a month to him or he'd kill them, and even then he still destroyed a bunch of villages down to the last person. And I'm sorry he was your friend, but I'm not sorry about what I did. If you want to fight me about it-." From a pocket, Naruto drew a kunai and hurled it down into the ring before using Hiraishin to teleport down, "-We can definitely do that."

"I guess the quickest way to find out what kind of person you really are is to fight you." Jinbei discarded his jacket before jumping all the way down the stands and over the spike pit to land in the ring as well, "Show me."

Naruto stood in place for a few seconds to balance out enough energy from Amazon Lily that he could draw in, as he wasn't going to take any chances here, "If you're mad that I killed Arlong and most of his pirates you're not showing it." There didn't seem to be any anger or hate. If there was he would have been able to tell.

"Arlong let himself become a monster out of anger and grief." Jinbei set himself in a particular hand-to-hand fighting stance that looked stern and strong, "With the way things turned out, one of my gravest mistakes was allowing Arlong to take his crew and leave the Sun Pirates after I became a Shichibukai. I'm not angry for what you did. Someone would have had to do it. All the same though-."

Jinbei rushed forward than Naruto had ever seen a fishman move and threw a hard, straight punch at him that Naruto leapt back out of the way to avoid, but a shockwave flew out from his hand that knocked Naruto back a long way across the ring ground before he finally stopped himself.

"Whew." Naruto said, his arms lowering from blocking the heavy blow. His forearms showed the effects of defending the move, even in Sage Mode, "Alright. I didn't see that coming. That wasn't chakra, and I don't think it was Haki either." If it had been he would have seen it and sensed it. That was just from the sheer force of the punch.

"Fishman Karate in the hands of a high-level master is a dangerous weapon." Jinbei warned before preparing to make his move again, "All you can do is be prepared."

"Well I'm pretty good at taijutsu, but I'm not a master at it." Naruto said as he charged Jinbei down directly, appearing ready to engage him in hand-to-hand before disappearing in a yellow flash just before they would have met with fisticuffs. Naruto reappeared behind him at the site of the Hiraishin kunai he'd thrown before the fight started and attacked from behind after picking it up, "Ninjutsu is more of my specialty!"

Jinbei turned and saw Naruto with a spinning blue ball of pure energy in his hand, bearing down on him with just a few steps left to go, "Gosenmaigawara Seiken (Five Thousand Tile True Punch)!" Turning on a dime, Jinbei fired and vicious uppercut meant to intercept Naruto before he could attack, but just before he turned, Naruto threw the kunai into the air out of his sight and used this to Hiraishin to safety directly above Jinbei, forcing him to miss his punch, 'So fast!'

"Senpou: Odama Rasengan (Sage Art: Great Ball Rasengan)!"

The attack, while whether it landed or not remained to be, smashed the ground and left spiral marks carved out of it in a seventy-five yard circumference. The entire arena shook as if a miniature earthquake had struck it and smoke and debris flew up and out from the point of contact.

Both Naruto and Jinbei sprang out of the smoke, running perpendicular to one another before Naruto jumped in at him and Jinbei moved his way as well, with the two meeting, flying kick against power punch. They repeated this process several times until they neared the edge of the ring. While Jinbei stopped, there was no reason for Naruto to stay in the ring and his choice of action was to jump the spike pit and plant his feet on the retainer wall of the stands before springing off back at the captain of the Sun Pirates.

'Gah, I'm useless outside of water.' Jinbei thought to himself, and while that was a serious overstatement since outside of water he was still more powerful than pretty much anyone else he would face, it was enough of a difference for it to pass through his mind. He had fully healed from his Marineford injuries by now as well, so it wasn't that, 'He's really this good.'

But he was ready, prepared to stand strong against whatever Naruto's attack would be as he rapidly careened through the air at him like a missile… before once again disappearing.

Whipping around, Jinbei again spotted the Hiraishin kunai that had fallen from the sky after the last time Naruto had used it, but he didn't see him reappear. He swore that he felt something extremely oppressive though, if only for a second.

He _did_ definitely feel the pain from places all over his body like mosquitoes stinging him rapid-fire. Only, insect bites shouldn't have felt like a barrage of punches and kicks moving you around, and they shouldn't have let you see a yellow streak moving around you in close either.

After being ping-ponged around in close for a handful of seconds, Jinbei was finally knocked away off of the ring and put through the retaining wall on the other side of the surrounding spike pit His body obliterating it and was driven up into the seats all the way to the very top where he finally came to a stop.

Breathing heavily at the top, Jinbei looked down at what he figured was Naruto, only now he looked grossly different. His entire body was covered in a dense, yellow glow that took the form of a haori with three magatama marks on the collar with big, thick, dark circles around his belly that seemed to stretch to cover most of his torso, leaving his yellow body still glowing bright yellow.

"I thought you said hand-to-hand wasn't your specialty." Jinbei said with a bit of dry humor. Despite the swift thrashing he'd taken with Naruto's fists and feet he stood back up with only minor discomfort and marks of battle, "Are you a liar Uzumaki-san?"

"No, it really isn't." Naruto said, looking up at Jinbei with a smile on his face. Even now he couldn't sense any anger or hatred from the fishman. Just interest from the short scrap they'd shared, "And sorry about that. I haven't really had a chance to test this out since I got it back."

Even then it still wasn't really a test. He needed a lot of open space and something that really needed to just disappear destructively if he really wanted to test it. He'd only been back on the journey for half a day before being summoned to Amazon Lily, so he hadn't had a chance to put Tailed Beast Chakra Mode to work.

"You didn't hit me as hard as you could have." Jinbei said, opening his kimono enough to reveal deep fist and footmarks on his body where he was hit, "You held back your strikes."

"I don't have any problems with you, I just haven't had a good fight in a few weeks." Admitted the grinning ninja, "And if you really did want to hurt me for what I did to Arlong, I could have understood. Even bastards have people that care about them. I wasn't going to lay down and take the beating if you did, but I understand enough to give you a chance if you wanted to try."

"And you don't care that I'm a fishman?" Jinbei asked as he walked his way down the stairs and back to the ring, "You didn't destroy Arlong's crew because they were fishmen?"

It wasn't very nice, but there wasn't a really pleasant way to ask the question.

"No! I'm not racist, dattebayo!" Naruto was offended at the very idea to say the least, "Arlong's crew almost killed the guys that are my crew's swordsmen, extorted an entire region of the East Blue for eight years, and worked with some Marine that stole millions from someone close to me and shot my girl in the back." Naruto counted off on his fingers, "I didn't beat the shit out of Arlong because he was a fishman. I did it because he was a prick, he wasted his three strikes really quick, and then he kept going."

Jinbei lowered his head in something of a bow until a glowing yellow hand planted itself on his forehead and tilted him back upright, "I was going to apologize for unleashing Arlong into the East Blue after our falling out, knowing what he would do."

No wonder he chose to venture to the weakest sea to begin his plans of a topside empire over the humans. All he wanted was to make the humans pay for what their race as a whole did to the fishmen.

"You don't need to apologize to me." Naruto said, throwing his hands up behind his neck, "All it really did was piss me off and give me a bit of a workout. And I even started my crew because of everything that happened there." He felt a familiar presence running his way as fast as she could along with another one he knew even better, "Speaking of which-."

"Naruto, did you really get into a fight like Kurama said? Please stop getting into fights everywhere we go!" She then noticed that he was absolutely beautiful. All glowing and golden and dare she say 'regal', "…Oh wow."

She'd never seen him look like that before. Was it wrong that she was turned on?

"-There goes my princess." Right on cue, Vivi arrived with Kurama in tow, a bit out of breath from running and holding a few bags as she leaned against the wall of the breezeway while staring at him distractedly for some reason. He'd sworn he'd seen that look before, but he needed a closer look at her to make sure what it was, "What are you two doing back?" He shouted up at them.

Hearing his voice yelling at her in particular, Vivi snapped out of it and ignored Kurama's snickering. Stupid mouthy talking overlord of a fox. If both of them could sense negative emotions without even trying the way that he told her while shopping if he was really trying to read her feelings unlike Naruto he could probably have picked up lust, "We could feel the battle!" She shouted down at him trying to make sure he heard her.

"**I could feel you pull on my chakra to transform idiot."** Kurama informed Naruto dryly, holding more bags with his tail, **"That and every single person in this part of the city heard the explosion from the Rasengan… and then every soul on the island felt you use Tailed Beast Chakra Mode."** If foxes could grin, Kurama certainly was, **"…You can turn it off anytime you want to by the way. No rush."** He concluded, cutting his eyes momentarily at the princess of Alabasta.

Vivi probably would have kicked him if she thought it would hurt him and she wasn't absolutely certain that he'd yank her soul out with one of his tails the way he kept threatening to do to others whenever they pissed him off.

Oops. And he'd probably have to do something to fix the parts of the arena he wrecked or he'd piss off Boa Hancock. He could fix all of that. Clones could anyway.

Well it wasn't all bad.

"Um, I made a new friend." Naruto defended as he returned to normal, trying to put an arm on Jinbei's shoulder only to find him too tall to do so, "I think. We'll have to continue this fight in the ocean sometime. I want to see what you've really got."

Vivi just gripped the bridge of her nose and sighed, shaking her head while Kurama just rolled his eyes.

All Jinbei did was put an extremely small smile on his face, "I don't think that would be necessary Uzumaki-san." What he felt was something that no one else saw. The bruises underneath his kimono that had been put there with just a few landed attacks were beginning to deepen and bleed externally and internally, 'He was holding back in order to avoid hurting me in that form.'

And he would still probably need significant medical attention. Most definitely, because he could taste blood welling up from his throat.

Maybe in the water a battle would be more even between them, but a regular human shouldn't have been so confident about their chances in a fight with a fishman in the ocean. That by itself had to say a lot for what he had left to show.

He did not want to battle this man again, even in an exhibition like they had just done. Not on dry land at least.

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Isle of Women – Outskirts of Amazon Lily – Elder Nyon's Home)

Putting aside the momentary blast of huge power that was a combination of the aura of Naruto and that stupid fox, the trip through the jungle outside of the kingdom was fraught with forest-based anarchy.

"Goddamn… this island." Johnny said as he led the way by prompting of the Kuja elder, "One-Finger Island is _so_ much better than this place." It was. Most of the plants found in the jungle on that island were safe and/or edible, and the animals were mellow aside from the flipping people off thing.

Outside of the city that they weren't really allowed inside of... the Isle of Women kind of sucked. All of the women lived only in Amazon Lily despite the general name of the island.

There were dangerous plants all over the place, and snakes were abundant in all sorts of shapes and sizes. Their rivers and coasts played host to giant, vicious poisonous serpents as well, and the kicker was that since the Kuja tribe worshipped snakes they couldn't really kill any of them.

He was keeping those damn laughing mushrooms though. Those seemed like they'd be a blast to eat in small doses.

Eventually after slogging through the jungle for a while, they wound up coming upon a rather scenic cliffside villa overlooking the ocean.

"Well, this is my home." Nyon said, stopping in front of Johnny, Yosaku, and Paulie in what could be seen as her front yard, though it was still rather wild, "Any questions other than why I don't live in the village with the others?"

"Yeah, why the hell did we have to come all the way out here?" Yosaku asked, pointing back in the direction that he knew the village was, "I would way rather be in the city full of awesome women that haven't seen men before."

Paulie just scoffed at the thought, "All of those harlot women walking around in nothing but loincloths at most… detestable."

"Okay seriously." Johnny said, glaring at the blond shipwright from behind his sunglasses, "Keep talking bad about the women in this place and I might cut you. They're the best thing about this island. It almost makes everything else worth it."

"Men are not allowed in Amazon Lily to begin with, you're fortunate that you're all still here even if it's outside of the limits of the kingdom." Nyon stated before turning to a large rock formation and pointing at it with her snake staff, "Now do you see that mountain over there?"

"Actually it looks more like a plateau really." Paulie said, puffing smoke from his cigar as he stood off to the side, arms crossed, "Just saying…"

"It doesn't matter." The Elder Kuja said before addressing both Yosaku and Johnny, making sure they were paying attention to her, "One of you cut through it. Use the Busoshoku Haki and slice through this mount-… plateau." Paulie nodded with a smile upon his point being taken,

Johnny gaped at the old woman before finding his vocal cords, "What in God's name and the short amount of time that we've been on this island makes you think we're capable of something like that?"

"I'm not joking."

Neither was the "Lady, in case you haven't realized, I'm a speed swordsman, not a power swordsman. That's his bag." Johnny replied, "And he just got through getting his heart removed if you hadn't noticed."

"I could get a little way through without breaking Kubikiribouchou worse than it already is, but I can't cut through something like this…" Yosaku said, looking at the plateau and imagining the force behind his swing if he could truly manage to do such a thing, "Not a chance. I don't know the first thing about Haki."

He thought that learning how to break steel was something special when he and Johnny learned how to do it in their own respective ways, but to take down a mountain? Then again, Naruto cut through mountains for shits and giggles or turned them into oversized stress balls to hurl away for miles.

Nyon just stared at him before sighing, "I do admit that it is not an easy task to demand of you. As the Kuja Tribe we have an inherently better intuitive grasp of Haki than others. Especially since you came from the East Blue, the weakest of the four seas correct?"

"That's what people say about it." Paulie said, adjusting his goggles on his head, "I'm really starting to question that though."

As a shipwright formerly of the Galley-La Company he'd seen all sorts come through Water 7 during their Grand Line journeys. People from seas all over the world; North, South, West, and East Blue. While the quantity of truly dangerous people called the East Blue their point of origin… they seemed to be the potentially most treacherous. The bulk of the Straw Hat Pirates came from that sea, as did a great chunk of the Foxhound Pirates.

Hell, the Elemental Nations were apparently situated at the _far_ back end of the East Blue. He'd only seen part of it, but Naruto hailed from there and in only one visit to the place he saw gigantic toads that dwarfed Sea Kings in some respects and a fox that was made of more power than he'd ever felt that close before.

So maybe the East Blue wasn't teeming with potential Grand Line threats. But the few that actually chose to come out of the East Blue and prepared to embark on the Grand Line journey tended to not be fucking jokes at all.

"To use Haki…" Elder Nyon said, shutting her eyes to think of a way to explain it in a way that the two idiot swordsmen would understand better, "…It is a manifestation of the strength of your will, and all living beings are capable of learning to utilize it, but it is rare that they ever do. Tell me, have either of you ever done something that you couldn't explain?"

Yosaku nodded slowly, "At Enies Lobby. I had to fight a vice-admiral with Miss Valentine. We were losing, bad, and she was the one that powered my sword up by weighing it down more for the first time. We couldn't hurt him at all, until the very end when I finally got him one good time."

"Did you kill him?"

"No, he survived it, but Miss Valentine did something to make his body weigh a few thousand kilograms so we could leave." Yosaku then drew Kubikiribouchou, "But it was the sword. I finally figured out that it wasn't just a big sword. It was special. A gift someone that believed in me gave me… and I knew that I could cut that bastard."

It wasn't a legitimate win, as the man still stood and was still ready to try fighting, but it was enough of one to him to be a success because he could no longer pursue them in any way.

He figured the push that let him move to the next level was a combination of him finally swinging true with Kubikiribouchou without the fear of breaking it and Miss Valentine's Devil Fruit power enhancing his swing with the weight of his sword.

The look on Elder Nyon's face said otherwise, "And do you recognize that every Marine of at least vice-admiral rank utilize Haki? Do you merely think that sheer force of weight is all it took to deal with a man like a vice-admiral?" She tapped her snake cane on his head, softly this time, "You used Haki to injure that man, whether you know it or not. Which leads me to believe that if you can learn to consciously use it in combination with your strength, you can perhaps develop the most powerful sword swing in the world."

"That's a bold statement." Johnny declared with a twitchy grin.

"And you." Nyon said to Johnny, "I've heard your title. Show me the speed of your draw." Johnny shrugged and walked to a tree before seemingly twitching with a sound of sliding metal and splitting wood before he turned to walk back around to everyone else without even breaking stride, "I don't see a single nick on that tree."

With his Rope Action style of attack, Paulie flicked out his wrist and shot out a lightning-quick knot-ended rope that hit the side of the tree Johnny had apparently cut, smashing nine large, equal-sized segments out of the trunk that Johnny had cut with a single unsheathe.

That was better, and more expected. From her point of view, with Haki under his belt, Johnny could probably unleash bolts or blades of energy with the speed of his draw.

"You both hold yourselves back from utilizing it." Nyon said, "For a swordsman, you have to believe that every time you strike with your weapon you will cut through it. When you felt that you had to accomplish something, with no room for failure, you rose to the occasion, but your sense of worth has been marred by your past."

Defeat, after defeat, after defeat would do that to people. Even when Johnny and Yosaku actually started winning battles they didn't attribute it to themselves, it was because of 'Naruto-aniki's' training, or 'Naruto-aniki's' gifts to them. Even when they had personally put in the long stretches of time to get faster and stronger respectively, they still had a low sense of self-worth.

The others didn't act that way, even the ones that had improved and grown stronger under similar circumstances.

Naruto gave Nojiko the guns she used and the Waver Skates that let her move faster than she ever could have without them, but she understood that she had put in the work to improve her use of those things. Naruto gave Miss Valentine the idea of how else she could use her powers, but she did the actual work of investigating and figuring them out.

"Willpower eh?" Paulie said, looking inside of the sleeve of his jacket at the seemingly unlimited number of thick ropes he kept hidden on his person, "That doesn't seem like enough."

"And that is why you will fail every time." Elder Nyon stated, having heard his remark, "Part of using Busoshoku Haki is sheer will, to the point that it becomes projected brute force. But it isn't hopeless for you. You can learn. And if you-." She pointed at Yosaku with her staff, getting him to cringe lest he get hit again, "-_Ever_ want to defeat that Trafalgar Law, you will have to learn it. And that's all there is to it."

Yosaku kept staring at the mountain, and then at Kubikiribouchou, and then at his friends, and then at the Kuja elder. Clenching his teeth so hard he could hear them creak, he turned around to Elder Nyon and sat down on the ground.

Johnny walked over next to him and sat down in a similar manner, facing Elder Nyon as well. Both swordsmen then looked over at Paulie expectantly. He could keep trying to look cool all he wanted to. He wanted to hear this too and they all knew it. Johnny even patted a spot on the grassy ground next to him for emphasis.

"Hah…" Paulie groaned to himself before walking over and taking a seat, "Alright. I guess this complete load of crap is worth a listen at least." Smack, "OW! Damn it!"

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster – Below Deck)

Trying to quell her splitting headache, Nojiko retreated to her quarters for the time being to try and get some rest. It was all beginning to take a lot out of her. "Maybe I should have told Naruto-kun after all." She more or less moaned out to herself, laying face down on her bed with her face in a thick pillow, "…My head."

A knock came to her open door, just getting her to moan again in an effort to shoo whoever it was away.

"You look like hell." Soren said, leaning on the doorway casually as Nojiko turned around far enough to look at him, "Are you still going to be able to navigate us back to Sabaody, or are we just going to be drifting again?"

"Just keep the ship on course for an hour or something and come get me then." She asked, "I just want to try and get some kind of sleep. Maybe that'll help a bit?" Nothing Muret could ethically give her as a practicing doctor could take away enough of the pain for her to ignore it any longer.

"Uzumaki's gonna be pissed when he figures out that you were hurting like this and you didn't tell him. He's gonna be way more worried now than he would have been if you'd have told him before the migraines got this bad."

"I can be strong too." Nojiko said firmly despite the constant pounding in her head with every beat of her heart, "I'm not as powerful as Naruto-kun, you, or Miss Valentine. You're all monsters. I don't even think I could defeat Johnny or Yosaku. But I don't want to be some damsel in distress that needs to be protected. I had enough of being weak and powerless for eight years."

Soren just chuckled and shook his head, beginning to anger Nojiko at his attitude toward her until he actually spoke, "You think you're weak? Being on this ship really is driving you crazy. You don't realize that you're one of the toughest women I've ever met." He said, much to her amazement, "You don't even have a Devil Fruit, and I'd take you to have my back in a battle before almost any other chick I've met. I'd definitely take Valentine ahead of you, but everybody's got to admit that ever since she actually started training hard Valentine is just awesome in a fight."

This was absolutely stunning to Nojiko. Soren was surly, salty, crass, sarcastic, and while everyone on the crew trusted him after watching him bleed over and over for the crew in battle he was the last person anyone expected to give out reassuring talks like that. He ended it with a bit of a backhanded compliment, but it was still something of a complement.

"I don't want people to worry about me." The gunslinger femme said, holding her hands on her head, "There are more realistic things to worry about than my headaches. I'll still be able to navigate, but other than that I'm not that important that it'd be a big deal if I was down."

"You really don't get it do you?" Soren asked incredulously, "You're the fucking glue on this ship. You're probably the biggest reason we all haven't either killed each other yet or died miserable deaths trying to figure out where we're going. Uzumaki might have brought us all together somehow, but some 5'6 105 pound bluenette keeps us all in check with the fear of God and bullets."

"What are you saying?"

"I'm first mate, and Uzumaki's the captain, but nobody takes the half of the stuff we say outside of battles seriously." Soren admitted with a feral-looking grin, "The buck stops with Uzumaki, but you're basically the one in charge. Everybody listens to what you say because most of the time you're right. You think the only thing special about you is that you can navigate on the Grand Line?"

"Look, I'm only 20 years old, and I really don't feel like being considered the den mother for this nest of psychopaths." Cue deadpan stare from Soren, "…Okay, it's like drugs to me." The control was difficult to ignore or pretend that she didn't enjoy to an extent even if it was difficult, "But what if one day I say something wrong and people get hurt, or we fail? What if my Haki's wrong, or what if I read it inaccurately?"

"You won't because you're smart. It's as simple as that." Soren held his chin in thought to try and think of a way to get his point across, "Alright, let's just put it this way. The guy that tore the grove that the Human Auction House was on off of its roots out of the ocean and crushed it into a big-ass island-sized death ball in one move defers to you more often than not. That should tell you all you need to know. I'm pretty sure you're either really smart or the best lay in the universe to make that happen."

"I would totally shoot you right now if the sound of the gun going off wouldn't murder my senses." Nojiko said with a glare before softening her stance, "But thank you. I didn't expect that out of you, tasteless as it was."

"Well don't get used to it. And don't tell anybody either." Soren demanded, acidic mist coming off of the skin of his hand for emphasis, "The last thing I need is anyone on this ship thinking that I'm _not_ a bastard."

"I won't tell anyone that you're a big softy underneath all of the sarcasm, scowling, and acid." Nojiko teased with a small smile, "Wow, a little bit more polish with your speeches and you might just sweep that Tashigi girl off of her feet if you see her again. If she doesn't cut you in half first."

"And there it goes." An embarrassed Soren said, leaving Nojiko's room before stalking off down the hall, "You kept the moment for as long as you could before fucking with me didn't you?" All he could hear was Nojiko laughing from back in her room, "I hope laughing hurts like hell right now!"

"It does!"

XxX

(Isle of Women – Jungle Outside of Amazon Lily)

After Elder Nyon's explanation on Haki, Johnny had gone off away from the others to think about himself, finding a wonderful little spot by the riverside in the jungle to rest and think. Think about himself, and where he wanted to go.

His best friend had found a personal reason, a drive that made him want to improve. It was a reason that many people wouldn't understand, and a lot of people would call him a fool for, but it was something.

He didn't really have anything to get stronger for. To protect the other members of his crew? Not a single one of them needed him to protect them. Most of them were stronger than him.

He didn't want anything abstract like respect or love like Yosaku did, or to find a way to understand if true world peace would really ever possible the way that Naruto did.

Everyone had something.

Soren wanted violent, bloody revenge on Doflamingo. Nojiko wanted to see the world's ends. Paulie wanted to be the shipwright of a vessel that could endure the Grand Line and its perils. Perona (while she wasn't a crew member) wanted to find Gekko Moriah again and make her own decision on her future from there. Miss Valentine, well she just wanted to keep having fun. Vivi wanted to grow strong enough in mind and body that no one could try to enforce their will on Alabasta ever again. Byron… he was new, so no one really knew what he wanted yet other than to remain free from slavery.

All Johnny wanted to do was to be a strong swordsman like his old partner Roronoa Zoro in his own way, specializing solely on his favorite part of swordplay in the speed of the draw. He couldn't think of a deeper reason for wanting to be more powerful.

The only thing he'd ever desired was to save people and to be cool, ever since he'd started being a bounty hunter in the East Blue. He'd had his moments sometimes, but he failed more often than not at that venture when it came down to just him. Yosaku had visibly grown in strength, even if he had lost to Law earlier, but for himself he just couldn't see the growth. He was fast, he knew that he was, but even so…

His thoughts were brought to an abrupt end when he heard the sound of a rope tensing over the sounds of the jungle.

Immediately he jumped to his feet and turned, instantly drawing his sword to cut through an arrow being shot at his back. Perfect aim. He got it right at the center of the arrowhead.

Only he didn't cut it. If he hadn't planted his feet firmly on the riverside rock he'd been sitting on it would have blown him off and into the water. Instead of slicing through the arrow, he merely deflected it after a two second struggle, which in context with the speed of the encounter was an eternity.

'I should have split that sucker down the middle!' Johnny thought to himself as he saw the shot fly off back into the wilderness, "Oi! Come out! Why would you attack me? I'm just sitting here!" Figuring that whoever his attacker was wouldn't reveal themselves as long as he was holding a sword, he sheathed it and held his hands up, "Look, I put it away. I don't want to fight."

Honestly, putting the sword back in the sheathe made him far more dangerous than if he'd had it out to begin with, so it wasn't a loss at all to him.

After a moment, a young woman emerged from the brush holding one of the island's shape-transforming snakes like a bow. Okay, so she was another Kuja. Kind of far from the city, but whatever.

Like many of the women on the island she was curvaceous and thoroughly gorgeous with unruly neck-length blonde hair, a small and revealing animal skin mini-skirt and animal skin top that exposed much of her breasts. Her clothing also consisted of a white cape, and a single black and white striped legging with a pair of high-heeled boots.

"Another man on the island?" The Kuja said as she lowered her bow, though with another arrow fixed in the string if she felt threatened she could have quickly raised it to fire at him, "You don't look like those Heart Pirate men though. So who are you?"

Ah, that was right. They hadn't been very impressive when they'd been hurried out of the city from the palace, so word probably didn't spread that more men were there.

"Johnny. From the Foxhound Pirates." He could feel a distant intensity that he couldn't explain, but it compelled him to change up his introduction a bit, "…We're not pirates though." He said slowly and carefully, only for the intense feeling to fade thankfully, "Our captain got called here by Boa Hancock, so he took us for safety."

The girl crinkled her nose strangely in response, "Safety? If your captain took _you_ here for safety how strong could he be? I doubt someone like that was asked to come here by Hebihime." She'd gotten the drop on him and almost shot him first before asking questions, so really.

"Okay look." Johnny said a bit disgruntled, "I'm not the heaviest hitter on the crew, but I'm not weak. I helped my crew make it halfway out on the Grand Line. I don't know why I didn't cut your arrow in half, but that slash should have."

"I put Haki into my shots." Of course she did. Wonderful. So most of the women on this island really could use some kind of Haki.

A sigh came from Johnny as he went to sit back down where he'd been before, "Alright. Well I'm just waiting… and thinking. I'm not going into Amazon Lily so don't throw a fit over it. I know how bent out of shape you all get about that." He didn't want to be turned to stone and executed or whatever they did there for punishments.

Men were supposed to be killed for being on the Isle of Women, but those laws were becoming a bit more lax these days after Luffy had made it there. And this man apparently didn't even care that she'd just been shooting at him to kill.

She really shouldn't even have been talking to him. She should have just continued on her way to the elder's dwelling the way she'd planned to originally before she noticed this strange man's presence.

'I'm so going to get into trouble for this.' Walking over to Johnny's rock, she took a knee next to him and looked over at his deeply intrinsic expression, "What's wrong? From what I know about men they're supposed to be happy and energetic… and stretchy."

The only man she'd ever met and spent any real length of time with was Luffy.

"It's a long story, but the main thing is that I need to learn how to use Haki or I'm gonna get blown out of the water the next time I fight an enemy stronger than me." Johnny said before scratching at the kanji tattoo on his face, "I don't even know why I'm telling you this. I don't even know your name."

"Marguerite."

"Oh, nice to meet you. Aside from the whole shooting me with an arrow from my blind spot thing." Turning to get a good look at her now that he was up close he caught himself staring for longer than he probably should have, "Something's really got to be wrong with me. You're gorgeous and I haven't tried to hit on you once."

Marguerite narrowed her eyes at him in return, "You'd better not try to hit me. That would be one of the dumbest things you could do here." She obviously didn't understand the slang, which caught Johnny off-guard.

"No, I didn't mean I was actually going to hit you." Johnny said, trying to diffuse the situation once again, "Hitting on someone means you-. Oh nevermind, it doesn't matter."

Getting herself back on track now that things settled down again, Marguerite drew an arrow from her quiver and held it out, "Well it's not that hard." For her… because she was a Kuja and pretty much _had_ to learn how to use Haki, "I just think whenever I have to shoot that no matter what my target is, my arrow is going to go through it. Nothing's going to stop me from destroying my target. When you aim and shoot, whatever you hit isn't going to get back up afterwards. You've got to believe that from the bottom of your heart."

That could be a problem. Johnny's belief in his ability wasn't that he could destroy whatever he cut into, it was that no matter what he was going to be the one to strike first.

"What's there to think about?" Marguerite said aloud after a few moments of him seemingly thinking for a bit too long, "Believe and you'll just do it. If you have to convince yourself it's not going to work. You've got to know that this or that will happen to make it yours."

For fuck's sake, she wasn't even that good with her Haki and she knew that.

A slow nod came from Johnny before he abruptly jumped back up to standing, hand on the hilt of his sheathed sword in a position to draw and strike, "Fine. My name is Johnny, the speed swordsman of the Foxhound Pirates… that aren't pirates. I'll be so quick on my feet that I'll slash you on your front and your back at the same time. My draw'll be so fast that when I cut you you'll see your blood change color in the air. I might not be the greatest swordsman, but I'll be the fastest."

If you're fast enough, that converts itself into force. He didn't need Yosaku's inhuman brute strength to destroy what his best friend could. All he needed was a sharp blade and the swiftest pull of the sword that most people would ever see, or not see.

'Are all men so brash?' Marguerite thought as she sat and watched Johnny continue to try and build his own belief in himself.

'Speed is power. Speed is power. Speed is power!' Johnny kept chanting inside of his own head until a series of crashes rocked the jungle and sent animals scattering through their clearing, stopping his mantra short, "What the hell?"

"ACE!"

Heartbreak, anger, and almost any negative emotion that one could imagine could be felt in that shout. The ability to feel negative emotions was completely unnecessary to pick this much up.

More thunderous crashing and breaking of trees and rock formations nearby got Marguerite to cringe and recoil in dread, "That's… that's Luffy!"

"He looked dead four hours ago!" Johnny said before he could hear and see something else coming his way through the jungle, "Look out!"

He was able to pick up and move Marguerite out of the way just as several large trees and chunks of boulder came flying their way, crashing into the clearing dangerously. The well-trained movement speed of Johnny allowed him to outpace the perilous objects and keep them both safe.

"Wow, that's fast!" The blonde Kuja warrior commented aloud, really not expecting Johnny to be so fleet-footed. He didn't look very strong at first glance, but that short-distance speed wasn't an illusion. And being close enough to touch him it was clearer that despite not showing himself to be very muscular at all, he was as sturdy as stone.

Johnny set her down without taking his eyes off of the approaching Luffy, "Hey, it's great to see you awake Luffy-aniki, but calm down would you?"

Luffy was covered in bandages almost from head to toe and was breathing heavily as he glared at Johnny and Marguerite. He was saying absolutely nothing to either of them, just staring blankly at the pair.

"I thought he was supposed to be in the palace under Hebihime's watch." Marguerite said before smiling in a relieved fashion, "Luffy! You're alright!" He looked like he was knocking on death's door when he'd arrived with Jinbei and the Heart Pirates.

He didn't hear a word that they were saying though.

"Ace…" The Straw Hat captain repeated again, quieter this time but no less intense in the meaning behind it. It was heartbreaking to see him so not like himself.

Johnny adjusted his glasses on his face and grew melancholy, as Luffy had been out of it for two weeks after fighting savagely against the Marines to save Ace from execution, "Well… I don't really know how to tell you this, but I guess it needs to be said. Ace is de-."

"Gomu Gomu no Pistol (Gum Gum Pistol)!"

Completely unprepared for a violent outburst, Johnny never had a chance to defend himself from the stretching arm of Luffy flying out and striking him dead in the face. To Marguerite's shock, Johnny was sent flying out of the clearing, smashing through several trees before his body finally came to a stop.

"I don't want to hear that!" Luffy shouted loudly, eyes welling up with tears, "He promised! Ace promised me that he would never die!"

"Johnny!" That was a brutal attack from Luffy on someone that meant him no harm, "Luffy why did you do that? He's just trying to tell you the truth! You can stop looking around for your brother, he's not here! He's-!"

"Don't say it!" This time Luffy's attack was turned onto his first Kuja friend in his grief and rage, "Gomu Gomu no Stamp Gatling (Gum Gum Stamp Gatling)!" He shot out his leg, foot-first at Marguerite, trying to strike her down with rapid-fire stretching kicks, only to miss her, obliterating everything behind her though and bringing down a rock formation.

Nothing landed against her though, as again she was moved out of the way by extremely timely intervention from Johnny. He was back up and bleeding from how he'd been treated moments before, but he was used to taking beatings stiffer than this.

"Johnny…" Marguerite said upon realizing that he'd gotten back up from Luffy's heavy attack fast enough to rescue her from a move that she wouldn't have been quick enough to avoid. That was some serious durability.

"Just… give me a sec." Without his sunglasses on, as they had been knocked off by Luffy's first punch, Johnny's eyes appeared to be squinted enough to be permanently closed. His face had blood slowly moving down it from the injuries he'd received from being blasted through trees, but he didn't look on the surface to be acknowledging that he was hurt, "Give me a second to get my head on straight."

That didn't mean that his skull wasn't still ringing like a fire alarm was going off in his head. The way he felt at the moment would have given Nojiko's ongoing migraine problem a run for its money. He'd have some marks on him for quite some time after this was over.

Okay… this wasn't good.

Luffy was in the middle of a rampage. That could be bad since the entire thing about men being on the Isle of Women apparently hinged on how Luffy was perceived. The trail back in the jungle that Luffy had made en route to where they were now seemed to go on for miles, probably starting from the palace outward.

On top of that he was in a dangerous sense of denial over the fate of Portgas D. Ace. He wouldn't even listen or try to talk it out.

So now Johnny had to subdue Luffy before something bad happened, such as his wounds reopening, putting him back in dire straits and in need of emergency treatment all over again. Could he do it?

Hell no.

Was he going to try his best anyway?

Of course he was. That was all a part of the spirit of being one of the 'Doberman Swordsmen' of the Foxhound Pirates. Outnumbered, outgunned, out of your mind? It didn't matter. There was a job to do, and damn it they got the job done whether they were able to do it in one piece or not.

"Luffy beat Sandersonia and Marigold." Marguerite commented, finding herself unable to draw her bow against the young man. The thing was though, that Johnny had positioned himself in front of her to intercept whatever may come their way for her sake. Did he even know he was doing it? "We don't stand a chance."

Johnny just grinned bitterly back at her, "Heh, the thing about that is… I don't think I've ever really fought anyone tough that I was supposed to be stronger than to begin with."

In other words; this was just another day at the office.

(A Few Minutes Prior – Amazon Lily – Empress' Palace)

"What the hell happened?" Naruto asked upon returning to the palace with Vivi and Kurama only to find a gigantic hole in an upper floor wall. A visibly distraught Robin was sitting on the bed that used to contain Luffy.

Robin just shook her head, looking out of the hole, "He woke up and started panicking. I tried to tell him what I heard had happened when he seemed lost, but he snapped and did this."

Kurama let out a whistle as from the palace he could see the trail of destruction along the upper border of Amazon Lily that Luffy had left in his panic to get out of the city, **"Oh man. Naruto…"**

"I know." Naruto muttered to his partner, as he could sense where Luffy was, and exactly how he was feeling. This could be bad, "I'm going." He said as he jumped through the hole and hoped he'd get there in a timely enough manner before something bad happened one way or another.

Before he could depart, he felt Robin grab him with one of her hands sprouting out from the wall in order to hold him back for a moment, "Naruto. Please, help him. If I went after him with you I would slow you down."

"Bring Luffy back Uzumaki." Hancock asked, seemingly beside herself as she wrapped her arms around her own body for a split-second. It was subtle, but it was there, "If he were to hurt someone such as one of the Kujas on the island, or himself…"

Two women that shouldn't have been showing any emotion about much of anything going around them were visibly affected by all of this going on with him.

Damn him and his soft spot.

'It's not him hurting a Kuja that'll be the problem.' Naruto thought to himself before nodding at the pair of requests from the ladies and taking off in a long fall down from the floor that they were on before vanishing in a Shunshin, 'Johnny you'd better keep him calm for a few minutes.'

* * *

**Alright goddamn it, Haki time. Let's get this show on the road. Time to set up how everybody's going to get stronger for when it counts.**

**Aside from that however…**

**The other day in the middle of a freak snowstorm, that came completely out of nowhere by the way, my car broke down thirty miles away from anyone that could help me, and after it was all over I then had to go in and fix a pipe that ran from my antifreeze. And I'm not a mechanic, but damn it I'm fixing my f'n car! It is **_**not**_** going out like that! My Ford Taurus is a warrior!**

**And I've got no other consistent way to commute to college. Seriously? This shit had to happen now of all times, when I only had roughly two months left before graduating? Fuck.**

**Okay, that's all I've got today. Later.**

**Kenchi out.**


	46. Sword in Hand

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Beware of scurvy! I could own that, but I don't think it would be very fun.

**Chapter 46: Sword in Hand**

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'Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck!' Naruto thought to himself frantically as he tried to navigate his way out of the city of the Kuja Tribe. The reason for his desperation was because of the fact that Johnny was as far as he could sense face-to-face with a monumentally pissed off Monkey D. Luffy, "Fuck!"

Johnny was scrappy and a better and more powerful combatant than he would ever give himself credit for, but Luffy was Luffy. The only chance he really had was that Luffy was still hurt, but he'd probably sacrifice that advantage for the very same reason. Because Luffy was hurt he wouldn't want to make things worse.

That would have been kind of admirable if Luffy wasn't so much stronger than Johnny. In this case it just wasn't smart.

Looking down from how he was transporting himself over the rooftops of many of the city buildings, Naruto was glad that he was moving fast and silently enough that no one had noticed him. He probably didn't have many fans there, and with the whole Tailed Beast Chakra Mode test he'd run against Jinbei earlier most of the Kujas that would have felt the initial release of chakra were probably on edge.

Naruto liked Luffy a lot, but Johnny came first any day of the week in this instance. They would have been all the way on the other side of the island though would they? He'd have to kick on the afterburners to make it there in a timely manner. A second Shunshin it was then.

"**Bet you wish you'd learned how to make those markings correctly just with your chakra so you could just Hiraishin to your friend don't you? You can make an elaborate-ass sealing jutsu with enough failsafes to keep all of the biju safe, but you can't apply an itty-bitty marker? Don't tell me you're still using the ones Minato made a century ago."**

'Yo Kurama!' Naruto thought to himself loudly, hoping that it reverberated in the skull of his fox partner, '…Shut up!'

"**Ooh, good one."** Apparently sarcasm was a language that Kurama's abilities hadn't dulled in.

'I hate you so much right now! Why do you seem so pissed?'

"**Because after you tapped into my chakra to kick that Fishman's ass I've finally found some time to use our connection to check in on your body's condition, and I've got to ask, how long did you think you could hide what you did to yourself from me? Of all the ignorant, foolish kinjutsu to use, you would have to use the one that could actually kill you somehow."**

Ooh, he wasn't expecting that to come back on him so soon. Or ever really. When he'd used it, Kurama hadn't been there and he hadn't been anticipating finding it necessary to bring him back into the fold.

There was only one thing that he'd done worth remembering recently that Kurama could have picked up on that would have upset him in some way, and it wasn't destructive. Quite the opposite actually, 'I wasn't really hiding what I did. It just wasn't important. Just… trust me.'

"**Right. Not important. That's the key word here. I'm going to bite your head off when we get somewhere where I won't have to torch a whole city to do it. There is NO excuse for using THAT jutsu and you know it."**

'Can we talk about this later? Maybe when one of my crew isn't in danger of getting crippled and getting his ass sent home to the East Blue forever?'

Kuja Pirates that were well enough acclimated to their Haki were able to feel a big burst of power from the city that signified Naruto moving at top basic speed to reach his crewmate before Luffy's rampage claimed him as a victim.

XxX

(Elsewhere on the Isle of Women – With Johnny)

Johnny stood a good distance away from a heavily bandaged Luffy who was snorting like a bull and glaring a hole through him. The speed-based swordsman wasn't alone however, with a blonde young Kuja standing behind him.

"Yeah…" Johnny said, holding a tight grip on the handle of his sheathed sword, "I'm gonna need you to stay out of the way, because I don't think you're fast enough to shoot him."

"_Excuse_ me?" Marguerite said with a pointed look at her would-be protector, "I might be young and I might not be considered strong enough to join the Kuja Pirates, but I'm a warrior of the Kuja Tribe. I don't need a man to fight my battles for me."

"Gomu Gomu no Rocket (Gum Gum Rocket)!"

"Hold that thought." Johnny said as he swept Marguerite up in his arms again to dodge Luffy's arms shooting past them to grab a pair of trees and propel his body at them like a slingshot. It was a narrow miss, and from the way the girl looked after he set her down again he could tell that she wasn't even close to being used to following that kind of speed, "You still think you want to fight that?"

Marguerite looked at the row of destruction Luffy had managed to blaze through the trees that had previously been behind them and measured it to be fifty yards deep, with the man himself still seething and glaring in anger as he turned around to face them again.

She actually blinked before witnessing Johnny walk right in front of her again. This woke her up and she pointed fearfully at Luffy, "_You_ want to fight that?"

Johnny just kept his back to her, but if she looked lower to the ground she'd have seen his knees shaking. If she could see his face she'd definitely see tears of terror trailing down his face, 'NO! I don't want to fight that! Not after the things I've seen this guy do!'

But he had to. There wasn't any honor in running away and leaving that girl behind. He was tired of always needing help if he actually wanted to accomplish something or win. Even some of his speed attacks required Yosaku to use his strength to throw him and give him an initial boost first.

He was tired of looking up to people like Naruto, Zoro, Sanji, Luffy, hell even Soren, as people that were strong and had something worth looking up to. He wanted people to see something in him worth looking up to, but that would never happen if he just ran away when the going was tough and he was all by himself.

So he would fight. Even if he lost and lost badly he would fight. Maybe he could wear Luffy down enough to get him to stop.

Johnny sighed and turned his sheath around in the position he was holding it in at his waist, "Right. Let's do this." His feet dragged through the grass and dirt to settle himself into his iajutsu stance before he gestured for Luffy to come on.

Luffy charged forward, as did Johnny with his hand on the handle of his sword, ready to pull it free. Luffy was hurt, so he wasn't going to be as fast, and Johnny managed to actually get the instep on him. Being fast wasn't just about motion, it was about timing, and his was on enough to land first with a blindingly quick draw, "Suberu J (Sliding J)!"

To Johnny's complete chagrin, Luffy's arms blocked his torso where he'd been aiming to strike with the first of his unseeable barrage, and he did it without buckling at all. Behind his glasses his eyes went wide upon remembering that Luffy's body was immune to all but the most powerful of blunt attacks, and the backside of his sword was blunt in order to keep from killing him.

Luffy grabbed onto both of Johnny's shoulders with nothing but bad intentions in his eyes, "Cra- GUUUH!" Luffy shoved his foot directly into Johnny's stomach and kicked him away, stretching his foot out to shove him farther away.

The rubber-man jumped forward, flipping rapidly through the air as he reeled himself in and crashed his forehead off of Johnny's, "Gomu Gomu no Marunoko (Gum Gum Buzzsaw)!" Because he held him in place after landing the blow, Johnny didn't slide or fly away. His head snapped back and he froze as his body twitched before he sank to his knees. Luffy stood over him, holding onto his shoulders and breathing heavily.

During the course of all of this, Marguerite had trained her bow back on the two of them, but lowered her aim after hearing the stone-splitting crack of Luffy's skull off of Johnny's. You weren't supposed to be able to hear things like that. The noise was disgusting.

Johnny latched a hand onto one of the forearms of the arms still holding onto him and stood back up to his feet with his head still leaning back before he brought it back forward and headbutted Luffy in return. It didn't affect him but that wasn't the point of the move. He just needed some space, "Yosen Ikssen (Primary Flash)!"

With a silver flash, Johnny resheathed and drew his sword again with a spin into Luffy's body, sending him sliding back across the ground and forcing his body to stretch out in a backwards direction before Luffy snapped it back like a rubber band to strike with it at Johnny who blocked by holding up the sheath of his weapon.

"Grr…" Blood coated Johnny's face, but he endured the attack before pulling his sword free from the sheath in his other hand in a short-ranged draw as he took several lightning-quick swings at Luffy who managed to respond in kind, "Stop it Luffy-aniki! Ace is-!"

"Shut up! Gomu Gomu no Gatling (Gum Gum Gatling)!" Luffy immediately sent back blurry, rapid-fire punches that forced Johnny to avert his strategy from attack to defense in order to deal with the reach that Luffy's stretching provided him. Using both his sword and sheath with forceful dexterity he was able to alter his strikes to deflect Luffy's punches to move past and keep them from hitting him.

It was like standing in the eye of the storm, and it showed at the end of the barrage when the sleeves of Johnny's jacket were shredded to show that his arms were extremely muscular for someone his size

Johnny's solace despite the intensity of the fight was that at least Luffy wasn't using his Gear Second or Gear Third techniques, probably because his body definitely couldn't take those things in its current state. Even so, things still weren't looking good.

'Who cares?' Johnny thought to himself, 'It doesn't matter anymore if this was dumb, or if I can't win.' As far as this went, it was now something simple, dumbed down. Winning wasn't the point. None of that blood flowing through Luffy's bandages was from anything that Johnny had done. Fighting on and going on his rampage was killing him. So he had to do something to stop him.

"_I might not be the greatest swordsman, but I'll be the fastest."_

'My draw will be so fast it'll cut through light!' Johnny thought to himself, gritting his teeth as everything seemed to move in slow motion. He and Luffy charged each other again, and Johnny knew they were both moving at the exact same speed that they'd always been moving at but to him it felt like they were jogging at one another. It was strange. He'd never had that kind of clarity before.

It was… empowering, and weird. What the hell was happening?

Things slowly began to speed up and Johnny, quickly realizing that this wouldn't last for long, pulled his sword free as quickly as he could. Much to his surprise he felt the sheath of his sword heat up as he pulled it free due to the friction. As the steel freed itself from its prison he could see the inside of the scabbard glowing red hot with fire blazing from the end of it.

"Mukaikaze wa Kiru (Headwind Slash)!"

"RAAH!" Luffy was smashed back by a blow from Johnny's sword that burned hot enough to release a flaming arc of energy in the air that rebuked the rubber-man. It actually hurt him.

The intense attack was viewed from a short distance by Marguerite who knew what she had just seen, "That… was it." Her face lit up upon seeing Johnny's inexplicable attack maneuver, "That was it! You did it! That was Haki!"

He couldn't believe it and he'd just gotten confirmation that he'd done it. That draw was so fast, the sparks from pulling his sword free were hot enough that the streak he caused in the air burned, "W-What? I… what?"

Staring at his sword in surprise, he looked back up at the sound of hearing a rapid series of stomping noises and a hiss and saw Luffy, his skin red with steam flying off of his body. What the hell was that? It seemed like Luffy was using one of his arms to line up a shot with his other one, thus Johnny prepared to-.

"Gomu Gomu no Jet Pistol (Gum Gum Jet Pistol)!"

It seemed impossible, as Luffy's stretching punch really did seem so fast that it was a bullet fired from a gun. Johnny anticipated the punch that smashed him in the face for a second. He'd seen the regular one coming even if it had been rather fast in of itself, but this was absurd. He witnessed Luffy's body move to uncork it, but never got to see the arm itself move.

Johnny's body smacked off of a rock structure, but he didn't go down, instead stumbling about on his feet after his body cracked the outside of the surface, "Did that just happen?"

He never really got to see the follow up either.

"Gomu Gomu no Jet Gatling (Gum Gum Jet Gatling)!"

Bending forward to brace himself, Luffy's arms rocketed at Johnny so fast in rapid-fire succession that the only thing that could be seen were jet streams where his arms were tearing through the air and his fists were impacting off of Johnny's body.

The blows were heavy enough to destroy the rock monolith that Johnny's body smashed into it. And that showed just how far the distance between the two in strength went. Even with an incredible breakthrough the likes of discovering his own Haki, it wasn't enough to close the gap.

"JOHNNY!" Marguerite cried out upon seeing the violent blow land. Actually, saying that she saw it land would have been incorrect as she didn't see it. But she could see as clear as day what it had done. She ran over to the spot where she'd seen Johnny's body land, but before she could make it all the way there Luffy started stalking over, "Luffy, stop it already! That's enough!"

"Get out of the way." Luffy said, still seething in anger and aggression as the Straw Hat Pirate captain stomped forward.

Marguerite shook her head and stepped her way directly into Luffy's path, holding up her snake bow at him only to find him right in her face holding onto her arm meant to draw an arrow back. His grip was hard enough that he knew it was leaving a print on her wrist and she could feel her joint strain underneath the pressure.

Luffy's other hand was held back and ready to punch when he saw something of a premonition of a sword skewering him and leaned his body out of the way as Johnny's sword flew through a space between his torso and Marguerite's.

The distraction allowed Johnny to rush out of the dust cloud caused by the destroyed monolith gouge Marguerite out of Luffy's grip by slipping his sheathe in between Luffy's fingers to stretch them and allow her an opening to pull her hand away, "…I can't let you do that."

His jacket existed no longer, revealing a metal mesh shirt underneath it and body covered in bleeding red bruises that had been toned by training day-in, day-out in the sadistic madhouse that was the Foxhound Pirate crew. After all of that, if there was one thing that someone could say he was good at it was getting his ass kicked.

Marguerite backed away a few steps, eyes not moving off of Johnny's form, "You don't have to-."

"Yeah. I do." Johnny said before she could even tell him that he didn't need to take all of this, "That's the kind of man I want to be. I want to save people. I don't want Luffy-aniki to hurt himself." He turned to her and spared her the strongest smile he could given the situation, "…I don't want him to hurt you."

"Gum Gum-!"

"I don't need him hurting you either idiot!"

Before Luffy could hit Johnny again, a yellow-topped blur came out of nowhere and tackled Luffy out of the clearing altogether before he could deliver another Gear Second-enhanced blow. As Johnny and Marguerite stood alone, the former swaying around groggily in place, a second Naruto appeared in front of them.

Captain and underling just stared at each other for an unspecified amount of time, one in far worse condition than the other. And it didn't need to be said who it was.

The second Naruto that had appeared on the scene and stopped looked over Johnny and frowned, "Rough day?"

Johnny just grinned and gave him a thumbs up, "I almost… had him."

Naruto just shook his head and put a hand on Johnny's shoulder, "Was it worth it?"

At first, Johnny just looked back at Marguerite and saw her eyes quivering at his condition before he turned back to his captain, "…Hell yeah."

"Good." Naruto said before tapping him on the head with his index and middle fingers. After everything else that he'd taken this rendered Johnny unconscious to fall back onto the ground, at least until Marguerite braced his fall and caught him. He shook his head and turned his back as the Kuja girl started to fret over Johnny's condition, "Don't let him die until I get back. I'll kill him myself."

With that, Naruto popped into nothing but smoke, but she didn't notice.

XxX

(With Naruto and Luffy)

Both Naruto and Luffy broke apart after flying a certain distance through the jungle. Naruto kicked off of a tree and landed on the ground while Luffy backflipped and landed in a deep crouch on the ground.

"We done?" Naruto asked with a stern look on his face before he punched into his palm and his eyes took on an orange pigment with toad-like irises, "'Cuz I'll beat you 'till you stop moving. You want to talk instead?" Trigger time, "Ace is gone Luffy."

"I KNOW THAT ALREADY!" Luffy fired out another Jet Pistol of a punch that Naruto was adept enough to catch in his hands, but it still sent him sliding back across the ground until his heels dug up a four-foot trench, "IF IT WAS A DREAM I WOULD HAVE WOKEN UP AFTER JOHNNY BURNED ME!"

Johnny burned Luffy? How? He'd have to figure out what that was all about later but for now, dodge.

Luffy was trying to outpace Naruto with blinding speed, but even if he hadn't been injured he would have found it a bit past his ability to achieve to hit Naruto in Sage Mode while fighting out of sheer anger and desire to hurt something. If there was anything Naruto knew about fighting angry after all of the times he'd had to do it, it was how it made you prioritize dealing damage to an opponent.

It was all about causing the kind of harm that you could see on an opponent. Drawing blood was the name of the game when you were pissed.

"WHY! CAN'T! I! HIT! YOU!?" Luffy's body was moving as fast as he could to try and tag Naruto with a punch, a kick, anything. But nothing was landing.

This wasn't like beating on Johnny, where once Luffy tapped into Gear Second all of Johnny's speed wound up meaning nothing after he couldn't tell how to use his Haki. Naruto was in Sage Mode, knew full well how to use it both in speed a precognitive ability, was used to using it, and had dealt with people faster than Luffy.

All of that changed when Luffy saw Naruto's eyes go back to normal. The little natural energy Naruto had been able to build up on the fly had worn off, and there was Luffy's opening.

Putting everything he had into closing the distance quickly, Luffy's arms were thrown out behind his back as he appeared at Naruto's side, so fast that people wouldn't have been able to see them stretch, "Gomu Gomu no Jet Bazooka (Gum Gum Jet Bazooka)!" He thrust both of them forward at Naruto, actually managing to see a glimpse of surprise in his eyes until he just vanished in a golden wisp.

Luffy's arms flew forward in the blink of an eye in one of his coup de grace moves and hit nothing but air.

What? Did he use that Hiraishin thing of his again? If he did, where did he go? None of his stupid knives were anywhere around.

A vision of getting hit tickled the back of Luffy's mind, but he didn't move fast enough to react to it and wound up getting hit once by something he couldn't see. Then twice. Then three times. Then all over until he finally crumpled down to his hands and knees.

But not because of the heavy blows he'd been taking. Naruto had been holding back extensively on those.

Eventually, Naruto stopped in front of him and stood in place, glowing with the effect of Tailed Beast Chakra Mode. It was almost enough to make him spring a tear to his eye at how much pure negative emotion was flying off of the normally sunny young man's spirit.

"…I'm so weak." Luffy said, punching at the ground.

"You've been doing this for what, a year?" Naruto asked in return, "You're not that weak. Do you have any idea how long it took me to get strong enough to start making a difference? It was definitely longer than a year."

"That doesn't matter!" Luffy's head turned up to Naruto with eyes full of tears, "I trained! I trained for ten years at home just to be good enough to do this! I wanted to be strong like Ace, but I… all I did was get in the way and get him killed! He died protecting me! How can I be the Pirate King if I need my own brother to die saving me!?"

He found himself picked up by the shoulders so that Naruto could stare at his face… right before he headbutted him. He then dropped Luffy and walked past him to sit down on the ground, "So you think Ace died for nothing because he protected you?"

The headbutt itself hurt like hell because, Naruto had been in his ascended chakra state when he'd done it.

Luffy's head lolled back limply before Naruto gave him a firm shake to recapture his attention. But Luffy had never been ignoring him, "…He would have been fine. That Akainu guy, he wouldn't even have had to deal with him at all if I wasn't so weak that I slowed him down."

"Oh." Naruto said, "That's all?" He then dropped Luffy onto the ground like a sack, "Look Luffy… I met Ace before. If that guy thought you were a burden, wouldn't he have told you to turn back?" The blond just shook his head, "No, the only thing he told me to do was watch out for you. Probably to make sure that when something like this happened you didn't fall apart like this."

"Ace was the strongest guy I knew." The pliable pirate captain sounded absolutely broken, "He wasn't supposed to die."

"Luffy people that I loved, some that I grew up with, a few that could still probably push me in a fight to this very day, got killed."

"Well tell me what I'm supposed to do about that!"

"There are only two things you really can do." Naruto admitted, scratching at his head at trying to find an apt way to put it, "You can either get it through your head that this is what you chose to do, and that you should have known from the start that there was always a chance that someone would die."

"That's not good enough." Luffy said, as he got up to his knees, head lowered. The way he shook almost seemed like he was about to lash out again, "What kind of weak-ass answer is that!?"

Naruto just shrugged, "Well that's what the second thing is for. The other thing you can do is just get so strong that it doesn't matter." He put his hand on the young pirate's head and walked right past him, "That's all."

Basically his options were to either shut up and deal with it, or shut up and become so powerful that such a thing became a non-factor. According to Naruto there was no middle ground. No easy medium for him to take.

But this was Luffy. A guy like that just wanted a solution to grasp onto. It didn't matter how difficult a task it would be to achieve, or if it would be perceived as impossible. And it wasn't as if this hadn't been something he hadn't thought about as a method either, it was just that the way Naruto said it as if it were as simple as learning how to walk threw him off.

He'd been training for ten years just to grow in strength enough to sail to begin with. He'd developed new technique to deal with the more powerful enemies he kept running into on the Grand Line. And here he was hearing that it was simply being dismissed as nothing more than someone saying, 'Great. You did all of that to get this far. Now just do it better because it wasn't enough.'

"I wish I had a way for you to basically cheat to do it the way I did-." Naruto said, hands laced behind his neck casually as he walked close to a cliff to look at the great blue ocean, "-But I don't. So you've got to knuckle down and get the job done the hard way."

"Well said."

With a smile on his face, the old and grey Silvers Rayleigh walked up and yanked Luffy back up to his feet. The distraught young man was confused at first until his mind fully caught up to what was happening, "Old Man Rayleigh."

"For someone that wants to find One Piece, breaking down at a time like this is unbecoming." Rayleigh said as he dusted the bandaged Luffy off, "As a pirate, you'll come across many treasures in your life, but in the same vein you'll also lose them as well. Now tell me, after all of this, have you truly lost everything dear to you? Is there nothing else worth striving to protect?"

"If you say no I'm gonna tie your ass to the front of my ship until you stop being stupid!" Naruto bellowed from where he was sitting down by the cliffside, "I don't care if you're half-dead or not!"

It didn't take Luffy long at all to come up with the things that he found precious to his heart. The moment the question was asked of him, his head was filled with nothing but thoughts of his crew. All of the friends and comrades he had amassed over the last year.

"Of course I do." Luffy said, clenching his fists tightly, "Zoro, Nami, Chopper, Usopp, Franky, Sanji, Brook, and Robin. All of them. My nakama. I need to get back to them!" He'd left them all alone for so long. They were all supposed to meet back up after splitting up to lose the Marines in three days, and it had been far longer than that.

"Robin's here." Naruto pointed out without turning around, "She was in your room when you woke up and flipped out. She was really worried after finding out what happened to you."

"Robin?" Luffy said to himself, smiling as tears started to spring to his eyes, "If she's alright then all the others… they've got to be looking for ways to get back too! I can't sit here! Old man! Naruto! One of you have gotta get me back to Sabaody, now!"

Rayleigh held up his hands defensively. He didn't have a ship. He swam all the way there from the Sabaody Archipelago, a three day trip in of itself, and Luffy couldn't submerge himself in seawater whatsoever. Devil Fruit powers and all.

Naruto though, simply sat there and acted like he didn't hear a word Luffy had asked of him. First of all, telling him to do anything was never the best course of action to take. Second of all, while he obviously had a ship to use there was a major point that Luffy seemed to be missing, "And what'll you do when you get back there?"

A dog stumbles upon a fountain of some sort, running its way face-first into it and gets blasted by a jet of water. Not understanding why this unpleasant incident occurs in the manner that it does, the dog will try to figure out what's going on for minutes at a time, taking blast after blast right in the mug.

From this practice, one can find a few similarities to what might have happened now.

"He's right." Rayleigh said, "Nothing has changed since the moment Kuma sent all of your crewmates flying, except that now you're 200 million beli more the target than you were when you first made it there. Even if your whole crew was able to reunite, I fear that events of a similarly tragic nature would befall you again."

So what were they saying? That it had to all end here and now? The crew that he worked so hard to form, that had fought so hard along with him just to get this far on the Grand Line wasn't good enough to go any farther and have any chance of reaching One Piece?

"You've got to train." Naruto said with a big wide grin, turning his head halfway around to show it to Luffy, "Train like hell. Train 'till it hurts, and then keep going."

Rayleigh nodded before making sure he had Luffy's undivided attention, "If you really want to go after One Piece. If you really want to make sure you can keep your crew from being destroyed by the dangers of the Marines and the New World, I would be more than willing to train you."

"But I did train!" Luffy reasoned.

"…So?" Hearing Naruto question him, Luffy just stared blankly at the Foxhound leader, expecting more. He didn't get anything at first though, "If it wasn't enough, just do more. Do you really want to quit now?"

"No!"

"Are you okay with more friends dying?"

"No!"

"Then do you have any better ideas?"

"…Fine I'll train!"

"Well don't sound so excited about it!

"Fuck you!"

"Fuck _you_!"

With that, Naruto turned back around to glare at the ocean while Luffy huffed angrily behind him. The mutual moment of irritation between the two almost set off into another battle, as Naruto was still sort of pissed off that Luffy had beaten the daylights out of Johnny. But Johnny was a grown man that made the choice to fight, so he couldn't be _too_ upset.

Also he'd promised more than one person today that he wouldn't let Luffy re-aggravate the injuries from Marineford that almost killed him.

So the older of the hotheads cooled down first. Naruto tried one more time to reason Luffy into standing back up.

"Somebody told me something a long time ago that somebody else told them." Naruto said, "They said, 'If something is truly important to you… even it's heart-breaking, even if it's sorrowful… you keep on trying and trying, even if you lose your life, you keep on protecting it with your two arms." His eyes still never turned away from the rolling waves of the ocean as he spoke, "…Then, even if you die, you leave behind the proof that you are a man… forever.'"

Luffy just stared at Naruto's back with wide eyes while Rayleigh just smiled in his usual manner and waited, watching Luffy's reaction, "…Wow." The rubbery human said.

"A fisherman that never picked up a sword in his life said that, and he actually lived it. Apparently a fisherman has bigger balls than you." Naruto said before smacking his lips idly, "This shit isn't supposed to be a barrel of laughs Luffy. Yeah, you can have fun with it, and that's why I liked you when we met, but you can't just shut it down because things get too real. That stopped when you got your first bounty."

Let alone the completely crushing one that he had now. It was bigger than Naruto's now!

"Your enemies don't give a shit if you're sad, especially the Marines. If the Marines get to you and your crew now, you and them are just gonna get the same thing Ace got." Naruto said bluntly before concluding, "…So sack up and get stronger, or give me my goddamn kunai back. _I'll_ find your crew and tell 'em you're taking your ball and going back to the East Blue. Somebody tougher can go find One Piece I guess."

A sound of something sharply inflating filled Naruto's ears from behind and he turned his eyes to the side to try and see behind him.

"Gomu Gomu no Gigant Pistol (Gum Gum Giant Pistol)!" Naruto was punched into the distance from behind by an extremely large fist that stretched out to hit him and knock him out to sea by a rejuvenated Luffy, "You think I'll just let you break my nakama up like that!? Not after everything we've been through! And I WILL find One Piece you bastard!" He shouted out to sea, his voice echoing like a cannon in the open air.

In the middle of his declaration he saw the flying Naruto burst into a puff of smoke before a flash of yellow heralded the glowing gold Naruto reappeared right in front of his face, "Good!" Cue knee to the belly that sent Luffy's torso flying back twenty feet. The rest of him would have gone with it had Naruto not stepped on his toes with his other foot and grabbed him to hold him in place.

So instead of being shot off into the distance from the force of the blow, Luffy's internal organs turned his torso into a slingshot before he dropped and hit the ground.

Rayleigh walked over and picked up Luffy under one arm while still smiling at Naruto, "You did that thing where you make copies of yourself didn't you? I thought I knew how to notice the difference. I thought Luffy had actually hit you."

"I did hit him…" Luffy muttered painfully, "He did that yellow flash teleporty thing."

Naruto looked around suspiciously before grinning and pulling up his upper lip to reveal a Hiraishin marker branded on the inside, painfully by the look of it, "My clone did actually, and switched with me. I didn't know it well enough to use in a full-scale fight when we met Rayleigh, and Tailed Beast Chakra Mode was way less of a hassle when I wanted to move fast. I had Pa help me tag myself with it after the last fight with Kizaru."

"**I thought you couldn't chakra brand things with the Hiraishin markers?"**

'It's not a marker from my chakra. It's a tattoo.'

"**Oh."** Kurama said telepathically before the implication of it all set in, **"Ohhhh. That probably hurt like hell."**

'Uh-huh.' Naruto thought back to his chakra-based partner before speaking to Rayleigh, "So what's the plan now?"

"I need…" Luffy wiggled around, prompting Rayleigh to put him down so that he could stand back up, "I need to get a message to my crew." Rayleigh nodded and the two walked off to converse amongst themselves. That was fine with Naruto. As long as he got back it didn't matter to him who brought the guy back.

Speaking of crew, Naruto headed off to go and get back to his injured crewmember that Luffy had beaten the daylights out of. If anyone wanted to find him for the time being it wouldn't be difficult.

XxX

(A Few Minutes Later – Elsewhere on the Isle of Women)

"Help him!" Marguerite cried worriedly, having dragged Johnny off to the nearest place where she figured someone would assist. Unfortunately it was not the Heart Pirates that she went to. No, it was closer to bring him back to Elder Nyon's villa where other members of his crew in Yosaku and Paulie had been busy learning what they could of the Haki ability, "He could die from the beating he took from Luffy!"

Elder Nyon had bad news from her though, "I've lived many years, but I simply don't know enough about the male anatomy to risk trying to fix him without making his injuries worse."

Yosaku stroked his chin in thought, "Well ah, there really isn't that much of a difference between men and women where he should be hurt." He said before gesturing roundly in front of his own chest, "Except you know, he doesn't have any- *whistle* -'s."

"Pervert." Paulie commented from where he was stooped over Johnny's stiffly breathing form.

"What? So I can't even acknowledge that women have boobs and men don't around you?" Yosaku asked belligerently, "I'm pretty sure they've figured that out by now you friggin' prude!"

"I'm surprised _you_ figured it out by now!"

"Are you calling me dumb you damn smoke-billowing grease monkey?"

"I'm saying that any concept more complex than 'Yosaku smash' and you can see smoke coming from your ears!"

The two looked like they were just about to come to blows, crewmates be damned, situation not warranting any other kind of combat be damned, they were both willing to escalate a situation that meant absolutely nothing just for kicks.

The Swordsman that could force his way through anything vs. the man with an infinite amount of sneaky, unbreakable ropes that could come from anywhere. Rumble in the jungle? Alright, sure. Ring the bell.

"This isn't helping!" Marguerite shouted in a bid to stop them before they began, cradling Johnny's head on her lap and looking down at his bloodstained face. From his breathing he seemed to be unconscious, but with those sunglasses on she couldn't tell, "…Why do I feel so terrible about this happening? I just know if he died now…"

Both Paulie and Yosaku looked at each other before calming down from their would-be fight. This Kuja girl was really upset about Johnny going down in bitter defeat.

"He isn't even stretching!" The blonde young Kuja cried, pulling at Johnny's cheek, "He _has_ to be close to dying!"

…Yeah, she obviously didn't know them very well.

Yosaku scratched his stubble trying to think of something reassuring to say, "Look, I don't know your name, but this guy is tougher than you think, even if Luffy-aniki beat eight shades of shit out of him. Did he land anything?"

Marguerite smiled a bit, "He used his Haki. I didn't even see him draw his sword. It was so fast he started a fire just by swinging his sword and hurt Luffy."

Hearing that made Yosaku's eyes go wide, and without caring if Johnny was hurt or not he shoved his foot into his stomach to bend him up and grab him by the jacket, "Hey wake up! You got your Haki? How'd you do it you-?" He promptly dropped his injured best friend after getting whacked on the head by Marguerite's snake weapon, "Ow, you little-!"

"Are you an idiot?" Marguerite asked, holding Johnny's limp body protectively away from Yosaku.

Paulie's face split into a grin and he opened his mouth to answer the question until Yosaku placed his head within the open circle of Kubikiribouchou, "Don't you even say it."

"I'm still gonna think it."

Marguerite felt Johnny lifted from her grasp and speedily turned around, ready to fight, only to see that Naruto had taken the speed swordsman off of her hands, "He's really bad. Is he going to die?"

"Nah." Naruto said, patting Johnny on the back, "This guy's had his share of the rough stuff before. I'll drop him back on my ship and have our doctor fix him up. He'll be fine." A twinkle came to Naruto's eye when he saw the breath of relief Marguerite gave at hearing that.

Yosaku raised his hand and took his sword from around Paulie's head to strap it to his back once more, "Yo, Naruto-aniki. I'm coming too. Might as well." Paulie was also in on that, raising his hand as well, "I've got to start practicing anyway."

Nodding, Naruto gestured the duo over before looking over at Marguerite with a big grin, "…Do you want to come and watch him until he wakes up? Say thanks or whatever you want to say?"

If that girl was into the faster of his crew's two idiot swordsmen, why in the world would he do something to sabotage that? Whatever the man had done to get a Kuja girl to feel strongly about him, he'd clearly found his backbone from the act of doing so.

Also she was very cute. Way to go Johnny.

"Absolutely not!" Elder Nyon declared, clocking Naruto over the head with her snake staff. He didn't expect to get hit by an old lady, like he could talk about someone being old. But how could getting hit with a snake hurt? Either way, it did, "This island has customs. If she goes out to sea with you instead of as a Kuja Pirate, she will be branded as a traitor to the Kuja."

Really? Just for leaving for a few hours? These were some strict tribe laws. He intended to bring her right back. Lickety-split.

"Look, I can bring her back quick as long as Hancock has the Hiraishin kunai I gave her." Naruto said, holding his head where he was hit but otherwise showing nothing, "Speaking of Hancock-." Naruto made a clone and handed Johnny off to it before it teleported away with his crew members. He then grabbed Marguerite, "-I'm gonna go ask her instead. Cheers."

With that, he bolted in a flash of yellow, leaving the oldest living member of the Kuja tribe alone. At least she was outside of her villa.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"Ow…" Nojiko complained, holding her temple and lying on one of the beds in Muret's medical bay, "Can people die from headaches?"

"Yes." The lithe doctor of the crew responded, looking over some of the tests that she'd taken the time to run on Nojiko. Understandably, Nojiko was quite disturbed by the thought of dying from a headache, "But you won't. There's nothing in any of these scans that would say so. You've just got to gut it out until the pain subsides. Do you want something for it?"

"No. Someone on this ship's got to stay sober since the first mate probably won't." Nojiko sat up and prepared to stand back up to head outside only to feel a sudden appearance of multiple familiar signatures, "…Huh."

Noticing the Foxhound Pirates' first lady hesitate in getting up, Muret raised an eyebrow at her until footsteps could be heard on the wooden floor of the hallway outside. A few seconds later, Paulie and Yosaku walked past the doorway, the latter blowing a kiss to her that she thoroughly no-sold and ignored.

"That's my heart in there Paulie." She heard Yosaku say once he got a bit farther down the hall. God, she had to block a visible shiver after hearing that.

It took a moment for Paulie to get the double reference from Yosaku after everything that had happened on the Isle of Women, "I hope you realize that's not funny." Even if he wasn't going to tell anyone that Trafalgar Law had sole possession of his heart until further notice, making jokes about it was kind of dark.

"…It's kind of funny."

A moment later, Naruto walked into the medic bay with the beaten-to-hell Johnny slung over his shoulder, whom he proceeded to drop onto an open bed before sitting down on another.

Muret's mouth was wide open at the looks of Johnny's wounds until she came back to reality and cut his shirt off to start trying to gauge the damage done to him, "Oh my God! What happened to him?"

"Luffy happened to him." Naruto said, much to the surprise of the other two who obviously couldn't see why Luffy would ever attack one of them like that, "It's a long story, but don't worry, I'll talk about it later. Just handle Johnny."

Muret nodded and redoubled her efforts to do her job, "He looks like someone beat him with a pillowcase full of doorknobs." She remarked to herself with a frown, "It looks like I don't need to give him any surgery, but seriously, what the hell?"

Naruto then looked over at Nojiko who looked back at him as if she were hiding something. He noticed her wince slightly in pain and tilted his head in confusion, "What's the matter Nojiko, did something hurt you?"

Nojiko shook her head in response. Ugh, that was a big mistake. She had to hold her head afterwards, "Ah, it's nothing. Just my head." She knew that the others had harped on her before to tell him what was wrong, so she decided to now that he was there, "I think I just need to get used to my Haki developing because it's giving me migraines. It's been like this for a few days. Don't worry."

Even the smile she gave him looked like it hurt. Poor thing. All of the Kurama stuff, going back to Mt. Myoboku, and getting back out to sea… damn it, how could he miss something like Nojiko's discomfort?

Getting up, Naruto walked over to her and placed a hand on her forehead before running it down her cheek, "You should have told me earlier." Tilting her chin up, he gave her a kiss on the lips for support, "Lie down. I'll get Soren to run the ship until Boss gets back. Or I can do it I guess. I was just gonna dispel after dropping Johnny off."

Confusion was set on her face until she understood Naruto's remark, "You're a Naruto-kun clone?"

"Yeah." Clone-Naruto said, "Boss'll be back with Vivi-hime in a little while, so just sit tight." He gave her another kiss and got her to lay back down before turning to Muret who was still working on Johnny, "You got this?"

"Uh-huh." Muret gave him the okay sign before continuing to work on Johnny. It was going smoothly though. No trouble here, just basic stuff, "I'll make sure Nojiko gets some rest right after I'm done with this guy here. Go on Clone-sama."

Nojiko did her best to pout from the bed at her forced inaction, but she couldn't keep it up for too long from the guilty expression on Naruto's face, "Naruto-kun, I was the one hiding it from everyone. It's not like you're the only person that missed it. Now go." The clone still looked unsure but quickly bolted when Nojiko's fingers twitched to her hip.

It was instinctive as this was where she kept her guns, but on this occasion she wasn't wearing any of her holsters.

Muret just shook her head at seeing one of the strongest people alive run for the border, "You have one of the most dangerous men on the Grand Line, the actual person that's supposed to run this ship, trained."

XxX

(Amazon Lily – Empress' Palace)

Hancock took to Robin's being there much easier due to the fact that she was a woman, and that stance only softened further when she learned that Robin had been a slave at Tequila Wolf, even if it had only been for around two weeks.

But then Naruto broke her out and brought the place down before the Revolutionaries planning to do it ever even showed up. That would certainly serve to piss off the World Government more than it already had, but he more than likely didn't care. They could only kill you once after all.

With Luffy's wellbeing weighing on the mind of Robin, Hancock, and Vivi, the two members of the foreign crews decided to try and pass the time by telling stories involving their respective captains.

"…And that's how I ended up on the crew in the first place." Vivi said to Hancock in the Snake Princess' throne room with Robin listening as well as a conclusion to her story of how she fell in with the Foxhound Pirates to begin with, "Then there's the story about how he convinced the Marines that I'm brainwashed to fight for him."

Hancock just listened with a raised eyebrow to what Vivi could tell her of Naruto's capabilities and/or exploits until she was finished, "So he fooled the Marines with a plain bluff?" He didn't enchant them the way she did, or threaten anyone by turning them to stone? "…The more I hear about him, the more terrifying the thought it is of what he would be capable of if he was fully knowledgeable of how the world worked."

Vivi just shrugged in return. She was incapable of finding Naruto scary. After being trained by him, she had never really been affected by his shows of force, even when she'd seem him in action or the aftermath of certain things he'd done.

Fighting Admirals in brutal battles that actually caused the maps to be redrawn on one occasion, it didn't scare her. Even though that golden state of his that made her feel like he could cause a crater sneezing a little too hard, she was more attracted to it than afraid of it, because it had been established that for all of his strength he would never hurt her more so than most on the crew.

In a flash, Naruto reappeared in the throne room with his hold on a blonde Kuja that seemed to be completely stunned at the fact that she'd been in the jungle just a moment ago and now stood right before Boa Hancock.

Remembering herself and who she was in front of, Marguerite hurriedly bowed to her leader, "Hebihime."

Hancock's eye twitched slightly at the close proximity Naruto had with one of her subjects, so much so that her tone came out frosty, even for her standards as leader of the Kuja, "Uzumaki? Where is Luffy?"

To Vivi and Robin, the room seemed to get a tad colder than it had been back when they had been telling stories about their respective captains.

"Rayleigh's got him." Naruto replied, not oblivious to the change in tone one bit, "He walked off with him before I could ask if they wanted to teleport back here. They should be here in a little bit though since I took my time getting back."

"Did you now?" That didn't seem to assuage her bit of a temper too much, but her expression was cold, "Doing what may I ask? And what is one of my younger Kujas doing with you?"

Naruto looked over at Marguerite still bowing to Hancock and rolled his eyes, pulling her up to her feet, "That's kind of what I was taking my time about. It turns out Luffy wrecked one of my crew members trying to protect her before I got there, so I had to send him back to the Natural Disaster. Anyway, I just wanted to see if it was okay if I sent her to my ship for a bit to watch my crew member until he woke up so she could thank him."

"Another of your crew?" Hancock asked skeptically, losing her angrily stony countenance, "You couldn't be talking about one of the men you brought, could you? Because your little princess has been sitting here with me this entire time."

"Hey, I'm not young. I'm about to be 17." Vivi rebutted. She didn't like being treated like the baby of the crew, and it only seemed to be other people outside of the crew that did it. She was the princess of a nation damn it! Next in line to run the place! Her chops for being there were just as legit as anyone else's.

Naruto just nodded to Hancock's query, wondering why it mattered why it was a male crew member of his. Seriously, he thought they were past this, "Yeah, one of my swordsmen; Johnny. Anyway, I'll bring her right back. Honest."

She seemed to just stare at him for several seconds, trying to appraise what he was saying before apparently coming up with something intriguing, "Fine. As long as you're willing to leave a hostage in exchange, just in case. You understand."

Once again, she wanted to see what this man was really made of.

"Yep." Naruto said before gesturing for his resident princess, "Vivi-hime-." Hancock's face didn't change, but her eyes did. Was Naruto going to leave the princess of Alabasta there in exchange to get what he wanted, "-Come over here so I can send you home with… I'm sorry, I never got your name." He said apologetically to Marguerite.

Vivi could tell what Hancock had been trying to do and just grinned over at the Shichibukai for trying to expose some selfish side of Naruto with the bit of subterfuge utilized. Feeling vindicated by her captain, Vivi bounded on over to him where he sent her and Marguerite away before flickering right back.

"You're using yourself as a hostage?" Boa Hancock asked of Naruto after seeing him alone in front of Robin and herself.

Well, not so much a hostage, since even if he didn't have the capability to teleport away at a whim he was really confident in his chances to take anything dished out to him. So 'guest' was probably a better term to use than 'hostage' in this case.

"Yeah." Naruto replied, "So go ahead and turn me to stone or whatever you want to do to make you feel safe."

"You could be a clone." Robin pointed out, actually finding a bit of amusement at the whole thing.

Without flinching, Naruto punched himself in the face hard enough to draw blood and bruise his eye. What a way to prove he was himself, "Thanks for reminding her of that by the way." Naruto said sarcastically to a smiling Robin before turning his attention back to Hancock, "But yeah, it's me. So go ahead and do the whole 'turn me to stone' thing."

…He wasn't afraid of being turned to stone and being left vulnerable? At this point she had met only two men that weren't afraid of dying or suffering as a result of their actions, "And you're fine with that?"

"You'll turn me back." He answered with a grin, tapping his head before pointing at her, "I can't sense any ill will out of you right now. Not like the first time we met, and I'm much more sensitive to that sort of thing now."

"**And if she doesn't turn you back, I can materialize that fox Path body you gave me and raise all kinds of hell. With you trapped in stone you're like my flesh bag Trojan Horse."** Kurama said inside of his mind, **"I love it that people don't know enough about my powers to be scared of me yet. Lets me come and go way easier."**

"T-That won't be necessary." The dark-haired Kuja ruler said, a slight lapse in her composure, "You're free to return to your ship, as long as you stay for a while after you return."

Oh, an out? But that wasn't what they'd agreed on. And if she was being nice, the least Naruto felt he could do was adhere to the originally set conditions, "No, I think I'll stay prisoner for a bit."

He had a whole crew manning the ship, with a clone there since the one he'd sent earlier hadn't dispelled yet. It was technically like he was still there.

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"It's the most amazing thing I've ever seen." Soren said, leaning on the doorframe of the entrance to the medic bay, spying on the inside of it with the newest acquisition to the crew in the musician Byron.

Byron didn't get what was so amazing about it, "I'm afraid I don't see what you're referring to." The gentleman artist said, standing behind Soren until he looked inside to get a glimpse of Marguerite sitting at Johnny's bedside, "It's a girl. Admittedly it's a Kuja girl, but you don't seem to be the type to be surprised by a beautiful woman."

"It's not the chick, it's who the chick is doting on." Pointing sharply inside, Soren regained his composure and sighed, "Look, if you'd have been here from the start like I almost was, you'd know why it's weird that _that guy_ has any girl that would think something like that about him."

Byron just looked between Soren and the interior of the medic bay, somewhat understanding, but much more pragmatic in his approach, "Well from what I've heard, the Isle of Women lies in an area where most of them that aren't Kuja Pirates have never seen men."

Oh. That explained it then. Out of the handful of men that she'd probably ever even spoken to, Johnny was one of them that had done something rather impressive or worthwhile in front of her. Mystery solved.

And with that, Soren's interest in the scene quickly faded, confusing Byron when he up and walked away as if a nonexistent stray butterfly that had flown past him was now more interesting.

Heading outside onto the deck he found Paulie smoking through his cigar as if there wasn't enough smoke produced by the stogie for his lungs to feel full enough, "What's your problem shipwright?"

"Those two swordsmen are total morons for completely different reasons." Paulie said, flicking the stump of his mighty fine smokable into the ocean, "Both are two halves of the same idiot. And I wish I could say more, but I won't."

"Eh, we're all pretty dumb. Otherwise we wouldn't even be here." Soren shrugged and leaned against the railing next to him. He wasn't going to press him, because he really didn't care that much if it didn't involve him and no one else was dead or dying, "The only people on this ship that are really smart are Nojiko and the princess." He gestured to the helm where Vivi was again manning the wheel under the watchful eye of Naruto-clone.

"I take offense to that." Paulie lit another cigar to burn through while he conversed.

"Say something smart that doesn't have to do with ships. Go."

"…Don't put me on the spot fool!"

"Why don't you go down to the wading pool in the back and hang out like you usually do?"

"I'm training down there you tattooed dunderhead! My abilities don't melt shit the way yours do!"

At the wheel, solidly ignoring Soren and Paulie's arguing, Vivi kept a watchful eye out on the seas ahead of her, smile on her face as she steered.

The intention of the crew was to head past the Sabaody Archipelago area and move on along to cross the Red Line. That had been the course of action since returning from the sabbatical on Mt. Myoboku, and there was no reason to put it off at the moment.

Vivi would be the first to admit that she enjoyed having control of the wheel, even though it wasn't quite her control because she was doing what she was told to by Naruto... or his clone, who was acting as the power supply to the seals in the sail that attracted more wind to speed it up.

But it was just one of the things that she'd learned since joining the crew. When she got back home she'd had seen and experienced enough to be the kind of ruler that Alabasta really deserved after all that had happened to them. To make sure that no one could take advantage of them again. No Baroque Works, no World Government, nothing.

"I've got a present for you." Naruto-clone said out of the blue to Vivi, getting her attention off of the ocean for a moment, "Well, the real me does. Something he was working on for you for a while after dealing with a few Logia fruits, and he got the toads to finish it. It's done now, so you'll have to wait until he comes back to bug him about it."

Before Vivi could launch into questions on just what he was talking about, Perona's spectral projection floated up through the deck with her hands on her hips, "How come she gets a gift? Where's my gift?"

The belligerence of the ghost girl! Just what did she do that made her think she deserved a gift? They met her when she tried to take over the ship for goodness sake!

Vivi gave a strained smile to her unofficial rival, "I didn't know that prisoners received presents. And what would you want for a gift if you could have something?"

"Kurama-chan and Carue-chan!" Perona spiritedly said, flipping upside-down in her hovering out of excitement, "Both of them are so cute, I can't stand it, I just want to hug them!"

Nefertari Vivi was vehemently against that, without question, "Absolutely not! Carue is my pet! I've raised him for years!" She had completely forgotten through her dislike for Perona about the fact that there was absolutely no realistic possibility of Perona ever getting her oversized duck.

Ever.

"You think my musty old fox is cute?" Naruto couldn't help but snicker at the thought of anyone considering Kurama cute. If only she could see him in all of his horrifying glory. Apparently the little show of force from Mt. Myoboku wasn't enough to scare Perona away from him for very long, "You do know that he'll bite your face off if you try to grab him again don't you?"

"I'll make him love me and I won't stop trying." Perona insisted before pouting about something, "We've got to do something about that voice though. Most definitely not cute."

"Aren't you supposed to be lookout?"

"I am… was." The pink-haired ghost princess defended, "Besides, there's nothing out there. I looked like five minutes ago."

"Humor me would you?"

Perona rolled her eyes but flew up to the canopy-style crow's nest to return to her body and check the telescope. Upon doing so, she blushed in embarrassment at almost missing the fact that a ship was coming right for them.

A warship with several large cannons sticking out of the bow, with a jolly roger that consisted of a castle with crossbones through it and arrows at its side pointing up.

She bolted right out of her body once more and flew down to the deck with a sheepish look on her face, "Pirate ship coming this way at 2 o'clock. Lots of guns. Lots of big, big guns. There's a name on the sail; 'Bege."

"Like the Supernova Capone Bege?" Vivi asked, before biting her lip. She was up on the knowledge of the several crews that were being touted as the next generation of pirates, and Capone Bege's Firetank Pirates were one of them, "Should I change course? We can probably outrun them. I've never seen a ship as fast as the Natural Disaster."

That thought would have to wait however, as some people had gotten wind of the fact that there were dangerous pirates coming their way. Namely, someone that liked fighting quite a bit.

"Ship!?" Soren jetted to the front with a looking glass to peer out at sea in the appropriate direction, "Awesome. I was getting bored anyway." He then turned back around to see Naruto standing up and cracking his knuckles, "…What the hell do you think you're doing?" He asked edgily.

"I'm gonna go over and talk." Naruto replied, limbering up for the bit of exercise it would take to go over there, "I mean, just because they're pirates doesn't mean-.

BOOM!

It took a few seconds, but cannon shot from the other ship splashed in the water a short distance away. Clearly the aim had been on them. That had been pretty close for a first shot, but then again they were a bright orange ship.

"-Nevermind. I'm gonna go sink that thing."

Noting the pissed off look on Naruto-clone's face afterwards, Soren turned to the side and looked over the side, "Oh my God, Uzumaki!" Naruto-clone hurried over, thinking that the cannonballs might have been a buoyant mine of some sort, "…Uzumaki's clone got shot!"

What?

Before Soren had even finished his sentence he stabbed through the clone with his index finger. Shigan (Finger Gun) of the Rokushiki. No acid necessary.

Up Naruto went into a puff of smoke, leaving Soren to blow on the end of his finger as if it were a real gun.

Vivi, Perona, and Paulie stared at him as if he were insane. One of them actually questioned this aloud. That one being Paulie, "Are you out of your goddamned mind!? _You_ shot him! …Err, stabbed him! You stabbed him!"

"I didn't do it." Soren said blankly, shifting his attention to look out at the incoming ship, "That first shot was closer than we thought. They got Uzumaki. You guys saw it. And if you didn't, I'll still say it happened and take it to my deathbed."

"Why!?"

"Because I want to fight somebody, and if Uzumaki was here he'd just hog all of the action! Even his clone would!" Soren replied loudly before getting sarcastic, "Eek! Now we don't have the extra wind in our sails, making us as fast as a regular Marine ship. We're so doomed."

Vivi would have felt the need to hit Soren in the head if she wasn't certain that it would harm her infinitely more than it would him, "So you dispelled his clone? The one thing around here that can actually power the ship's super weapon and sails that give us our speed boost?"

"Yep."

"…Just to get into a battle with dangerous pirates?"

"I've fought dangerous people over way less-."

BOOM!

"-And what's life without getting into a little fight every once in a while?" Soren said, cracking his knuckles as the ship of the Firetank Pirates came closer and closer, "Besides, who says we need Uzumaki every time something gets tough?"

When he got no answer from the others, the smirk slipped off of his face and his shoulders slumped as he turned back around to face them all.

"…I need this. Don't take this away from me you bastards."

* * *

**Yeah, I took a while on this one because I wanted more manga chapters to drag on to use as a reference tool before trying to keep going, but screw it. I haven't really seen anything that would render anything I already planned to do moot, so whatever.  
**

**Anyway, keeping on topic of recent chapters I have to say that I like Bellamy now. I'm a fan. Bellamy is badass. **

**Luffy's 'act right' beatdown he gave him way back when put some respectability into that guy's attitude, and aw hell… I'm rootin' for Bellamy to not die or suffer an unsavory fate now. Maybe I'm just soft.**

**Maybe I just think his powers are kind of cool. Who knows? I don't.**

**Kenchi out.**


	47. Trust In Me

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. Oda, Kishimoto, you two guys wouldn't give a crippled crab a crutch.

**Chapter 47: Trust in Me**

* * *

"Princess!" Soren bellowed, standing at the very front of the Natural Disaster and pointing straight ahead at oncoming ship that had already fired at them, "Straight ahead, and steady as she goes! I want the nose of this ship to be right! Up! Their! Ass!"

"We don't have a traditional melee ram on the bow and you got rid of the only person that can power the bow's weapon!" Vivi shouted right back at the acid-generating warrior, "Why the hell would you want to ram them?"

"I'm getting onboard that thing to beat their asses and take their swag, and I don't want to risk fucking up and falling into the water!" Soren shouted, stomping on the deck several times before turning to leer predatorily at the enemy vessel, "I want to see the terror in the whites of their eyes when they realize they're screwed."

He was a situational psychopath.

Usually this wasn't a problem. At certain times, like right then when Nojiko wasn't in the proper condition to scare common sense into him for instance, it became an issue.

"I'm in!" Spectral Perona chirped cheerfully as she floated around the helm being steered by Nefertari Vivi, "It's been so long since I've done a good old-fashioned raid. I wonder what they have."

Vivi banged her pretty blue-haired head against the wheel and moaned piteously, "We're not pirates…" In return she got unanimous scoffs and snorts from Soren, Perona, and Paulie, "What? We're not! Naruto always says we're not!"

Paulie held his cigar away from his mouth and blew his smoke away before moving closer to Vivi to let her in on the cold, hard truth, "I hate to break your adorable little heart, but we're so totally pirates. We steal things and run away on a ship. Case in point for example, when Johnny and Yosaku fixed that sword fighting tournament a while back and stole the prize money. That was piratey. That happened right after I joined up."

"Except for the doctor lady, ghost girl, and the tar-lunged shipwright we all have bounties. High bounties. We fight Marines _all_ _the_ _time_. Our humble captain broke his foot off in Admiral Aokiji's taint if you don't remember," Soren pointed out with a swirl of his finger, "That's some pirate shit right there."

"And besides, I don't see why you have any problems with it," Perona said, her ghost form floating upside-down in front of Vivi's face, "If it helps, just think of it as pirate-on-pirate crime."

Paulie grinned at that bit of reasoning, "If a pirate robs another pirate in the middle of the ocean and no one's around to see it, is it really a crime?" A rousing round of 'oohs' from those that were intrigued by the paradoxical rhetorical question only made Vivi bang her head on the wheel once more.

"By a show of hands," Soren said, "Who wants to go over there and steal all of their shit?" Perona and Paulie raised their hands, "All opposed?" Vivi of course, but it was three against one, "Those not on the deck don't count, the ayes have it, let's do this."

"I wish Naruto was here…" Vivi said.

Soren just rolled his eyes, "You heard Uzumaki's clone. He was going to just sink the ship, plunder and all. You don't sink the ship until _after_ you get the loot. That's day one stuff. What kind of pirate is he?"

"We're not pirates!" Vivi insisted with a serious pout, "We're not!"

She was gleefully ignored.

XxX

(Meanwhile – With Naruto – Isle of Women – Amazon Lily)

Laying on his back, head resting on Kurama's sleeping form, Naruto stared up at the sky while waiting for Marguerite to request to return to the island.

'Fuck, this is boring,' He thought to himself, almost wishing that Kurama was awake so that the fox could bitch him out over the reason that he'd been angry about earlier. Getting into an argument could be better than doing absolutely nothing, 'Then again, Kurama usually doesn't understand it when I say that I've got to do what I've got to do.'

Sighing to himself, in reality Naruto was dreading the shout and bite fest that would ensue when he tried in vain to explain why he used Rinne Tensei no Jutsu when he did and why he did.

A bolt went off in his head, sending him a clone memory of looking overboard before being unceremoniously dispelled, "…Soren."

On one hand, he could go back and completely emasculate Soren in front of not only their crew but the crew that he had eradicated Naruto's clone to fight with in the first place. That would be fun. On the other hand, he'd promised that he'd be a hostage until Hancock wanted Marguerite to return. While that hostage stuff was mostly empty, because if he was a real hostage the sky was also made of premium liquor, it was still a promise. When you were trying to establish a rapport with an organization like the Kuja Tribe, things like that though small in the grand scheme of things could go a long way.

Anyway, Naruto's crew was tough. Even with Johnny down they didn't need him to run in. If these were people he needed to protect every step of the way he'd have never taken any of them with him.

Byron was way stronger than anyone else figured either, and it was time that someone other than him got to see just what that man could do. He had been a captain on the Grand Line in his own right before he'd been captured as a slave after all.

It would be hilarious to come back and see if Soren reacted to seeing that his spot as tippy top dog first mate was threatened by the unassuming musician guy supplying his alcohol vice. It might persuade him to spend less time idly drinking and maybe bear more of the load that didn't directly revolve around fighting.

"**So are we going to talk about the very, very stupid thing that I know you did, or are you going to procrastinate and fail to lie to me?"** Kurama asked lazily, though his tone held no sense of playful mocking. He was evidently still quite heated about what he'd discovered with Naruto's physical state of being.

It was better to get this out of the way now. At least in Amazon Lily there was less of a chance of Kurama trying to transform and give him a beatdown. He wasn't sure how much of the place would be left standing if he did.

"Fine," Naruto admitted with a sigh, "I used it. I used the Rinne Tensei."

"**On what?"**

"On an entire village that got slaughtered by these pirates we ran into."

"**What village!?"**

"…"

"**You didn't even find out the name of the village you used it on, did you?"** That was a question that Naruto honestly couldn't answer. It was quite unfortunate, because he was about to be presented with another one, **"How many people did you save?"**

"A few hundo tops."

"**Oh dear sage… he wasted his life force on a few hundred people,"** Cue a nine-tailed slap to the head,** "You're lucky you dumbass! You never used that jutsu before on anything! Ever! Why there and why them?"**

That was an easy question, one that Naruto was more than willing to defend himself against.

Blue eyes set on Kurama in a glare as he sat up off of his friend, Naruto spoke, "They weren't pirates, soldiers, ninjas, or anything. They didn't pick the sort of life where you've gotta expect to die. They were just people born on the Grand Line; the wrong place to be with all of the freaks and jerks that drift through. I don't regret what I did, so you can be as pissed as you want to. You can just get over it."

Kurama growled at Naruto, his eyes taking a demonic glow to them for a few seconds before remembering who he was trying to swell up against. He could admonish Naruto for being dumb, but when push came to shove he couldn't actually scare him at all, **"Like I said, you're lucky. I've noticed that many of these humans have a distinct lack of developed chakra systems. If you had to do the same thing to people that were actually powerful, it would cost you your life to restore them."**

"Break that down for me a little more, and be specific," Naruto requested, "I didn't ever find out how it worked other than the ways I could actually see up close."

"**I'll use your crew as an example. You could restore all of the women on your crew, but the blonde, happy one would be extremely costly to you, more so than any others. The men are markedly more difficult, even though the blonde woman by herself would be harder to resurrect than all of the men other than the acid man."**

All of this talk about what-if scenarios brought about one that Naruto's wizened mind had thought of multiple times in the past, seeing as how if things kept going the way they were he would outlive them all, "Could I bring them all back if I had to?"

The 500 million beli question.

Kurama did not mince words. He didn't need Naruto wasting himself trying to give people a shot at the second-chance sweepstakes.

"**They're too strong all together. Bringing them all back would kill you. Just bringing back the acid-spitting one alone would suck an extreme amount of life out of you. It would take me time to restore you to a workable degree, because you would 'Nagato' yourself. Even then I'm not certain if I could put you back to the way you were if you brought back anyone around your level so to speak."**

You were only supposed to get one use of Rinne Tensei, and you could bring back multiple people, but it would kill the user upon completion. Naruto somewhat cheated because of the unique composition of his body makeup, his overwhelming amounts and force of his chakra, and the underdeveloped chakra of the people he'd restored. Bringing back actual warriors though was something else entirely.

"Are you trying to scare me? You've got to know better than that," Naruto said with a small grin, "I'll keep all of that in mind though."

He'd keep it in mind. It didn't mean that keeping it in mind would keep him from doing it regardless, because Kurama had answered his question, even indirectly. He could do it, it just wouldn't have a very happy ending.

"**I'm just saying; you **_**can**_** die,"** Kurama stated informatively for Naruto's benefit, **"If you hid on the mountain with the toads you would probably live forever, but you would never do anything so boring. If you pull a Rinne Tensei and die, and kill me while you're at it, I will torment you in the afterlife until I respawn. I'm only making sure you realize that."**

"Got it," From where he'd set his head back down on Kurama's torso, Naruto could hear a low rumbling from his vulpine partner, 'What the hell?'

Sitting up, Naruto looked over the other side of the fox to see that a woman's hand had sprouted from the ground to rub Kurama's neck. Robin. He wondered how much of that she heard, and from the fact that she could form any part of her body on any given surface such as ears or anything, she probably heard quite a bit.

How she managed to sneak up on him he had no idea. Probably a mix of her being naturally sneaky due to how she had to survive as a child, and her completely lacking any sort of malice to him whatsoever.

"Kurama bites people when they try to pet him Robin-chan," Naruto warned aloud, feeling a second arm appear to pet him as a joke, "I might too, but then you might like that better."

"Do you gain power from lying out in the sun?" Robin asked with a calm smile on her face, one that hadn't been there since he'd found her at Tequila Wolf. It was good that it was back. She was much prettier with that aloof air she had often kept before everything had gone to pot, "It would explain a lot if you did."

"No… but now that you say that I'm thinking there's probably a way I can do something with that," Seriously, that had him thinking. How hard could it be to harness the power of the sun for his own purposes? People did it all the time back home for solar energy and things like that. It was worth looking into later, "Hmm. Anyway, what's up?"

"Come with us to Marineford."

Whoa. What?

Squinting his eyes while looking at someone for the first time in a long time, Naruto regarded Nico Robin closely, "I'm kind of supposed to stay here until the Marguerite girl wants to come back. I'm a hostage."

"Boa Hancock is insisting that you accompany her as she takes Luffy and Rayleigh to Marineford," Robin said as she leaned against the wall nearby, "I can see why. If she left you alone, what would keep you from just teleporting home?"

As if to insinuate that Hancock could stop him if it really came down to it. She baited him, and it was almost a reflex for him to say what he did next.

"Nothing's stopping me from doing it now really."

"So you're admitting that this entire 'hostage' excuse is a farce?"

Damn it. Him and his ego. Naruto thought he'd fixed that little problem of his after Aokiji had given 30% of his body frostbite, and yet he walked straight into that one. That was a really sharp woman. She didn't even have to stop or slow the conversation to get him with that.

"Fine," Naruto grumbled, as this was going to be quite the journey, "But why-?"

"You saw the wound Luffy had, didn't you?" Robin wasn't asking. She was flat out declaring that Naruto had seen it. There wasn't any need of assuming that he hadn't, "He would do anything for his crew. For us. If he wants to send a message to the others, it doesn't matter if he has to go back to the place that caused him the most pain in his life. I would just feel better knowing that he had all of the people around him for this that he could."

Ugh, whenever she started lowering that stone cold calm demeanor of hers to speak from the heart it always absolutely wrecked him.

"I've got a crew of my own," Naruto reasoned, "I've got to do right by them first you know. You want me to take 'em all the way to Marineford as a distraction? Or leave 'em all alone while I run off and do my own thing?"

While he loved making his fair share of trouble, marching his way up into the face of the Marine HQ to give the chance for a message to be sent just spelled lunacy, even by his own standards. And while it would have been fine for him to do it on his own, theoretically he'd have his own crew with him when it occurred.

It wasn't like they'd be fans of him saying he was heading to a place like that all on his own, so even if he tried to make it an order to wait him out they would go along regardless.

He didn't even mind that such a thing would more than likely occur. At heart he resented the idea of leaving them behind more than any other plan anyway, even for a few days. He'd already left his loved ones before already, and the idea of doing the same and leaving them high and dry for the benefit of another grated him intensely, even for just a short time.

"I don't know what I'm asking of you," Robin eventually said, "You've done more than enough for us in the past as it is. You've done more than enough for me. The favors still have yet to be returned."

"I don't do what I do because I want something back," Naruto explained, "I do it because I care," He let out a sigh while Kurama snorted to hide a stymied chuckle, "I can't drag my crew into some danger like that, but I can do something for you to try and loosen things up."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

"Just for reference's sake-," Byron said as he finished loading a cannon with Soren stuffed into it, "-The princess has a serious problem with your course of action."

The bandanna-clad acid-spitter poked his head out and shot his eyes over at Vivi who was pouting with her back turned to the entire affair in protest. Despite the bullets and cannon shot flying at their ship from all around, she did not budge an inch. Someone was clearly too tough to care about trifles such as firearms any longer. Good for her.

"Her dissention is duly noted," Soren droned before dropping back into the cannon, "Alright, Tekkai's ready! Fire this fucking thing!"

"Aye…" Byron said with a sigh, before lighting it and plugging his ears as it went off a moment later.

*BANG!*

In a blast of gunpowder, Soren was shot through the air, a rope connected to his body as he whooped and kept his body curled for aerodynamic benefit. Tied to the other end of it, Paulie let out a sigh and lit himself a new cigar before he found himself jerked through the air by the Soren cannonball.

"Idiots," Vivi muttered to herself before realizing how much she sounded like Nojiko right then. Planting her hands back on the wheel, she began to maneuver the ship around for the battle at hand.

If she could avoid the headwind, she could start finding a way to circle the enemy ship safely. There wasn't a ship faster than the Natural Disaster that she'd seen and by now she knew how to take advantage of that.

While Vivi was unaware of it, she had become a very serviceable helmswoman. Despite thinking that she needed Naruto to direct her, she was used to being the one in control of something like this. As subtle as it was, such a hands-on practice was an allusion to her to-be ruler status. She was the one with control over where they went and how they moved.

"Princess Vivi," Byron asked, placing a hand over his heart in a gesture of intent, "My blood is beginning to boil with the passion of battle. May I inquire as to your directions for me once we get close enough to the enemy vessel?"

It caught the poor girl off-guard at first, as she had forgotten what it was like to be spoken to in casual conversation with such a formal vocabulary. She quickly recovered however, "Uh, I don't really have anything for you that I need done Byron-san. What do you _want _to do?"

"I want to FIGHT!"

"…Err… okay," Who could have seen the gentleman musician as one so battle-hungry? Then again, he had been a pirate captain in the past, "I'll be fine here, but I kind of need someone here to help me man the helm," That seemed to disappoint the former slave, something that Vivi quickly picked up on, "...I promise that if something happens you can go do your thing, and as it is it's just you and me right now in case we're boarded."

Byron's eyes lit up with an all new fire in them, "By God you're right princess. As of now you and I are the only thing keeping the hounds of the enemy from assailing our comrades inside! I will not fail you or them as the main guard!"

Well that little situation had been handled, though Vivi admittedly really did want to see just how Byron fought. She knew that he used his hair as a weapon due to a Devil Fruit, but how he did so was still lost on her and many of the others.

How strong could he have been though? Captain or not, she'd seen pirate captains that couldn't lace up the shoes of some of the other lower-level pirate members of other crews. But for some reason none of the active experienced fighters on the crew had ever questioned whether or not Byron could handle himself or not.

She'd find out eventually she assumed.

XxX

(Onboard the Firetank Pirates' Ship)

To the amazement of the mafia-looking pirate crew once they stopped firing at their designated target, only two members of the target ship's crew came to fight them.

The consensus opinion after seeing their eyesore of an orange ship with tree-like masts was that the members of that crew must not have been wrapped too tight. Only too late did they begin to recognize who they were messing with when they saw acidic steam flying off of the body of the figure that had fallen from the air, shot at them from a cannon.

Paulie landed smoothly in his own right, though he'd bitten through his own cigar mid-flight, making him rather cranky upon landing, "We're the Foxhound Pirates, blah-blah-blah… here for all of your valuables-," He was not a fan of all of the rifles and pistols being pointed at them and let his opinion of such be known, "-Pipe Hitch Knives!"

From his sleeves faster than a gunshot flew several long ropes with sharp blades tied into the knotting, cutting and tearing into the enemies surrounding them before they retracted back from whence they came.

Soren let out a whistle, as he was going to do that, but Paulie had beaten him to it, "Yeah, what he said, only not as nice," All he got in return were groans of pain and discomfort. Turning to Paulie he gestured to the downed enemies, "…Is this it, or do you think there are more below-deck?"

Paulie shrugged and watched Soren exude acid from beneath his boots to create a hole in the deck that he dropped down through, "…Won't know until we start looking," The shipwright then followed the crew's first mate into the opening.

It wasn't a great fall at all by their standards, ten feet at the most, but they seemed to land in an extremely posh trophy room, or a large office or lounge of some sort. There were all sorts of upscale paintings and sculptures. Lounge games, including a pool table, were situated around the vast ship room.

What the hell? It was like the entire underside of the deck was just this lounge. Where the hell did the crew reside? Even lower? There had been at least fifty guys on the upper deck. This ship didn't seem big enough to fit them all if there weren't any rooms on the top floor.

"Holy shit, open bar!" Soren said, using Soru to blur his way over to the glass display featuring all sorts of aged alcoholic beverages. These Firetank Pirates knew their stuff. No cheap swill on this ship, "We're coming back for _all_ of this."

Paulie rolled his eyes but decided that if it would shut him up they could come back. It would at least cut down on the amount of work Byron had to do in order to keep Soren supplied with booze, for the time being anyway.

From the far end of the room, the door opened to reveal four more firearm toting Firetank Pirates flanking one man in particular. A short stocky man with grey stubble, sideburns, and slicked back black hair wearing a black and white pinstriped suit and hat, a green scarf tucked into his jacket.

Hands tucked into his pockets and a cigar in his mouth, his beady black eyes panned back and forth between the two Foxhound Pirates, "Yare… my guys didn't sink you yet? What the hell am I paying you rubes for?"

"Sorry Father!" The Firetank Pirates said before opening fire on Paulie and Soren. Paulie ducked and covered behind the sturdiest thing he could see to protect himself while Soren simply stood statue-still and activated his Tekkai, putting it to the test.

Fifteen seconds later when the murderous fire ceased, Soren was still holding up the neck of a shattered bottle that he'd been planning to sample before it had been shot by the now dumbfounded Firetank Pirates, "Drink up, it's Saturday!"

"Spoken like a true alcoholic," Paulie said, popping back out from behind cover, "It's not Saturday."

"Alright, it's Sunday then," Soren reasoned, "Jesus had wine at the Last Supper."

"It's not Sunday," Paulie deadpanned.

"Monday then?" Soren said with a shrug of the shoulders, "First day back at the job."

"It's not Monday either."

"Whatever day it is. Tuesday? Crew's getting on my goddamn nerves. Wednesday? Hump Day. Thursday? It's almost Friday, time to celebrate. Friday? Thank God!" Clearly Soren always had a valid reason to be drinking, for one reason or another.

Paulie sighed before hearing the sound of guns being reloaded, "Oh, that's right. This is happening," He shot out several ropes from his sleeves, wrapping them around the arms of the well-armed pirates before sharply pulling them all inward, "Rope Action: Round Turn!"

With one yank he jerked them all inward and smashed them together with scary force. How much force? Well there was blood on the floor where they all landed. A fairly unnerving amount of blood.

"You're going to want to get them a doctor," Paulie said, continuing to smoke his stogie.

"I don't waste space with having doctors here," Bege said, not sweating the devastating injuries that had been dealt to his men both on the deck and right in front of him, "If I need more guys I replace 'em, simple as that. You think taking down seventy or eighty guys matters much? I've got to have some people out running the ship after all."

"What the hell are you talking about tubbs?" Soren asked with a shrug, "You're saying you've got more guys?" This ship couldn't fit many more than what they'd already gone through. It wasn't that big, and this room on its own took up most of the entire floor of the ship they were on, "Where?"

As he asked this, Bege smirked, a row of miniature gunports forming all across his torso in the direction of Soren and Paulie, tiny cannons aiming their way. Yes, it was quite a freaky ability, however after having seen what they'd borne witness to throughout their journey it wasn't really that impressive at first glance.

As far as Devil Fruit powers went, while it was one of the more unique ones it wasn't as intimidating as some others.

"Are you serious?" Soren asked aloud, "You might as well shoot me with a B.B. gun those cannons are so little. It'd probably do the same amount of damage."

Bege just smirked and plucked his cigar from his mouth to speak clearly and concisely, "…No pirate has the natural firepower I do."

The cannons were fired, and from then on out there were officially no more jokes to be made. While the cannons might have been small, after it left his body, the ordinance was full-sized.

*BOOM!*

XxX

(Meanwhile – Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Vivi could only look on with stunned eyes as an entire side of the enemy ship was blown off entirely. She hadn't requested Byron to fire a single shot with any of their guns, so it wasn't her. It had come from the inside of the vessel.

Did Soren and Paulie find the place where the Firetank Pirates kept their armaments? No, because they wouldn't have tried to sink the ship while they were still looting the place. Blowing things up wasn't either of their styles anyway.

The door to the interior of the ship flew open to reveal Miss Valentine after hearing the sound of the deafening explosion from inside. It took her only a matter of moments to realize what had begun to happen while she'd been making lunch for everyone, "…Wait, did we get into a battle while I started cooking?"

She didn't know if she was more concerned or put out that a fight had started without her. She did tend to get a bit engrossed in her meal preparation when she was working for everyone on the crew.

As far as Vivi was concerned, having more hands on deck was just fine with her. Soren, Paulie, and Perona were gone. Yosaku was inside dead asleep, Johnny was still badly hurt and being watched over by the Kuja girl, Nojiko's head was still splitting itself apart from the inside, and Naruto wasn't there.

'I can't believe this. Naruto's not here, Soren's not here, and Nojiko's under the weather,' Vivi thought to herself, gritting her teeth at the sight of the smoke and fire coming from where three of their crew members had gone, '…Does that mean I'm in charge by default?'

Miss Valentine wasn't really a leader despite the fact that she was the most powerful fighter currently onboard. She was the type to go with the flow, and she wasn't one to issue any sort of command to anyone for anything.

Well if Vivi was the one who was technically in charge that meant that she had to take responsibility for everyone else. She was a princess, someone who was supposed to be able to lead others, so she had to step up to the plate. Now was when it counted, and even if she wasn't the strongest there had to be something she could do.

'Right. I'm in charge. And with everyone else with me there's nothing too tough for us to handle.'

She wasn't alone, and she wasn't about to let anyone down if she could help it. She just hoped that the others were alright.

XxX

To think that anyone would have been willing to inflict such devastation on their own vessel, it was maddening. Sure, Capone Bege had a ship roughly the size of the Natural Disaster, but not a single member of the Foxhound Pirate crew would have ever been willing to use an attack powerful enough to take out the entire starboard side of their method of travel, of their home.

Floating up through the floor of the ruined ship level, Perona took advantage of her spectral form to search through the wreckage caused by only one attack from the mafia-styled pirate. While Soren and Paulie had been cleaning house, she'd been locating the enemy treasure stash.

Then Bege blew most of the left side of the ship away with a cannon volley from inside of his own body that could have blown the walls off of a Marine base.

"Oh no…" The ghost girl mumbled to herself as she floated around the afflicted zone of devastation. Much to her surprise she was actually concerned. _She_ was concerned for _them_. Imagine that, "Ugly acid-man and ugly rope-man, they couldn't really be-... could they?"

Why in the world did she care? They were just some silly crew, and they'd tied her to the front of their ship!

But that had been quite some time ago and she hadn't been down there for very long… and they weren't bad. Sure, she wanted to take that pretty little princess from Alabasta down a peg, and the men were all ugly brutes to her, but the women were all nice enough, Kurama and Carue were both adorable, and Gekko Moriah was nowhere to be found.

Being with them was so much better than being alone on what was left of Thriller Bark. At times it was even fun.

"Tch," Her attention was drawn to Capone Bege, who wandered out from behind a mostly destroyed wall, "Those idiots just had to piss me off. Now I've got to take out another ship and restaff it all over again. I have all of those things with me already, but that isn't the point."

"You ugly jerk!" Perona shouted at him, flying through the air only to pass through him near-harmlessly once she reached him. She then remembered that her astral body wasn't dangerous without her utilizing her attack ghosts and she immediately readied herself to get him back, "I'll make you wish you were never born!"

"I'm supposed to be afraid of a little girl?" Bege asked, tapping the ash off of the end of his cigar as he ignored the creepy feeling of having Perona fly through him, "Why don't you just float off like a good brat?"

Gritting her teeth as tears of anger and a bit of regret pricked at her eyes, small ghosts broke themselves away from Perona's astral body and began flying around frantically, like bees buzzing around a hive. If he wanted to blow something up, she'd give him something with some bang to it; her Mini Hollows.

Any inclination she had to fight for some bit of revenge faded when she heard the disgruntled order come from a pile of debris nearby.

"I thought I said this guy is mine. That means you too ghost-girl."

She didn't think she'd ever be happy to see or hear Soren of all people, but her heart lifted when she saw him render a pile of the ruined ship to a bubbling mess, dragging Paulie by the neck of his jacket.

Paulie was out cold, and Soren looked as if he'd rolled around in a furnace, but he was still standing and seemed more pissed off than injured. Damn that Tekkai was effective to stand up to that many cannon shots at once.

"Hey dandy-dick…" Soren said, grinning with his sharper than average canines, "…You might have a lot of big guns in there, but your aim sucks. Only four of those hit me at most."

'Only four?' Perona thought to herself, as she floated over at the unconscious Paulie, trying to get his vision to focus on her. He was a grumpy, surly old deckhand, but he hadn't been that bad to her after the initial prisoner phase had worn off. He was like a gruff uncle, "Are you alright?"

"…Remind me to take a refresher on that Haki stuff from the Kuja girl…" Paulie muttered, "I really think I wouldn't have taken the blasts so badly if I knew how to do it."

Soren's eyes set on Paulie for a moment before his glare returned to Bege. He spit onto the floor and ignored the sizzling noise of his loogie melting through, 'This was all my fault.' He thought to himself. Yes, he was an asshole, but he honestly hadn't expected any of his actual crew to get hurt. Short-sighted things like that… apparently joining a crew hadn't taught him much about team accountability until right then. All of his fights had been solo efforts.

For once he'd fought someone with an overwhelming attack ability and no qualms about using it without trying to precisely aim it. It was a lesson almost too hard to have learned. If he himself hadn't been iron-tough, Paulie might have bitten the big one.

Some first mate he was.

Soren couldn't bring himself to be upset at Bege for doing what he had to do, he was a pirate after all, but that didn't mean he wasn't about to get his ass handed to him.

He was angrier at himself than anything else, but since he didn't have sadomasochistic tendencies he'd have to make due with beating the daylights out of someone else and directing his rage elsewhere.

First, he had to make sure that Bege's stupidly-destructive powers wouldn't hurt Paulie again. Perona would be fine, she was in her ghost form, but a few more errant shots like the first one and the shipwright would be pushing up daisies.

'Hand-to-hand it is then,' Soren flexed his fingers with audible cracks before darting forward with Soru. A large doorport opened up right in the center of Bege's chest, and Soren's eyes widened as he saw the black metal of a larger cannon poke out. It was the only warning he got before a shot was fired.

*BOOM!*

The shot missed, but it forced Soren to cut out from his attempt to attack. It also gave him a moment to analyze what he could of Bege's powers, 'When he opens those doors it doesn't matter if what's behind them is small or not, when it leaves his body it's full-sized ordinance.'

What a dangerous power. And he hadn't moved an inch for any of his assault.

Bege shook his head and threw the stub of his cigar away, "This is why I hate fighting my own solo battles. Guys like you always think they can analyze me and come up with a way to win. There's nothing to analyze. I've got an army inside of me. That's all there is to it."

Sneering, Soren gestured for Bege to bring it on, "Well you'd better call out every last one of 'em right now."

It was big talk, because while Bege seemed to have no issues with destroying what was left of his own ship just to kill him in a one-on-one, Soren still had an out-of-it Paulie that neither he nor Perona could get to safety.

Rising to the challenge, drawbridge doors opened on Bege's body next, prompting rifle fire from the miniature underlings he had inhabiting his body. Soren turned on his Tekkai to endure the bullets for a short time until he saw what the doors had been opened for.

An entire cavalry of armed men charged out of Bege's body and immediately became full-sized.

Gritting his teeth in alarm, Soren turned off his Tekkai and took to the charge head-on, channeling Soru to his arms, "Soru: Hyaku Higyou Yama (Hundred Mountain Strikes)!" One hundred rapid-fire punches obliterated the sheer man and horsepower of the mounted troops, "That's enough of this crap!"

"Oh what are you going to do about it?" Bege asked casually despite the devastation of his crew members. Another series of gunports opened and shot more cannon blasts at Soren, but he continued to come forward, allowing the blasts to explode around them as long as he kept moving ahead.

"Rip your head off!" Soren answered with a bellowing cry as he finally got close enough to Bege to unleash a vicious melee assault, 'I've got him with his stupid doors wide open! Now die!'

The moment Soren's hand got close enough to even feel some of the heat from the man's body, Soren's acidic claws met nothing but air as he felt himself fly and fall a considerable distance due to a sudden loss of footing on the floor.

Yelling in panic at first out of sheer confusion, Soren's body smacked off of a hard stone floor as he rolled to a harsh, crashing stop against the wall.

Well that wasn't very graceful. It was rather embarrassing to have his attack dodged like that. The guy didn't even look that fast, but lo and behold Soren was the one eating dirt so he had to have some kind of fleetness of foot.

"That guy is so getting a Tiger Jackhammer for thi-," Soren stopped himself when he realized that the floor was stone, not wood. The floor of the ship they'd been fighting on wasn't stone, "Huh?"

*Creak… THUMP!*

Looking up and back from whence he came, Soren saw a large drawbridge close up and seemingly meld with the rest of the stone wall.

Stone wall…

Amid his confusion, hundreds of armed guards came swarming from every room inside of this apparent fortress, armed and ready to eradicate him. Wherever Soren was, he knew for sure that he wasn't on the ship any longer.

"What the hell's going on!?" He pondered aloud as he began defending himself appropriately from the onslaught.

XxX

Perona couldn't believe what she'd just seen.

Soren was about to take Capone Bege's head off, and just like that he vanished right in front of her eyes.

"What?" The pink-haired girl said to herself and a barely-aware Paulie, "But nothing even happened! That guy didn't even do anything!" She'd been watching the entire time, and Bege had hardly blinked. All that happened was his stupid drawbridges closing a second or two after the Foxhound Pirate first mate had disappeared.

"I don't have to do anything," Bege responded, "Like I said, I've got underlings to do everything for me. All inside of me. Your friend is about to find that out firsthand,"

"What are you talking about?"

"Do I have to spell it out for you? You must be as dumb as he is thinking that he actually had a chance at hurting me," The well-dressed pirate don said, lowering his hat on his head, "My powers, when they're on, anything that gets close enough to me is considered a part of my fortress. Your friend is stuck inside now, and there's no way out except in a bodybag."

Soren was trapped inside of Capone Bege's body as a result of his powers, with all of his pirate crew and no idea where he was. If he lasted five minutes, in Bege's mind it would have been a miracle. Even if that bastard was a Supernova, just how many guys could he go through all on his own? He had a thousand guys inside of his body.

From the starboard side of the ruined ship, the Natural Disaster's distinct orange paint job floated into view as a blonde woman leapt from its deck and landed on Bege's, floating gently down with an open umbrella.

"Hello~!" Miss Valentine's voice sang happily as she landed, an intimidating shadow over her face despite her bright demeanor. The impatient tapping of her umbrella on her shoulder was the only sign anyone would have had that she was displeased, "This seems to be quite the party and silly me with no invitation, kyahahaha!"

"Another one?" Bege said, not taking Valentine seriously in the slightest judging from his unchanged demeanor and response to her arrival, "Tch, they're like roaches or rats."

"Sexiest rat you've ever seen."

"I've seen better than you."

In response, Miss Valentine started cracking her knuckles, eyes closed in her eerily pleasant grin until Perona flew directly in front of her to keep her from moving toward Bege, "No! You can't touch him! Ugly acid-man tried to get close and now he's trapped inside of him!"

Miss Valentine froze and stared at the large-eyed Ghost Princess before leaning forward to stare through her spectral body at their would-be enemy, "…That guy trapped Soren?"

"Yes!"

"…Inside of his own body?"

"Yes! It's like he's a human fortress!"

Miss Valentine just stared hard at the Supernova for several more seconds before leaning back and turning her head to the skies, "Kyahahahahahaha!" She hadn't laughed so earnestly and healthily in a very long time.

"This isn't funny!" Perona insisted, waving her arms around childishly, "How can you laugh? Soren's trapped with who knows what, and ugly rope-man is-," She stopped upon noting that Paulie was no longer where she'd left him. He was gone, "-Where'd he go?"

Continuing to laugh, Miss Valentine merely pointed over her shoulder back to the ship where Vivi sprinted across a boarding rope with Paulie on her shoulders. Wow. Naruto really had trained her well. If she' was a little bit more bloodthirsty or inclined for battle she probably could have attacked Bege if she could do all of that without being noticed.

Then again she probably had something against attacking people from behind. A noble's pride or some sort of complex like that.

"What's wrong with him?" Perona suddenly asked, noting a pained look coming over Bege's face as he held his temple, beads of stress sweat dotting his face. He did his best to keep a stoic outlook, but there was no disguising his obvious discomfort.

Miss Valentine looked at him, stifling her laughter before tilting her head in mock curiosity, "I think we can rule out Nojiko's migraine for headache of the century now."

XxX

(Meanwhile – Inside Capone Bege)

Countless cries of pain and horror rang out through the great castle hall that Soren had originally found himself in after being sent inside of Bege's body. Acidic steam flew off of his unamused body as every single Firetank Pirate that had tried to attack him writhed in pain on the floor, their flesh melting off of their bodies.

Hey, it was their fault. He had a hell of a defense mechanism in that his bodily fluids were inherently _acidic_. It just so happened that he could release acid from his pores on demand.

"Ibi Ibi no Bakuhatsu (Rot Rot Explosion)… jerks," Soren said, looking around as his acid stuck to every surface in the room, eating away at the walls with a loud hissing noise, "I've seen some freaky powers before, but this might take the cake for a while. Is this guy really a fortress?"

It seemed like it. So now what? He had to get out. Staying in there for too long wasn't on Soren's list of things to do.

Walking through the puddle of acid on the floor that he created and ignoring the carnage he'd caused with his Devil Fruit power, Soren figured that there had to be some way out. Maybe through the mouth or something. There had to be some sort of constant ventilation inside for the guys that lived there.

If that were the case then he had to find a way upstairs, because he'd be damned if he was going _downstairs_ to find a way out. Not a chance.

Taking the opening to down a quick vial of lemon juice after depleting a good portion of his body's acid stores, he started climbing the long flight of stairs to reach the upper levels.

And on each level he had more goons to deal with. Bege certainly believed in quantity over quality, but once Soren got on a roll there wasn't much they could do to stop him with their guns and knives.

He hadn't even bothered to try and count them. After a while it would have just been a practice in monotony. Just as long as he found a way out, that was all he really wanted.

Eventually, he assumed that he'd reached the man's head. He thought it was at least because there were no more stairs heading upward, and there were two large, oddly reflecting orb-esque windows that he could see Miss Valentine and Perona through.

"Kill him! He can't get away with running around inside of 'Father'!"

Turning around, Soren jumped away from the stairs in enough time to backflip and throw a pair of tearing kicks at the incoming Firetank Pirates charging up them, "Rankyaku: Kiba o Youkai (Storm Leg: Dissolving Fangs)!"

The long twin blades of compressed air flew out vertically from the flip and touched from floor to tall ceiling as they ripped through the floor. The stairs were hit, including the men just coming over the crest of them. The walkable portion of steps that hadn't been destroyed slowly melted away from the forceful and liberal application of a powerful dissolving agent.

In other words, there wasn't going to be anyone else getting up there that hadn't already been there to begin with.

And from the way the few up there regarded him upon his arrival, with serious concern, along with the fact that no one had come from anywhere else to attack him, Soren would have put money on the twenty or so manning what seemed to be communication controls being the only ones with him.

'Den Den Mushi?' Soren thought to himself when he saw all of the snails situated on the tables. He then noted that Bege couldn't have possibly called his own guys out. Even if he'd opened his gunports and things, how else would they know what to do? 'He really did turn himself into a fortress.'

He put Den Den Mushi speakers throughout his body and had the guys in his head somehow in contact with his battle intentions judging from the headsets they wore. They could see the fighting happening from behind Bege's eyes, and they were the ones that issued the orders from their boss to the rest of the Firetank Pirates.

How long did it take him to get all of this? And how long would it take Soren to make a big mess of what was left of it?

"Ibi Ibi no Ame (Rot Rot Rain)!" His cheeks quickly swelling up, Soren fired a spherical shot up at the ceiling. As it hit it exploded into a downpour of acid that precipitated down on everything in the room, coating the walls and floors with the caustic fluid.

It had more of an effect than he thought as well, as on the outside, Bege wiped at his eyes as they teared up from behind. He could feel this?

…He could feel this. Did that mean that he could feel everything?

That control panel was more than just a large desk. It… had to be connected to, or had to represent, something very important.

Without a second thought, Soren started opening and quickly downing every vial of lemon juice he had left on his person. He'd need to make more, but that was a small price to pay for leaving Bege with quite the parting gift.

XxX

What's wrong with him?" Perona asked, venturing a chance to float in front of Bege and wave her ghostly hand in front of his face, "He's not even paying attention."

Miss Valentine stood patiently, twirling her umbrella idly as her green eyes seemed to try and penetrate Bege's form. She couldn't figure out what was happening, other than the fact that shop was thoroughly being wrecked inside of the man's body.

At one point, Bege stopped fretting over the obvious discomfort that his entire body was in, downward up, and eventually seemed to go blank for lack of a better term. It was strange. It occurred over a matter of less than five minutes, but the progression was intriguing.

Perhaps he'd managed to stop Soren?

That line of thought fell to the wayside when Perona let out a quick shriek. The reason being that Bege's eye was knocked out of the socket; dangling from the connective nerves as a miniature Soren jumped out and returned to normal size, dusting his hands off as he walked away.

Miss Valentine lightly clapped her hands as a form of light applause, violent display or not. She'd seen worse than a lost eye before.

Soren stood quite satisfied with his arms crossed, "And I did that stone-cold sober," He boasted with a toothy grin.

"No you didn't," Perona said, having seen him drink before the battle started and even while he'd been onboard the Firetank Pirate ship, "That was disgusting by the way."

"It's the only way I had out without melting a hole through his head ghost-girl, so it could've been worse."

"What'd you do to him by the way?"

"Would you believe that I melted away a chunk of his brain?" The man pointed back at his victim with his thumb, "We can get doctor girl over here to check if you don't."

Both women cringed at the mere thought of such a thing. Really? That was intense. Why did all of Soren's victories have to be so graphic in comparison to the rest of theirs? At least they didn't have to actually see it.

"You're…" Miss Valentine started to say, trying to find the proper adage for the conversation, "…A really sadistic person."

She quickly gave up and fell back on a default.

"Hey, I just wanted to steal their stuff because they shot at us first," Soren said before shrugging, "This is poetic justice as far as I'm concerned. A guy who's a fortress and gets taken down from the inside? People write songs about crap like that."

"You're not going to finish him off?" Miss Valentine asked, looking back at the brain-dead Capone Bege, "I don't know if that's cruel or merciful since you gave him an amateur lobotomy and all."

Soren gestured with his hands as if they were a balance beam, "Eh… it's either kill him and trap all of his guys inside of him since his powers won't work anymore after he dies, or let him live brain-dead but keep all of his guys alive. I'm not really pissed at the rest of the crew per se, so it's pretty double-edged. Anyway, Valentine, help me loot their swag and let's jet." The sunny blonde's disposition lit up at the prospect of ripping off their enemies and it was clear that she was onboard with the idea.

"GET BACK ON THE DAMN SHIP ALREADY!"

All three of them almost immediately did what had been demanded of them from the eardrum-rending shout that had rung clearly through the air. Perona actually _did_ float back over to the Natural Disaster in response. They'd thought it had been Nojiko at first, until they picked up the timbres of Vivi's voice instead of the expected sniper lady's vocal patterns.

Wow, she must have been really, really pissed.

Apparently victory didn't make everything okay after all.

"…Can we steal first?" Miss Valentine asked weakly, her voice barely carrying far enough to be heard.

"YOU HAVE THIRTY SECONDS!"

Both remaining Foxhound Pirates immediately sprinted off to find what they could of worth to pilfer, lest they find out what she'd be willing to do with her hard to trigger temper seemingly activated. Soon after the fact, Miss Valentine and Soren would wonder to themselves how they both found their wills dominated so effectively by a teenage princess.

Much further down the line, hindsight would set on them both, in that they should have seen what eventually happened coming a mile away, even from this little event.

If it had been a bit more memorable of an incident for them, the special talent Vivi developed in earnest really would have been obvious beforehand.

XxX

(With Naruto – Isle of Women – Amazon Lily)

Onboard the flagship of the Kuja Pirates, supplies were being loaded for another trip back to Marineford, as well as medical equipment just in case it was needed for Luffy.

"Are you certain you wish to do this?" Jinbei asked of Naruto, having been re-bandaged after his short conflict with the Foxhound Pirate leader, "You don't owe anyone anything."

Naruto gnashed his teeth uncomfortably before grunting, "It's not about owing somebody something, or doing this for a favor. I can't just do nothing when one of my friends is trying to reach a bunch of my other friends. You can't ignore that. I've got to do something."

He just wished the something he had to do wouldn't have been so damn troublesome.

…

…Oh who was he kidding? He wanted this so bad it hurt him sometimes to think about it, but it was still ultra-irresponsible to do. At least it would have been if everyone else on the crew that knew the Straw Hat Pirates wouldn't have agreed that what Naruto planned to do was for the best.

Nojiko probably wouldn't even hit him with her pistol, shoot at him for being an ass, or call him a maniac. Since this was for Nami as well, it would be swept under the rug. It was basically a license to act like a blowhard, just as long as he got as much attention as (in)humanly possible.

Kurama was definitely down with that.

Jinbei nodded to what Naruto said but quickly excused himself upon noticing the presence of someone behind the ninja.

Naruto turned around only to find himself looking up at the face of the taller Boa Hancock. He was trying so hard not to let his eyes stray any lower, but if they did he already had an excuse ready, as looking at her chest didn't require him to look upward.

"We will see you in a matter of days, won't we?" She asked, arms crossed over her chest as she tried to look impassive and keep her face from getting red at receiving his full, undivided attention so close.

"You'd better hope not," Naruto answered with a frown, "If you see me while any of this is happening, that pretty much means I screwed up. You might see me _afterwards_ I guess… maybe," He said, letting the question linger to try and get the Snake Princess to squirm a bit.

"I'll hold you to that Uzumaki," To what? To a maybe? You couldn't do that, "It wouldn't do to have you captured or killed so early after the Kuja Pirates have considered you and your crew allies. Return Marguerite once you've returned to your ship if you would."

Naruto nodded and jumped into the air with a heel click before landing and teleporting away in a flash.

You had to leave 'em with a little flair.

Hancock simply watched where he'd been standing before letting out a breath she didn't know she'd been holding and looking out at the ocean. What Naruto was about to do, what he'd volunteered to do to keep eyes off of her ship as she took Luffy back to Marineford, it was tantamount to insanity.

But he was so certain that it was something he could do to make things easier for them, and it wouldn't be taking his crew out of the way of where they were intending to go next.

"I used to be worried that he couldn't handle something like this as well," Nico Robin said, watching from the gangplank, much to Hancock's surprise. Seriously, that woman had her own special brand of stealth when it came to showing up unnoticed. It was uncanny, "I remember the very last time I didn't believe in him. The last time I thought that there was something beyond his capabilities to handle."

"You've known him for how long, a year at most?" Hancock asked.

"This is the Grand Line. I'm sure you're aware of just how much trouble you can cause in under twelve months."

Indeed she did. It only took her a year as a pirate to become a Shichibukai, so her original point was rather moot.

Shaking her head as she walked the rest of the way up onto the ship, Robin smiled serenely, "It's wrong of me, but I believe in him. I promised that I wouldn't doubt him again after the last time that I did, and I'll keep that promise. He keeps his own after all."

"…Even if that promise is to intentionally bring to bear the fullest wrath of the Marines that he can provoke?"

Heavy footsteps on the ship sent the view of both women to Silvers Rayleigh, the greyed legendary pirate smirking to himself as he walked past them, seemingly paying no real mind to the conversation at hand. He did choose to chime in as he departed however.

"You're speaking of the man who fought the Pirate King and his crew on a whim, for the sake of a local, legendary leviathan of all things," Rayleigh said, "When he says he's going to do something, if I were you I'd go ahead and consider it done already."

With that being said by perhaps the most respected pirate either of them knew of, there was really nothing else that Robin could add, her mysterious smile only seemingly to increase in its mirth, "You have to admit, that kind of resolve and the presence to reinforce it is _very_ appealing."

True enough. He was going into action for the sake of his allies; the Straw Hat Pirates, and now the Kuja Pirates as well. All in order to help Luffy, and assist Hancock in lending him a hand so that her Shichibukai status was not put at risk.

"It is rather refreshing," Hancock said, rubbing the head of her snake weapon as she thought to herself.

* * *

**So you guys, I'm about to do something totally absurd next chapter. I'm almost excited about it, which is notable because it's very hard to get me actually excited about things.**

**It'll be next chapter's big-ass extreme bash, and then we'll move this story forward into the next major story arc I've got set.**

**You know, after writing this chapter, it reminds me quite a bit of the episode of Aqua Teen Hunger Force where Master Shake shrunk everyone else for his own amusement. Those of you that get the reference know what I'm talking about.**

**Anyway, in other news apparently this story has more fan art, which is cool.**

**There's one for Soren so people can finally see what he looks like if they couldn't picture it, and another one for Naruto/Nojiko at deviantart, with the links near the bottom of my author's page if anyone wants to look at them. I can't link to them here as you all know.  
**

**Regardless, I hope you all enjoyed, and now I'm going to go to sleep. I have ring time in the morning since Friday is my day off from work.**

**Kenchi out.**


	48. Anarchy Rules

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or One Piece. I challenge Kishimoto and Oda to a game of Jenga for the rights to both series. Three losses and you're eliminated from the running.

It would be the most epic game of all time. Hasbro would implode as a company and Parker Brothers would weep tears of blood that would upon contact with the open air crystallize into priceless red gems.

**Chapter 48: Anarchy Rules**

* * *

Grumpy Vivi was a new thing.

This was a girl who simply didn't get cranky over much of anything. She was the youngest on the crew thus making her the least jaded to everything, and she was a delight to be around. Everyone loved her. She was the brightest spot any of the Foxhound Pirates would find on a bleak day. She was gentle and forgiving, and even when stressed she usually got over it quick enough to remain the emotional anchor of the group.

As her temperament went, so did the attitudes of the Natural Disaster denizens more or less.

After he'd returned, Naruto noticed this. He carried a sleeping Nojiko to her bed from the infirmary for rest in a more comfortable environment and found everyone except for Paulie and Perona inside the common area playing cards, sans Vivi.

Playing cards? The most mundane activity he could think of for people that he knew for a fact were anything but? He had expected something more actiony, but no. They were sitting and behaving like scolded children. Big, (and in Miss Valentine's case, sexy) scolded children.

Upon heading outside he then found the misplaced princess sulking at the helm with Carue keeping her company. Apparently running the ship was her favorite thing to do when she wanted to think.

While putting Nojiko to bed he'd already created a clone to give Vivi orders as to where they were sailing to, and he left that clone out there powering the wind from the seals in the sails, but she was just so grumpy that it hadn't tried talking to her. Angry women were dangerous, and while Naruto-clone didn't think that Vivi would ever physically lash out at any of her friends one could never be too careful.

"Are you still mad I left Soren in charge?" Naruto eventually asked after checking in with the clone he had powering the chakra-based speed boost of the ship, "If Nojiko was down there really wasn't anyone else I could put in that spot."

Vivi had a good head on her shoulders, but she still lacked leadership experience. Granted, Naruto didn't know how she was ever going to get any if no one let her try, but the middle of a battle wasn't really the place to throw her into the fire to test her chops on that front.

"I'm not mad," Vivi said stubbornly. That was all she'd been saying all day; to Naruto, to his clone, to others that were brave enough to endure a Vivi staredown. To everyone.

Naruto sighed and rolled his eyes. She was so passive-aggressive. Now was just as good a time as any to try and massage that mood a bit, "I got you a present, remember?"

That was right. The clone Soren killed before the fight with Capone Bege said something about that. Suddenly her mood shifted and her eyes lit up, partially in excited anticipation, partially in suspicion. He trained her, and he was not to be trusted, "…Really?"

"Yep," Naruto said with an extremely pleased grin as he pulled out a scroll, "I worked on them while we were staying with the toads. It wasn't so hard," Apparently when he was blitzed off of his ass on the toad's stash of sake he had stupid-good ideas and no filter between scheme and action. He continued after sobering up because it had been a good idea.

In a puff of smoke, Naruto presented to Vivi what looked like a pair of her jewel weapons of choice, only with the sharp edges coated in some sort of grayish material.

"What is this?" Vivi asked, curiously running her finger along what she felt was the safe portion of one of her newly adjusted dangerously-edged weapon.

"Samehada's scales," Naruto told her, seemingly excited just to let that much slip, "Yeah, sometimes Samehada sheds. And he can touch Logia users if the fight with Aokiji is anything to go off of, so I figured why not give you a shot at protecting yourself better?"

Vivi went wide-eyed before letting out a happy squeal and giving Naruto a huge hug. She was quite the emotive princess, "That's so great! Thank you Naruto! How did you think of it?"

Naruto just shrugged instead of answering. Really, how couldn't he have thought of it? Between fighting tooth-and-nail with Aokiji, Kizaru almost killing the lot of his crew because they couldn't even touch him, and tangling with Smoker several times, Logia Devil Fruit-users were a pain in the ass.

Paulie, Yosaku, and Johnny had learned about Haki. Nojiko had her elemental guns and snap senses. Miss Valentine had her special umbrella and Devil Fruit powers. Soren had his Devil Fruit powers and Rokushiki. Muret wasn't a fighter to begin with but she had Funkfreed just in case. Perona could hide her body and fight as an astral projection. Everyone else had their own way to defend themselves for the most part.

Vivi was talented. She was middle of the pack in regards to speed and she could certainly dodge better than any of them. Her weapon could cut through most objects, but when she came up against Logias that didn't give her much in terms of actually fighting back. Even with the talent she had developed, it was ineffective when it would just go through someone's body without hurting them.

"Now these won't drain chakra the way Samehada does, but they do still affect energy, which is why they'll work. I tested the scales themselves," Naruto continued to explain, pushing Vivi off of her hug, "They're still good for you. And swords don't shed very often, so you're pretty lucky."

Vivi wanted to counter with 'swords don't shed ever' but she was too happy at her upgrade to care about the rules of reality that kept being broken around her, "I'll take good care of them," Really, she meant it, and replaced the normal pair that she kept around her waist as belts with them, 'You took me in to keep the World Government from holding something over my nation, you try to teach me every day to be a stronger leader. You're making it really hard not to… not to…'

Ugh. Great. Her first real crush was on her mentor. Sure, because that wasn't awkward to try and come to grips with.

Naruto waved the whole thing off. It was just a gift that he thought she would like and figured she could use. She could do whatever she wanted with them, "I'm just glad I could make you smile a little bit."

Cue a heartfelt smile of his own, directed right at her. Critical hit.

"Eheheheheh…" Damn it! She was a princess! She was taught to have poise and dignity in any situation! Naruto even told her to always keep her head no matter what! He'd driven it into her head nonstop after her little episode of faltering confidence in the crew with the World Nobles, "Ah… well…"

Ugh… stop it!

It was so mean of him to leave a furiously blushing Vivi where she was at the helm. He knew full well why she was having a fit at the moment, but again, she'd have to come to him because he wasn't going to be 'that guy' about it.

So he'd leave her to her work and let her think and perhaps enjoy and practice with her present. She'd always done a good job when he'd left her to steer in the past, and she'd earned more trust after outright bullying the other crew members into acting right after Soren's battle with Capone Bege. He knew she had it in her. For some reason she was very persuasive as a voice of reason, even back in Alabasta.

You could feel the girl's emotions when she spoke. It was uncanny how moving she could be.

Naruto's thoughts drifted as he went back inside and found the card game between Soren, Miss Valentine, Yosaku, and Muret as Byron tinkered on a piano in the background. Paulie was recovering from minor wounds, Johnny was still bedridden from his beatdown from Luffy, and Naruto wasn't about to let Nojiko get out of bed until her head didn't feel as if it were about to split open.

Perona was either sleeping or trying to play with Carue. One or the other.

The game had a new spectator though, as Kurama in the smallest form his adult fox Path body could reach laid on his side on the thighs of Miss Valentine. The sunny blonde woman had one hand holding her cards, the other slowly stroking Kurama's pelt. What the hell?

"You're letting Valentine pet you?" Naruto asked, watching his lazy, prideful biju partner relax in the gorgeous woman's lap as she continued to play cards with the others, "You don't let Perona even touch you."

"**Well this is one of the women you're sleeping with, so I figured I had better get some kind of goodwill going,"** Kurama said, prompting Miss Valentine to burst out in laughter at the audacity of the diminutive biju, **"Besides, I told you already, I like this one."**

Naruto narrowed his eyes at the sight of cheese around Kurama's muzzle and the large plate of snacks on the table that was half empty. He couldn't really blame him. Miss Valentine could seriously cook, "…She's been hand-feeding you hasn't she?" Kurama's grin was all the answer he needed, "I thought you were too dignified to be fed like-."

"**-Like the superior being that I am?"** Kurama finished in Naruto's place, **"You can never be too dignified to be waited on hand-and-foot."**

"No, I was gonna say 'like a pet'," Naruto corrected as he watched Miss Valentine feed Kurama another morsel. He turned his attention to the woman spoiling his biju, "The paws on his front legs are like hands. He can grab stuff and feed his own damn self."

Miss Valentine just laughed again and gave Kurama another snack as she spoke to the fox, "He's just jealous it's not him I'm feeding."

"**Mmm… jealousy is an ugly thing Naruto."**

"Uh-huh," Naruto deadpanned, forming a hand-seal that immediately caused Kurama to shrink in size further. Picking the fox up by the scruff of his neck, Naruto took him outside as the rest of the present crew sat and watched until the sound of a loud splash met their ears. Seconds later, Naruto walked back inside with a smug grin on his face as he went down the hallway.

Miss Valentine just had to laugh. His reaction had been ludicrous, "You know, pirates throw living things that they don't like overboard all the time Naruto!"

"Not a pirate!" Naruto shouted in return. Throwing Kurama overboard wasn't the same thing as throwing, say Carue, overboard. Kurama could always go right back to his starting point and come right back out as long as his Path body had all of its chakra receiver piercings still in it. If he went too far away from Naruto it would happen automatically anyway.

"**You're a dick,"** Kurama's voice echoed out inside of Naruto's head before his Path body reappeared from the seal, soaked to the bone.

"This coming from King Dick," Naruto shot back, getting a snort out of Kurama as the fox turned an about face and headed back the way Naruto had come from, "Where are you going now? Valentine-chan isn't gonna let you sit in her lap all soaked."

"**I know, that's why I'm going to roll around in your bedsheets to dry off."**

By the time Naruto turned around to yell at Kurama he'd already turned a corner and had probably made it into the bed right then, the bastard. If his bed was wet and/or smelled gamy that night he was going to kick his ass. That wasn't important though.

What was important was the wellbeing of two of his crew.

First and foremost Johnny, who was resting in the medic bay and who was also the closest.

Peering into Muret's place of business, Naruto grinned at the sight of Johnny awake and coherent. He'd only had the crap stomped out of him several hours ago and he was already awake. The idiot brothers were tough, even by the standards of the Foxhound Pirates, and things like this only served to carve that sentiment in stone.

At the moment though, he seemed markedly uncomfortable at the blonde Kuja Tribe girl situated on her knees at the foot of the bed just staring at him. Naruto just hid his presence at the doorway and watched.

Johnny's eyes without his sunglasses seemed permanently closed, even as he stared back at Marguerite, "Stop," He said, getting absolutely no response, "Seriously, stop it. You're freaking me out. Is there something on my face?"

Actually yes, there was a lot on his face seeing as how he had to be bandaged up because of his injuries from Luffy.

Seeing him looking around for something, Marguerite slowly held up the sheathed Kusanagi and handed it over to him. With a grateful smile Johnny took it right from her, "I thought I heard something about you not being able to leave the Isle of Women or something like that. So what are you doing here?"

"Your captain got Hebihime to let me come so I could see if you were alright," Marguerite admitted. Honestly, being on that ship for only a few hours had been more of a rush than she'd expected. For one, it was the oddest ship she'd ever seen, and the people on it were out of their minds. Secondly, she'd been aboard while they'd been fighting a battle. That had been quite something. She was still coming down from that excitement.

"Oh," Johnny said, his eyes barely opening in surprise for a moment before going shut again, "Naruto-aniki got Boa Hancock to let you come onto our ship? I didn't know bro had pull like that with the Kuja Pirates," He'd honestly thought they hated his guts after the last run-in they'd had.

"She does seem to trust him," Marguerite said, feeling uncomfortable at having a conversation with this strange man. This strange man who had saved her of all things, "I think I see why. I think it's more than just Luffy out of you men who are good."

"Naruto-aniki is a good guy," Johnny pointed out, not knowing that Naruto was watching and listening, "But that bastard can be downright evil too."

Naruto frowned but silently had to nod in agreement. Between the weight training he'd forced them to do when they'd first met, the training he'd made Vivi do to teach her with fear to never be hit by any sort of attack, and the scary way he fought whenever he got truly upset with something.

…And Johnny had seen all of that. So yes, Naruto had a nasty mean streak in him, much like any other person only with more dramatic consequences for drawing his ire. Naruto personally blamed it on the undefeatable crushing cynicism that came with life experience. Johnny didn't have to advertise that to others though.

"I was talking more about you," Marguerite said, "You didn't have to do what you did."

"If I didn't, Luffy would've pulverized you instead of me," Johnny replied, "I wouldn't have been much of a man if I let that happen. At least with me I know what I can take. I've had worse before."

"Men are weird, putting themselves at risk for people they don't even know," No Kuja would have done it for someone they had no attachment to. That was for certain. She'd done it for Luffy because he'd grown on her. She'd gotten to know Johnny for all of thirty minutes before he threw himself in the way of the rubber-man's fists.

Johnny just sighed. There weren't that many people, male or female, that would do anything like what he'd done, or what she'd seen in the past from the only other man she'd really been in any sort of contact with.

"It's not really a thing you see all the time, especially with pirates," The speed-based swordsman admitted. Getting beaten down wasn't so bad though. He'd drawn upon his Haki for the first time and seen how powerful it could become, "But you don't need a reason to help somebody. I got strong so that other people could count on me instead of the other way around. That goes for you too."

Marguerite blushed, and she didn't know why. Johnny. She wouldn't be forgetting that name, "…Thank you. I'm going to get strong enough to join the Kuja Pirates one day soon, and when we meet again I'll return the favor then."

Well Johnny respected that, but he didn't really care about the favor being returned. He hadn't fought for her because he wanted to pay something forward for later. If he had his choice, no one else would save him ever, 'If someone as cute as you wanted to pay me back, I'd take a kiss or something instead,' Then again she probably didn't know what a kiss was or was supposed to mean.

"A kiss?"

Oh hell, had he said that last part out loud?

…Stupid.

If she was offended, Marguerite didn't look it. Only curious, "What's a kiss? Answer the question would you?"

This situation put the tanned swordsman in a situation that he never figured he would be in. Who would have slated him to be the one to explain something like this to a girl?

"Uh… you know," He started to say before realizing that no, she really didn't know, "Alright, well… you just take your lips and you put 'em together like this-," He paused for quick visual demonstration that almost caused the hidden Naruto to lose his shit and laugh, "-And you put 'em to someone else's."

Well that was simple, if not somewhat intrusive, but not more so than bathing with the other Kujas would have been, "Men are so strange. And you do this with everyone?"

"Hell no!" Johnny looked mortified at the thought, "Just with people that you really trust… and really like… and of the opposite sex!" He sputtered before thinking more, "…Well they don't _have_ to be the opposite sex… I mean, whatever floats your boat I guess… but this guy only kisses girls! And only if they want me to! Not that I've ever tried it with a girl that _didn't _want me to, or ever for that matter! And I just can't stop talking before I say dumb shit when I'm scared, can I?"

'You aren't really doing that bad,' Naruto thought, though it wasn't as if Johnny could read his mind. At least the guy was still putting coherent words together and he hadn't given up yet, 'She hasn't slapped you, left the room, or given you the 'are you stupid' look yet, so don't give up!'

It had the potential for hilarity at first, but after Naruto saw that Johnny actually seemed to have a legitimate shot at a rare positive experience with a woman, there was no way he was going to rain on that parade. He was rooting for the guy now. How could he not?

On an alternate note he could never mess with Nojiko, Vivi, and Miss Valentine again for digging those stupid romance novels they always seemed to try and get from bookstores when they stopped on islands, because he was literally watching one play out in front of him instead of just leaving.

Marguerite thought about everything that Johnny had told her. She did trust him after he played human shield for her. He was a nice enough person, he made her feel good just from talking with him, so she did like him, 'Alright, if that's what he really wants.'

Johnny was wondering how bad he'd made himself look when he felt a weight shift around on his bed and warm lips press to his.

Marguerite was kissing him.

Okay, so that was happening.

She lingered on it longer than she originally intended, because she actually liked it, and she hadn't expected to get any sort of stimulation out of something that she'd thought would have been mundane. Kissing Johnny made her heart leap.

She would not have been averse to doing it again.

Marguerite pulled away, leaving the target of the affectionate gesture with a stunned expression as she smiled sheepishly at him. She didn't know why she was smiling but she couldn't stop.

"…Wow," Johnny basically summed up his feelings on the matter. He'd done the deed, with Kuja Pirates ironically enough, but there had been no emotion in it. It felt silly to be so electrified by a simple kiss, "Huh…"

As his senses came back to him, he turned to the doorway but didn't see a thing. Strange, he could have sworn he'd felt something move from that way.

XxX

Well watching all of that certainly improved Naruto's mood. He could still remember how goofy Johnny and Yosaku had been when they'd first joined him. Granted, they were still goofy, but who was he to call anyone goofy? Aside from that, they were better people now. They'd been through the wringer and hadn't broken as a result of it.

All of them had actually.

Letting Johnny have the rest of his moment in privacy was the very least Naruto could do for the guy as a job well done. He'd originally just wanted to check in on him to begin with.

Speaking of checking in on folks, Naruto stopped outside of Nojiko's room, wondering if he should wait until later in case she was asleep. She'd been having trouble with her head lately, and overworking herself keeping the insanity of day-to-day life on the ship running smoothly had seemingly pushed her into debilitating migraine territory.

"Come in,"

Naruto blinked in confusion before opening the door to the bluenette's quarters. He found her sitting up in bed, smiling at him, "Hey there Nojiko, how'd you know I was there?" He'd been extra quiet since leaving Johnny to the Kuja Tribe girl.

Nojiko just chuckled softly, "You never could sneak up on me, remember? I wonder if it was this Haki crap poking its ugly head out early," She patted her bedside, gesturing for Naruto to sit.

"It's not ugly," Naruto told her, "Get it down good enough and you'll be tough. The guns, the waver skates, and now this! You'll be better than ever, 'ttebayo," He assured her with a confident grin before frowning at his verbal tic slip-up, "Damn it…"

"All I ever see are bad things Naruto-kun, and I'm scared of what I'm seeing," Nojiko said. It was never anything good. It was always Naruto fighting and possibly getting hurt, Kizaru blowing up their ship to make good on his threat, Sea Kings waiting on the high seas to devour them if they strayed too close, "…I see awful things before they happen and all I can do is warn people beforehand."

Naruto's eyes went wide. He just thought she had some precognizant abilities, not that she was damn near clairvoyant. That changed everything, "Well, just don't be scared of what you're seeing. You're seeing it in advance, so that means you can actually do something about it to keep it from happening."

"But what if I screw up?" Having the ability to see bad things coming was a load of pressure. If she read something wrong, or didn't react fast enough, tragedy could strike.

"You won't," Naruto said as if it were obvious, "We all believe in you. I believe in you. Nami believes in you, wherever she is. And even if you do mess up, so what? We all fuck up. I still do all the time. Vivi-hime screwed up on Sabaody Archipelago. Soren just screwed up like three hours ago. Trust me, if you do there isn't anyone here that would say anything about it."

Nojiko looked as if she were just short of fighting off a fit and Naruto almost melted at the sight of her. He slipped underneath the covers with her and held her close as she set herself against his chest, "I don't want it."

"Well, you've got it," Naruto told her, relaxing himself with the woman in his arms, "Just don't be afraid of it. After hearing this, I think that's your problem. You're fighting it because you don't want to see it and it's forcing its way through your head. Stop doing that and just relax, okay? You're my tough girl."

"I've got to be tough," Nojiko mumbled, nuzzling into Naruto's neck, "I deal with you psychos every day."

"You're just as crazy as we are and you know it," Nojiko proceeded to go vampire on Naruto and bit him after that remark, "Ow woman!"

"…Not crazy."

"Yeah you are."

"You make me crazy."

Sleep with Nojiko came fairly easily. For what Naruto was about to go and do, it was the only time he was going to get to relax before doing something monumentally stupid. Then again, it was stupidity for a good cause, and if you knew you were about to be reckless and dumb you could take measures for it in advance.

Everyone already knew what was up, and it didn't take any real convincing to get them to go along with it. Friends needed help, and they would give it.

'I have a good crew,' Naruto said, giving Nojiko a peck on the forehead upon hearing her sleeping breaths, '…A great crew.'

XxX

(Onboard the Kuja Pirates Flagship)

"Ow! Quit it! That's too tight!"

"Shut up and hold still," Trafalgar Law said as he rewrapped Luffy's torso in fresh bandages. The Straw Hat captain was the most annoying patient one could imagine having, "I _will_ hit you to make you stop moving," Robin and Hancock were outside, so he could get away with it.

Luffy let out a groan but did as requested and let Law continue with his work. He would have preferred Chopper, because the little reindeer had an infinitely gentler touch, but The Heart Pirate captain knew his stuff.

They weren't far from Marineford.

"Old man, d'you really think Naruto'll tear up enough stuff to let us slip in?" Luffy asked, wincing as one of Law's crewmates checked over his injuries. He was doing well. He'd always have the scar on his chest, but at the rate he was going as long as nothing else aggravated his wounds he'd be back into something of fighting shape in around a week, "Those tough guys are still there aren't they?"

"I thought you'd seen what he can do already," Rayleigh asked, smiling behind his glasses in his usual manner, "He wasn't at full power when he'd fought Admiral Aokiji. Now he is. I can't imagine any of the top guns leaving him alone if they sniff out that he's somewhere around Marineford, especially if he antagonizes them on purpose."

Kizaru still probably wanted a piece of him after their last two encounters ended without Naruto hitting him cleanly. If he did choose to fight, he'd be in for quite the surprise this time around. Akainu would want a crack at him more than likely because of what Naruto had done at both Enies Lobby and Sabaody Archipelago. What Naruto would represent to a person like that would be more than enough reason for the dog of the Marines to hunt him down for the kill.

Aokiji probably wouldn't want another crack at him until the rest of the Admirals had theirs. That was just as well.

"It isn't right to make him take heat like that though," Luffy said, scratching his head. He didn't like it, but then again if Naruto agreed, what could one do? If Naruto really didn't want to do something, one would be hard-pressed to think of anyone that could make him, "But… ugh, I don't know!"

"Depending on the conditions, that guy wouldn't mind picking a fight like that, just to say he did it," Rayleigh said with a laugh, "As long as he knows what he's doing won't risk anyone around him, he'll jump into it feet-first."

When Rayleigh had met him, Naruto gleefully fought Gol D. Roger for as long as that misunderstanding had lasted, as he apparently hadn't had a reason to flex his muscles in a while. He would definitely fight here if he had enough control of the conditions. And really, the only condition that mattered in this case was, 'How much noise can I make with the fight I'm starting?'

XxX

(Marineford)

"You're here aga~in?" Kizaru drawled the last word slowly, finding Aokiji slumbering on a ledge overlooking the plaza where the battle with the Whitebeard Pirates had taken place not too long ago, "It's creepy that you can sleep in a place like this where so many people died."

Aokiji sighed and pulled up his blindfold that he used whenever he slept, "Maybe it is? Do you think I'm afraid of being haunted?"

"It could be a concern," Kizaru said, stroking his thin beard in thought, "… What are you thinking?"

"The old guy's retiring," The iceman said, remembering a conversation that he'd had a couple of months ago. It had been after taking the beating of a lifetime, "…I really don't want a damn promotion."

"Fleet Admiral Kuzan kind of has a ring to it, doesn't it?" Kizaru said, somewhat taunting him dryly by using Aokiji's real name, "You'd better not say that. You know Akainu's gunning for that spot as well. He thinks after the Whitebeard War that the Marines are too soft on pirates."

He would have continued that bloodbath until there wasn't a single representative on one side or the other left alive at all. There would have been no end to that fighting. No truce. No one would have been allowed to leave. And while there was a point to his position on wanting it all to come to a head there, it wasn't worth the cost that eradicating the Whitebeard Pirates entirely would have required.

If Akainu got the position of fleet admiral, there wouldn't be anywhere for the weaker pirates that couldn't hack it well enough to reach the New World to hide, and the big players would eventually be taken to war in the New World.

If Akainu became fleet admiral, the two choices for criminals would either be to go to the New World half of the Grand Line where they would more than likely die from everything that awaited them there just for a chance at continuing their free-wheeling ways of life, or remain in Paradise where things were charted and tamer but the Marines would never allow them to rest while they were alive.

As the fleet admiral went, so did the tone of the military under them.

That was the idea anyway.

"_You always have a choice Aokiji. If you don't think you have the freedom to go by your own justice then get a high enough rank to do it. You're supposed to be one of the top guys, right?"_

That fucking guy…

Aokiji lifted his hand into the air and stared straight at it. He'd actually been training. He'd trained himself seriously for the first time in years. Granted he'd only really applied himself to it for a few months before the Whitebeard War, but it had paid off during the fighting. He'd definitely noticed the difference.

A sigh emanated from Aokiji as he tried to go back to sleep, blindfold back over his eyes, "…I'm really going to have to do real work again, aren't I?" If he wanted to actually live out his 'Lazy Justice', he had to actually put his best foot forward again and secure the position, "He nominated me, but… are you sure you don't want it?"

He had asked Kizaru, but the man put on a fake expression of astonishment, "Who, me…? Not a chaaaance," He was a little too absent-minded to take up that spot, "I don't care if you get the job or if Akainu gets it."

There it was. Kizaru's 'Unclear Justice'. One second the guy didn't give a damn about anything, and the next he wouldn't leave a single enemy alive despite the fact that outright eradication had nothing to do with his mission.

Yes, that wouldn't really fly in a position as important as fleet admiral.

XxX

(A Few Days Later – Marineford Gates of Justice)

"Okay," Miss Valentine said, manning the main Den-Den Mushi of the ship, "Naruto, that was the Kuja Pirates. Luffy's party is in," Looking up expectantly, Miss Valentine received a kiss for her work done and grinned as she hopped up to follow Naruto , "Why aren't we doing the sneaking in trick? You said we could pull that kind of thing off, didn't you?"

"Yeah, but then that would leave you guys inside of the Gates of Justice against what's left of the guys that stuck around after the war," Naruto said, tapping his temple as the bright young woman followed him through the ship to the deck, "I'd rather make 'em come out here."

His conversation had been caught onto by others as he walked through the ship, leading the least powerful of the crew to wonder just how that was going to work.

"Uh, Naruto-sama?" Muret asked in exasperation as she went out onto the deck where the other members of the crew were all waiting, "How in the world are you going to do that? Stand here and call out the Fleet Admiral for a duel?" Soren, Yosaku, and Johnny on crutches snickered at the thought, as it didn't seem that farfetched that Naruto would do something of that sort.

Naruto just wordlessly sucked his teeth at the silver-tongued doctor's attempt to lighten the mood. She might have been sarcastic, but it was better than her being scared of being so close to Marineford.

He turned in the direction of the titanic Gates of Justice that loomed beyond the mist in the distance. It looked like they were still three miles away from it. They had to be that far away, otherwise the ship would have gotten swept up in a current that it couldn't escape. Marines tended to use it for quick transport between Enies Lobby, Impel Down, and Marineford. Nojiko called it the Tarai Current.

Either way, they were aiming at it from an angle, because they had to go into the current that they couldn't escape normally to get a straight-on shot. Even from an angle the sight of the gates were imposing.

Naruto never answered Muret, simply cracking his knuckles and taking a deep breath before the golden chakra of Nine-Tails Chakra Mode engulfed him, causing everyone who had never seen it to take a step back.

"Oh, my God," Miss Valentine said, reaching out to touch Naruto. He looked like he was on fire or something, but he wasn't hot to the touch. He looked beyond human, "…God, is that you?"

"I really hope you're joking," Naruto commented with a roll of his eyes. He hated it when people said that in response to something that he could do. Call him awesome all you wanted to, but the second things dipped into 'God' territory that was just one bridge too far.

Miss Valentine just laughed uncomfortably, "Heh… kinda?" Vivi seemed to be the only one who wasn't shocked at the sight of Naruto in that form, but she did seem, turned on for lack of a better term, at the sight of him, 'Oh yeah, little princess has it bad.'

Nojiko raised an eyebrow and poked Naruto experimentally, "So what are you going to do like this? Lead the way through the fog like Rudolph?" Naruto thoroughly missed the reference, "Right… not from where I'm from. I keep forgetting."

Ignoring the reference, Naruto gently nudged the two girls away from him for safety and plopped himself down on the bench he used to channel his jutsu through the ship, "I'm gonna blow that gate open."

Because people said those sorts of things with completely straight faces and meant it.

They would have asked how, but they all knew they were going to get an answer in just a moment.

"Why not just go through the sea fence?" Yosaku asked. The fence marking Marineford had to be weaker than the damn gates were. That was usually how defenses went for some reason; the walls were weaker than the actual entrance.

"Because that's not gonna scare up enough Marines to make this count."

Bringing his hands together he started charging his chakra through the figurehead at the front of the ship. Instead of a pair of Rinnegan eyes, a golden chakra version of Kurama's head formed, mouth open and mixing red and blue globules of his negative and positive chakra into a dangerous-looking black ball with red and blue bits gravitating around it. The weight of the energy caused the ship to suddenly splash down in the water.

"Uzumaki?" Soren asked, wisely keeping his distance as he saw the technique charging at the front of the ship, "What are you doing?"

"Bijudama (Tailed Beast Bomb)," Naruto said in so many words, "Kurama's lazy ass is sleeping, and he's gonna be pissed when he wakes up and finds out I did this without him."

"Why?"

"Because he loves blowing stuff up. Now hit the deck and hold on tight," Naruto warned, craning his neck to look at everyone to make sure they knew he was serious.

Nojiko grabbed Vivi and slowly lowered herself and her fellow blue-haired girl to the grassy deck. Byron ran inside to try and protect his piano from bumping off of the walls and getting destroyed. Soren dug his acid nails into the ground just for extra security, while Johnny and Yosaku sank their swords into the ground and held on for dear life. Miss Valentine was the only one who remained standing, as she just increased her weight to keep from budging.

Feeling the chakra distributed appropriately in the jutsu, Naruto grinned maniacally. He hadn't charged and fired this one in a while, and it was definitely a weird feeling doing it through the ship, "Ahem. Knock-knock Marines!"

The ship shook wildly in the water after Naruto shot off the Bijudama from the force of the discharge. A trench was cut through the ocean on the way to the gate before hitting it with a blinding flash. The ocean was not pleased with the resulting explosion, and the Natural Disaster tossed on the resulting wild waves like a toy boat in a bathtub.

Naruto didn't budge, but all the girls screamed in panic from the horrible noise from the blast and the violent rocking that felt as if the sea would swallow them all.

Miss Valentine covered her eyes and face with her arms, cringing at the force of Naruto's Bijudama until she felt the ship settle. She really should have gotten used to these things by now. As the strongest woman on the crew she was able to endure the backlash, making her first to see past the smoke and fog to see what had been done.

Everyone was silent for minutes until the ship's chef spoke up to voice her opinion.

"Naruto?"

"Yeah Valentine-chan?"

"If didn't love you so much, and if I didn't know you were really as harmless as a baby tapir, I would be horrified by you."

"That bad?"

Miss Valentine just deadpanned and pointed at the now nonexistent gate that Naruto had shot at from an angle and blown away. The outline of the gate on their side, the frame, was gone, and so was the gate itself.

Enough said.

Everyone started recovering and clamored to the front of the ship to look out at just what wasn't there any longer.

Still grinning brightly, Naruto grabbed the wheel of the ship and turned it hard to the side, causing the ship to turn and run away. He could already see ships coming through the mist from the actual direction of Marineford. They couldn't overtake the Natural Disaster though. It was the fastest ship on the Grand Line. Their ship always had the wind behind their sails. But not yet though. They needed the Marines to think they had a chance at catching them.

Nojiko was quick enough to get over her amazement and quickly scrambled up into the canopy on her waver skates that almost allowed her the power of flight, 'With what I can do I'm the scout now so I guess I better start living up to it,' She thought to herself as she pulled out her rifle and looked through the long range scope at the ships. Furrowing her brow, she turned the dial on her high-powered scope two klicks, "Wow, that pissed them off."

"Really!? Ya think!?" Both Johnny and Yosaku yelled up at her sarcastically, the former actually waving a crutch up at her.

"How many Noji-chan?" Naruto asked her, steering the ship away from the oncoming strike force.

"Twenty-five!"

The Marines hadn't lost many ships during the Battle of Marineford, because it had been a battle that for them had been fought strictly in the plaza and not at sea. For as many soldiers that died in the fighting they were beginning to station their regular sailors back there as their officers moved back out to their posts.

There were still quite a large number of officers ranked past captain stationed there however, and the lower-ranked Marines stationed there were good and had the potential to go far. Most regular pirates would be fucked taking on more than twenty Marine ships.

The crews that made it this far on the Grand Line were anything but normal though, and even by their standards the Foxhound Pirates were beyond even those sorts. Namely, their ship was better, faster.

Naruto looked down into the water and formulated a quick course of action. With a sharp whistle he got Vivi's attention and gestured to the wheel. That was her cue to take over steering and she hurriedly scrambled over to do as requested.

"Naruto wait!" Naruto stopped at Nojiko's behest before jumping into the water.

"What?"

"It's a big guy in a captain's coat and a red suit!"

Naruto blinked in confusion as to why this was relevant before remembering the last two guys he'd met that were taller than regular people ever should have been wearing suits. So he did draw out a real heavy hitter after all. Well that was just what he wanted in the first place.

Shrugging to himself, he held the kunai between his teeth and dove into the water. No guts, no glory and all that.

Soren, Yosaku, and Johnny just stared into the water after him, watching Naruto's form vanish beneath the waves. Soren clicked his tongue and stared at the incoming ships that Vivi had them sailing away from, "Right. So, since there isn't some creepy guy sitting on our deck somewhere drinking tea by now I guess we can say that the admiral she saw wasn't Kizaru."

And Aokiji would have come alone because he'd have known full well what Naruto was capable of. He also would have frozen the water to keep them from leaving.

"Aren't there only three?" Yosaku asked, getting a nod out of Soren. A guy like him had to know about the upper brass of the Marines with the sort of bounty he had prior to joining the crew, "What's the third one like?"

Soren just shook his head, "Being this far away is probably the best thing we can do if the third one is who I think it is."

Miss Valentine looked at him curiously, one hand cocked on her hip, "You don't want to fight him?"

The acid-man looked down at one of his hands and clenched it into a fist. Yes, he'd been getting more powerful than ever by incorporating the Rokushiki techniques into his Devil Fruit abilities, 'But if the papers are legit, this guy killed Fire Fist Ace and ripped off Whitebeard's face.'

He'd take on a vice-admiral. He'd stand toe-to-toe with any freak of nature that they'd meet on the Grand Line. Hell, if he had to, he would stand up to an admiral if the need arose. It was just that one thing was as plain as day to him. You didn't survive alone for as long as he had sporting an easily bruised ego.

"…I'm not ready for somebody like the 'Red Dog of the Marines'," And he was man enough to admit that.

That little bit of introspective thinking wasn't heard by anyone else on the crew, but in the crow's nest Nojiko caught sight of something else on one of the ships.

"Hey, uh… are the Straw Hat Pirates the only reason we're taking this mission?"

Everyone looked at each other in confusion before Miss Valentine spoke up, "That and because Boa Hancock asked too. Naruto said so. Why?"

"Because somebody else we know is on one of those ships."

XxX

"It's one ship Admiral!" One of the Marine scouts onboard the military vessel shouted out, observing the Natural Disaster through a scope, "It's…orange! There's no way we can lose sight of it, even in the mist!"

Yes, they had chased the ship away from the Gates of Justice, but the fog was still pretty heavy for some reason. Weather reports showed nothing about that sort of shift rolling in.

There was only one crew that the Marines knew of with the gall to use a flamboyant ship of that sort, and it fit with the vulgar display of power that had just been displayed. Pirates by the nature of their actions were pretty large hams, but most of them were utterly dwarfed in comparison to the captain of the ship they were chasing.

"Hunt that ship down," The man in charge demanded with a growl, getting the Marines around him to scramble into position, "As soon as you're in range, open fire and sink that ship. Send it to the bottom of the sea."

"The princess of Alabasta is a hostage with the Foxhound crew isn't she?"

Everyone stepped away from an extremely tall man as he smoked a cigar. He wore the Marine captain's coat over his shoulders and a Marines cap on his head. Underneath the coat he wore a burgundy suit with a rose on the left side of his chest. Under the suit instead of a dress shirt he wore one with Hawaiian patterning, and on his left side visible on the left side of his neck going down his shirt to his shoulder he had a tribal tattoo.

Just a look from the man made those around him feel as if their best wasn't good enough as they did their due diligence onboard the ship. He was on their side, and he looked as if he'd throw them into jail if they screwed up on his watch.

"It doesn't matter," The man in question stated firmly, "Even if we retrieved her, spending this much time with that sort will have warped her. Remember the scum that Wapol became. She's no good to the World Government any longer as a future monarch after consorting with pirates for as long as she has," His eyes then drifted to the prisoner that he had aboard.

Sitting chained to the mast was the pink-haired pirate captain Jewelry Bonney, glaring daggers right at him. He'd been preparing to return her to Mariejois where she belonged, but after the gates to Marineford were blown open he figured that a side trip could be made to sweep up some trash.

"This won't take long," The unforgiving admiral said, "You'll be returned to where your power is needed soon enough."

Bonney spat at him, missing by a wide margin when she did, "I won't ever forgive you or your damn World Government. You're the worst."

"Without the order of the World Government can you imagine the kind of calamity the world would be in?"

"With the way you push your 'order' on everybody else you may as well be a pirate Akainu!" Bonney snapped, kicking at him despite the fact that her legs couldn't reach, "I've seen criminals less brutal than you are!"

Damn Blackbeard for what he did to disturb the balance. Damn the Marines for capturing her crew, splitting them up, and sending most of them to jails across the Grand Line. The only saving grace was that Impel Down was currently out of commision. Damn the World Government that gave the Marines their power in the first place.

"_I dreamed a dream… the other night. Lowlands… lowlands awa~y, me John."_

The sound of a voice drifted into their ears, seemingly from all around them. All of the lesser Marines grabbed their guns and held them at the ready in case they spotted the unfamiliar visage of whoever was singing a pirate's sea shanty.

"_My love she came… dressed all in white. Low…lands away…"_

"Where the hell is that coming from?" One of the Marines muttered through his teeth. For some reason he was losing his nerve. The thought of fighting against whoever this happened to be made him feel as if he'd be sprinting to his death, "It's like the voice of the devil."

Not from the sound of it, but because of the sheer feeling of pending doom that it struck them all with.

"_I dreamed my lo~ve came in my sleep. Lowlands… lowlands awa~y, me John."_

Bonney's eyes went wide at the sound of that voice. She'd heard it before. Of course one of the few times that she had it'd been yelling some crap in her face about how ramen was better than pizza, but then it turned out that the guy she'd had a party with and then ran out on in the middle of a battle wound up being monstrously dangerous.

Come to think of it, an orange ship they said they'd been chasing? That definitely sounded familiar.

"_Her cheeks were wet, her eyes did weep. Low…lands away..."_

Akainu didn't flinch at the sound of singing, even as his underlings began frothing at the mouth out of fear. Some of them that didn't immediately faint seemed ready to turn their guns on themselves just to stop the feeling of imminent death hanging over them.

Finding this all more annoying than anything else, Akainu walked to the edge of his ship and shut his eyes amid the singing before suddenly opening them and firing his fist off of his arm. It had literally turned to molten rock and shot out over the water before exploding in lava.

The ship that it hit never had a chance.

The singing outright stopped and Akainu whirled around to find Naruto holding up an unshackled Jewelry Bonney. He'd gone for her instead of trying to strike at him.

Ah. That was right. He could clone himself. It hadn't been Naruto throwing his voice, it had literally been him singing on every ship around them in the Marine flotilla and he'd used it as a subtle method of defeating his entire crew with nothing more than the sheer power of his presence alone.

The two seemed to size each other up for an extended period of time without moving at all. Eventually the one with the biggest mouth just had to open it and talk first.

"I just snuck up on half of your taskforce, disabled their ships, made you blow one up, and scared all of your Marines unconscious to the soundtrack in my head," Naruto said, holding Bonney under one arm, "You should really cut your losses here partner."

Without saying anything else, Naruto bolted away in a flash, leaving a seething Akainu behind. This did nothing to deter him from getting at Naruto and his ship. The Whitebeard Pirates learned the price they would pay for opposing the World Government, the Foxhound Pirates would learn the same.

And it would start with that man Uzumaki. People like that tended to have the ability to warp the world for the worse.

XxX

(Onboard the Natural Disaster)

Well hot damn then, and here Naruto figured that with the level of enemies he'd fought he'd never find a use for the Hidden Mist Jutsu.

Naruto landed on the deck of his ship with Bonney screaming at the top of her lungs the entire time. Teleporting wasn't exactly a delicate art to those that had never experienced it. After a few moments though, she realized that she was fine, and that Naruto had dropped her to administer his marching orders to his crew, "Hey! You bastard!"

She had a bone to pick with him, but he wasn't listening.

"Gotta go, gotta go, gotta go!" Naruto repeated hurriedly, making sure to give Vivi explicit directions, "You keep this thing going away from where I jump off, alright? Don't turn back around for anything," The princess had hopped to the request with a panicked 'yes sir' before her mind had even fully registered the order, "Johnny, you're still hurt so get to the crow's nest and take Nojiko's place as scout. I need her down here to work the cannons."

Johnny sighed and threw his crutches away, wishing that he still had a pretty Kuja girl around to make him feel better. Even so, he sprinted right up the tree of a mast into the canopy. Nojiko wound up coming right down on her waver skates.

Upon landing on the ground, her eyes drifted over to Bonney. So she hadn't been wrong on what she'd seen.

"Why'd you grab Jewelry Bonney?" Nojiko asked Naruto directly without mincing words. Bonney was not a fan of being ignored in a situation that she was involved in, "Is she a lure?"

"Something like that. You're so smart Noji-chan."

"Don't flatter me Naruto-kun, I'm not Miss Valentine."

"Hey, don't talk about me like I'm not here!" Bonney said, glaring at the lot of them, "I don't want to be here with any of you after the shit you pulled on Sabaody Archipelago!"

The last peaceful stop before crews headed to the New World turned into a clusterfuck that caused every smart crew to scramble for dear life because of the things that had happened there. Her crew had been no different.

"Well we don't want you here either," Yosaku said, not forgetting that Bonney had run off and left them to deal with the Pacifistas that had attacked them on that random island a while back, "Naruto-aniki took you for a reason," At least he thought that he did.

And Naruto didn't let him down, "I think she's important, because grabbing her pissed that guy off," Naruto said, "So now I've got to go and sidetrack him and get more eyes on us."

Nojiko just nodded, knowing by now that it was next to impossible trying to talk Naruto out of things like this. He'd be fine. She knew he would be. She had to believe he would be, 'And he's even stronger now.'

Naruto bid her a smile with a simple message, 'You know I'm gonna kick that guy's ass, right?'

"I said I've got beef with you people! You're the ones who started all of the crap on that island!" Bonney stated firmly, "Everything started going to hell and flying out of control when you got to the end of Paradise!" A quick tap on her shoulder from behind caused her body to drop to the grass-covered deck like a lead anchor, "What the-?"

"Are you done?" Miss Valentine asked brightly, blowing on her index finger that she'd used to transfer weight onto Bonney, "If you'd really like to go back to Marineford so badly we'll load you up in a cannon and shoot you over to them after we finish what we're doing."

She sounded as pleasant as could be, but there was nothing but a mean streak lying behind Miss Valentine's words. As far as crew members went, she was the second most ruthless behind Soren and she didn't care what Bonney's problem with them happened to be. If she didn't want to be there, none of them really wanted her there either. They'd be dropping her at the first opportunity as it was. She was bait meant to allow Naruto to be bait.

In the meantime she could simply shut up and enjoy the fact that she'd been removed from the clutches of the World Government.

Vivi had steered the ship over to the massive landform that was the Red Line. She'd gotten them as close as she could without running them aground or crashing them into the towering continent. She knew that Naruto liked a battleground with some versatility to it.

Ready for a fight, Naruto jumped onto the railing on the starboard side of the ship by the helm and prepared to jump off in order to stick to the wall when Vivi's voice stopped him.

"Wait!"

Naruto had his arms swung out behind him to gather momentum when she stopped his pre-leaping motion and got his attention.

Vivi took a deep breath and stepped forward toward her captain, face aflame but knowing what she wanted to do. While PDAs might have been easy for the more grown-up women, they weren't for a good girl like Vivi. She overthought the act to almost neurotic degrees. What would a kiss actually be like? Would he even let her do it? Would she even be any good at it?

When she was preoccupied she wasn't as smooth as she usually was, even with all of the training.

The poor thing tripped over her own feet before she got close enough to make a real move, landing face-first on the deck. Everyone winced, "Auu…"

Naruto just looked down at her in pity. Poor thing got flustered so easily, but at least she still had nerve, "You alright –hime?"

"Mm-hm," Vivi muttered, too embarrassed to push herself upright at the moment, "Just… be careful."

So not graceful.

Alright then, either way, Naruto had to get his game face on.

Without wasting another beat, Naruto jumped clear of the ship in a motion concealed by a Shunshin.

"I knew it," Miss Valentine said with a grin, elbowing Soren in the side in the middle of his taking a drink to almost make him choke, "Little Nefertari Vivi has a crush-crush-crush on Naruto."

Tears of embarrassment came to Vivi's eyes as she sat up on her knees and reached back for the steering wheel of the vessel, "Can this wait until later!? There are still ships chasing us!" For once she was grateful that they were in trouble. It was a welcome distraction.

XxX

Okay, ship full of crewmates that would inevitably get sunk if he wound up fighting an admiral between his ship and the Marine ship: clear.

That would have been especially bad since well over half of his crew couldn't swim. Even if they survived the ship's destruction there wasn't really anywhere they could go afterwards.

'Take the bait. Take the damn bait…' Naruto thought to himself before seeing the new set of Marine ships coming after the Natural Disaster. Seven more in total, "Right then."

Naruto took in a quick influx of senjutsu chakra and gathered chakra to his right arm for his quickest ranged jutsu, "Senpou: Rasentaihou (Sage Art: Spiraling Cannon)!"

One quick push with an added snap of the hand into a fist sent a focused senjutsu-shelled Rasengan flying faster than a bullet right at the ship with the most dangerous feeling to it. It exploded as if landing with the force of a torpedo. One hit to a ship with a jutsu like that would split it straight down the middle. It would sink within seconds.

What he hadn't expected was for something of a shield to come up and block the attack. He'd seen something like that before, only it hadn't been effective in the slightest the last time someone had tried it.

Probably because the guy using it had been a vice admiral using it against the Rasenshuriken the last time he'd seen it.

This guy wasn't a vice admiral though.

Okay, normally it would have been time to make the water dance, but this needed to be big and messy.

Naruto started moving through hand-seals when he heard the loudest explosion he'd heard in quite a long while, "Shit!"

Akainu landed feet-first where Naruto had been standing moments before, blowing apart the entire cliff wall in a fiery burst of lava.

From farther up the face of the Red Line, Naruto looked at the results of Akainu just jumping at him from his ship.

"So they're starting to pick up on the whole 'hand-seals are dangerous' thing," Naruto said to himself with a bit of an annoyed grin, "…Should've figured it after the last real fight."

So it was definitely going to be another admiral fight, only this time he didn't have the full element of unknown that he'd had in his little showdown with Aokiji.

"Do you think it makes you look good amongst your filthy pirate brethren to try and kick dirt on the Marines?" Akainu asked, having melted a vast hole into the cliff from his very first move. That Naruto had avoided it despite the sheer amount of space it had covered was not something he was surprised by, "You're too audacious, both in your epithet and in your actions."

"So you know who I am," Naruto said, hands in his pockets as he stuck to the wall, "Crap. I wanted to do my intro dance, and you ruined the fun of it."

Of course, the amount of fun that could be had was up for debate. Naruto couldn't remember ever having to fight a volcano before, especially a living one that could hit back and actually target him directly. Fun might not have been the word for what was going to happen. Interesting might have been more apropos.

"It doesn't matter if I kill you first," Akainu remarked, knowing full well that Naruto led him away from his ship intentionally to give his crew more of a chance against the small attack force that was still pursuing them, "Getting to your crew won't be much trouble afterwards."

"They can go to Fishman Island now if they want," The Foxhound captain pointed out, "The ship is coated in the resin. And our ship is faster than anything you've got."

"I'll have a fleet awaiting them on the New World side of the Red Line the moment they surface."

"All that for little old us? That's touching."

"Enough games from you _boy_," Akainu snarled, ignoring the roll of the eyes from Naruto, "You'll burn for everything you've done, every crime you've committed against the World Government."

Really now? Akainu was deader set on fighting him than any admiral prior had been.

"Ooh…" Naruto said, wincing at his enemy's luck, "I actually wanted Kizaru instead of you or Aokiji," Aside from the fact that he didn't know who the hell Akainu was, "Kizaru has way better banter when we fight. His powers usually check mine too," Then again, raw speed on that level could check almost anything.

But Akainu was dangerously fast as well. How he even managed to reach the wall from the deck of the ship was a mystery, and whatever his actions to increase his speed had been they destroyed his ship.

He could technically leave Akainu there, but goading him into something and leaving him there wasn't exactly a very good diversion or distraction for the infiltration of Marineford by Luffy and company. He needed something big, and cataclysmic, and attention-grabbing.

Fighting a walking volcano probably qualified.

"You have something that belongs to the World Government," Akainu said, walking his way up the cliff of the Red Line, his feet melting holes into the massive chunk of continent that his enemy had chosen as their battlefield, "And your filthy pirate feet are trespassing on holy ground."

Holy ground huh? It seemed like any other stupid cliff to Naruto, "I actually don't have what you want anymore," Naruto said, holding his hands up and wiggling his fingers, "See? Nothin' up my sleeves," Mostly because he wasn't wearing sleeves. It was just his flak jacket.

"Jewelry Bonney is important to the Gorosei. You will return her," Akainu said, magma dripping down off of his body, "Then I'll make your suffering quick. Either way, you'll die for your crimes the way a criminal has to. It's Absolute Justice."

"Right… your 'Absolute Justice' that lets slave trading happen about thirty miles that way," Naruto said, pointing in the direction of the Sabaody Archipelago, "I'll tell you what, you save me the headache of hearing your crap, and I'll save you the trouble of fighting me like this," He pointed up top to indicate the top of the Red Line.

Akainu thought Naruto was a nothing more than disgusting criminal, but he was intrigued by the fact that he felt no deceit in the man's demeanor. He was being one-hundred percent straight with him, "You'll fight me directly?"

Naruto nodded gravely, "I've fought Aokiji and Kizaru. I might as well complete the set of three, right? Now keep up."

Without another word on the matter, Naruto took off to the top of the Red Line.

XxX

(Onboard the Kuja Pirates Flagship)

Not far out of sight of Marineford, Hancock ordered her crew to keep out of sight in the direction that would lead to Sabaody Archipelago, away from the Gate of Justice that had been obliterated. She knew to stay as far away from that as possible. It would be teeming with Marine ships investigating the scene, and while she might have been fine on her own as a Shichibukai, if it was discovered that she had brought Luffy back there, consequences would be severe for her people.

Still though, her eyes lingered in that direction. Rayleigh had taken Luffy, Jinbei, and Nico Robin with him on a smaller boat to sneak through the waters and steal a Marine vessel for cover. They had sailed around the island once before heading in and disappearing. She had no idea where they were going or what they were going to do. All she could do was wait for them to return.

Just like all she could do was wait for word from the Foxhound Pirates on Naruto's whereabouts. He'd already done his job with the diversion, so any smart person would have taken themselves out of the line of danger by now, would they not?

The last time she'd seen him it had only been a clone that had sent her Kuja tribeswoman onto her ship. That had been days ago.

The Kuja leader's eyes drifted between the destroyed gate and Marineford. Her attention was being pulled both ways. What cursed feeling was this splitting her two different ways?

"Sister, you look troubled," Sandersonia pointed out, having stood and watched Hancock for quite some time without being noticed, "What is the matter?"

"Nothing," She lied in return, "I am simply tired of waiting."

*DONG!*

The eyes of two of the three Gorgon Sisters turned hastily toward the island as loud sounds of a ringing bell rang out through the air as clear as day.

"The Ox Bell?" Sandersonia said, her snake-like tongue flickering curiously, "Oh. I see," Sixteen rings of the bell as a tribute, "He really did love his brother, and he really does love his crew."

"Love…" Hancock muttered to herself as the last of the bells sounded.

She had put her station and her nation's security at risk to help Luffy three separate times. Naruto had put his life at risk for the sake of giving her an opening to accomplish one of these situations of assisting Luffy. All she'd had to do was ask it of him. And he'd done it because of the simple belief that you did what you could spare to help someone when you cared.

Why was her mind in such turmoil?

Immediately after the last dregs of noise vanished, the sky past the direction of the Gate of Justice over the Red Line glowed with a cataclysmic red, the ungodly sounds of the earth's rage billowing forth in a horrid blast. That man Akainu. There was no doubt about it. No one else could do anything of the sort.

Well then. Rayleigh had been right all along.

"…I really should have considered the request done."

XxX

(Moments Earlier – With Naruto – Atop the Red Line – Spring Section)

The top of the Red Line wasn't exactly what Naruto had been expecting.

Rocky plains or something somewhat mountainous. That had been more in line with his original thinking. Instead he saw gorgeously kept garden life. Painstakingly sculpted plumage. It was like the biggest country club setting he'd ever lain eyes on.

"Okay, where are we now?" Naruto asked, scratching his head as he waited for Akainu to finish making his way to their starting point. He didn't have to wait long as he landed in a fiery molten crash forty yards away, and apparently the admiral had great hearing as well.

"This place belongs to the descendents of those who established our World Government centuries ago," Akainu explained, "The Red Line is the land of those who preserve the heritage of the government. It's the sole property of the Tenryuubito, the Celestial Dragons. The World Nobles."

"Oh, it's theirs," Naruto said, looking around at the empty garden that went on as far as his eyes could see in both directions. It was so well-kept, probably by slaves owned by the World Nobles, and those bastards probably never even ventured anywhere past their posh little immediate mansion grounds. Now if he could take a shot at one of _those_ that would make his day, "Good. I won't feel so bad after I fuck this place up then. Mariejois ain't far from here either is it, since we're right by Marineford and everything? Hell, I might just finish up with you and go burn that bitch off the face of the planet. You know… make a day of this."

Now that'd make a great diversion.

…

…Damn it! That would have made a great diversion; raising hell around those snobby nobles! The second the first explosion went off they would have raised the mother of all bitch fits and called in every gun available from every corner of the seas to put him down like a rabid dog! All he would have needed was to throw Vivi on his back and take her with him, or at least get some directions from her! She already knew the way, she'd been there for the Council of Kings twice when she was younger!

Akainu didn't do anything other than raise an eyebrow at the sight of Naruto literally beating the daylights out of himself for some reason or another. He found it hard to take the man seriously at first glance if that was how he acted. The only pirate captain he took as a serious threat that acted anything near as goofy as this was 'Red-Hair' Shanks.

But this was a serious threat. He'd defeated Aokiji, he'd survived separate battles with Kizaru. He'd stopped a Buster Call, and he'd blown the doors off of the Tarai Current gate to Marineford, just because he could.

That kind of anarchy was exactly the sort of evil that needed to be destroyed.

Fleet Admiral Sengoku was retiring. Bringing down this sort of criminal would secure his place as the successor for the position, and he would be able to use their power to do what should have been done to the seas years ago, "You really are the worst generation of pirates that have ever lived."

"Yeah, I'm still not a pirate," Naruto said, snapping out of admonishing his own idiocy and flight-mindedness upon hearing himself being called the p-word.

*DONG!*

*DONG!*

*DONG!*

Naruto couldn't help but grin at the sound of the bell ringing out loud enough for the two of them to hear even from there. Luffy's little stunt just added onto Naruto's penchant for the flamboyant, and he didn't even have to bring the terms up to his opponent. It was as if Akainu had been reading his mind.

"It will ring sixteen times," Akainu said. If Luffy really fancied himself a pirate and he was the grandson of Garp he would know the customs for naval burials, especially if he was ringing the Ox Bell, "After the last bell fades, your life will end."

To think, this had all been a diversion for Monkey D. Luffy to get back to Marineford. But then again, who would have ever expected him to show up in the same place twice after he'd been so badly injured the last time

'Monkey D. Luffy may be the spawn of the devil revolutionary himself, but his life can be ended whenever,' Akainu thought to himself as he stared at the grinning Naruto. Aside from the fact that Luffy would be more than likely gone by the time he returned there via the Red Line, it was also illegal to be up there without permission. He was stretching the rule as it was, using the excuse of being up there to kill Naruto for trespassing, 'This man however…'

"Ooh, is it a bell that'll kill you if you hear it sixteen times?" Naruto asked, feigning ignorance of the admiral's threat as the bell continued to slowly ring, "If it is we should all run, or cover our ears."

Akainu held his tongue and kept his expression as stony as could be. The stupid jokes would only last for so long. When the entire battlefield was covered in magma he would see if Naruto still had a wisecrack or two left in him. It was hard to try and be witty when you were burning alive.

Akainu flexed out his fingers like a cowboy preparing for a shootout while Naruto's wrists and hands shook around as if he were on a caffeinated high, both of them never taking their eyes off of the other.

*DONG!*

"Die."

At that moment it seemed as if the entire planet had erupted in hellfire and brimstone at once.

* * *

**Alright, that's the chapter. There's one left before post timeskip things be going down if my pre-written estimation of the word count is accurate. But before that, this should be fun. Some stuff is set up, and next time it's going down. **

**Naruto wants to make a mess. I'm quite certain that Akainu of all people would be willing to oblige him. **

**Right, so fantasy world is temporarily through. Work beckons.**

**Until the next time if you like, Kenchi out.**


End file.
